Are you ready for a front-wheel-drive BMW?

By John LeBlanc When the front-wheel-drive, Mini Countryman arrived for 2010, it may have not been obvious that at some point, parent BMW — a company that had built its reputation on high-performance, rear-wheel-drive cars — would eventually launch a small, FWD car of its own. But the new BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor is yet another step towards a whole slew of front-drive Bimmers. The BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor is the bridge between last fall’s original Concept Active Tourer concept (that debuted at the Paris auto show) and the production BMW 1 Series Gran Turismo (expected to debut at this fall’s Frankfurt event and start being sold around the world in 2014) While BMW traditionalists may already be snubbing their collective noses at the thought of a front- (or “wrong”) wheel-drive BMW of any kind, the 1 Series GT will be targeted at new-to-the-brand BMW buyers. The four-door, compact hatch is also a precursor to a whole family of small, FWD (and all-wheel-drive) Bimmers based on BMW’s so-called UKL1 platform, which is being counted on to support all future Minis plus up to 12 different versions of BMW’s 1- and 2 Series models. The production BMW 1 Series GT is expected to be sold with gas- and diesel-only engine. The Concept Active Tourer Outdoor, however, is powered by 1.5-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged gas engine, aided by an electric motor and lithium-ion battery with plug-in charging capacity. BMW says combined power output is 188 horsepower, with a 0-100-km/h boast of less than eight seconds. As proof the Outdoor concept is closer to the eventual production model, it has a shorter wheelbase, is longer overall, narrower and taller than the previous Paris show car. According to Autocar, the 1 Series GT will to be offered in both standard and long-wheelbase models (there’s also been spy shots of a Mazda5, three-row seat 1 Series, a replacement for the X1 crossover and even a 2 Series roadster.) In the end, the German automaker expects to be building a lot of these small cars, more than 900,000 UKL1-based vehicles per year. What do you think? Can BMW move its premium, “Ultimate Driving Machine” brand downmarket successfully? Will non-BMW customers care what wheels are being driven? Source: Autocar

Comments