For example, blind spot monitoring is not on the menu at all, while items like Park Distance Control are an $800 option.
When it comes to tech the X2 serves up BMW's iDrive system along with Apple CarPlay for $300 (but not Android Auto), but with some curious gaps. Rear cargo room is on the modest side, constrained a bit by the slightly rakish rear glass and pronounced wheelarches, but it's adequate for the X2's everyday tasks. BMW badges adorn C-pillars that would otherwise look chunky, but the high window sill line eats up a good chunk of outward visibility, which has been a common issue in this segment.
Up front, there is plenty of room for the driver and passenger, and out back the X2 offers excellent ingress and egress for rear-seat passengers, thanks to the very square upper rear corner of the doors - some other models in this segment have skimped on such versatility. The interior design is on the business side - the Countryman still gets all the fun details - offering sober German looks found elsewhere in the BMW sedan range. Inside, the X2 offers similarly modest accommodations, once again informed by competitors such as the GLA-Class. For all the angry lines of the front fascia trying their best to look mean the X2 seems to know its limits when it comes to off-roading, and its standard ride height makes the X1 look like a Baja truck or a United Nations ceasefire monitor's armored SUV by comparison. There is plenty of plastic along the wheelarches, sills and doors to make it look more outdoorsy (in the same manner that Subaru has been practicing this art), but the ride height takes this intention only so far. The platform might explain the proportions of a tall and bulbous hatchback with some softroad ability, but the design is a compact crossover trying very hard to look angry, as if to distance itself from the cute looks of the Countryman. In fact, it's much easier overall to process what the X2 offers (and why it exists) by looking at it as BMW's version of the Countryman. Coupled with an eight-speed automatic and front-wheel drive or optional xDrive all-wheel drive, the X2 shares its UKL2 platform with the new Mini Countryman. New for 2018, the X2 is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four that has been working its way into the BMW range for some time, producing 228 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. The only real surprise with the X2 was the fact that it took BMW this long to field something like this, but to their credit the Bavarians have been busy filling other segments that you didn't know needed filling. The X2, then, is best viewed as BMW's very direct answer, and we all that know German automakers rarely leave rivals' new segment debuts unanswered. The target, of course, is the latest batch of pocket crossovers from other luxury automakers: Mercedes-Benz rolled out its GLA-Class just four years, essentially offering a jacked-up hatchback with solid engineering underneath it all, a modest footprint, and a German luxury pricetag. BMW debuted the X2 crossover earlier in 2018, filling a gap in its lineup with a model that's smaller than the X1 but one that it much more car-like.
If the gap between the BMW X1 and X3 has been bothering you for years, from a purely completist, alphanumeric standpoint, your prayers have been answered.