Video: 2014 BMW 2 Series - 2014 Detroit Auto Show

om and we are here at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit with BMW, whose new two series replaces the one series coupe, although, there is a rumored one series sedan in the works. That would mean BMW's car lineup would include the one, two, three, four, five, six and seven series. Confused? So are we. But this is the two series, let's take a closer look. The one series had always been the antidote for anyone who thought the three series had gotten too big and kind of pined for older generations of the car, of the E36 generation, so on and so forth. The two series does kind of preserve a lot of that without some of the one series kinda awkward lines, kind of how it looked too clipped at the end the two series fixes. It's a lot more flowing here, looks a lot like the three series and the four series out right now. Two versions of the car will be offered, the 228i comes with a 240 horsepower turbocharged four cylinder engine while the M235i, that's what BMW's calling it, comes with a 322 horsepower turbo inline six. Either engine pairs with a six speed manual or an eight speed automatic transmission and the M235i gets features like variable ratio steering and an adaptive suspension. What you don't think about is practicality and actually, the two series comes in pretty well on that front. Overall length is up about three inches, BMW says. That has added about an inch to front headroom and an inch to rear legroom according to the automaker. And you can definitely feel it. I'm about six feet tall, I'm sitting with the driver seat all the way up and there's a sunroof in this car. I still have enough headroom leftover, that's not a bad situation. The back seat I actually sat in as well. Reasonable room back there for adults and that definitely wasn't the case in the one series. Similar styling inside to the three series and four series. A lot of kind of contrasting overlapping layers here. Pretty attractive center stack I gotta say. Similar to the one in the three series. Nice that they've got sort of this 3D effect to the buttons, they're a little bit raised off the panel behind them. Quality, does take a little bit of a hit with some of the plastics at lower levels, that's kind of what happened in the one series but overall, you're not gonna feel like you really got a cut rate BMW in here. The center screen measures six and a half inches. It kinda rises above the dash, a lot like a tablet surface, similar again to the three series and the four series. If you get navigation, it's all the way up to 8.8 inches. Like in the three series, there's a rocker switch here along the center console. It affects everything from accelerator sensitivity to transmission performance and steering. It also affects the optional adaptive suspension if you have that. There's an eco pro mode, there's various sport modes. In eco pro mode, BMW has an optional feature called active driving assistant with the navigation system. It actually tells you when to get off the gas as you're coming up to a place that you're gonna have to slow down or stop to maximize fuel economy. It's almost like you're own backseat driver. Entry level doesn't necessarily mean cheap, although the two series now anchors the bottom end of BMW's lineup, the 228 starts around $33,000 and the M235 starts around $44,000. It doesn't mean slow either though. With the automatic transmission, both cars hit 60 miles per hour in under five and a half seconds, BMW says. Stay tuned for more, closer to the cars on sale date, early this year. (car revs)