04 Jul 06
The driving experience is just as you'd expect and, without prejudging how well the Audi TT will drive in comparison, we'd hazard that the BMW will remain best in class. The only frustration is the lack of a limited slip differential (LSD), which isn't even an optional extra. So take on a tight corner with the power on and just the inside wheel will break grip and spin. Which makes power-on oversteer much more difficult.
As with the saloon and estate, BMW's Active Steering is available on the coupe. The system changes the steering ratio depending on the speed of the car, the idea being to make the steering quicker and more agile at lower speeds, while delivering more stability at high speed. We'd recommend that you give it a miss, though. It doesn't feel any more stable at high speed than the standard set-up and, at lower speeds over challenging roads, it can be difficult to judge exactly how much lock you need for a given corner. The standard steering set-up delivers excellent feedback, although it does feel a bit heavy at low speeds, not something we'd noticed on the saloon and estate.
For a car that's more about touring than the full-on sports car experience, the coupe's ride is too firmly damped, especially at low speeds. We'd point to the standard-fit run-flat tyres as the chief suspect, even though the saloon we road tested didn't seem to have this issue.
