The dreaded Moose test had a lot of SUVs on the ropes over the years. In case you never heard of it, it’s meant to check out how cars would handle an emergency situation, where the driver would have to avoid crashing into an object or animal which would appear on the road out of the blue. Needless to say that when you’re putting SUVs through this test, the results will often not be what some would expect, mainly due to the high center of gravity and heavier weights the cars have to carry.
However, considering the world we live in these days and how everyone’s crazy about getting some sort of SUV in their lives, these tests are getting more and more relevant. At the same time, they are easier to pass by certain crossover which are basically hatchbacks with raised suspensions. The smallest SUV you can get with a BMW badge on it is also the newest around. I’m talking about the BMW X2 which is a bit smaller than the X1.
At the same time, the X2 rides lower than its more utilitarian X1 brother and does have a stiffer suspension, all in the hopes of creating a car that drives better. To some extent, the engineers managed to pull that off but the test below seems to show the car’s limits. At speeds over 73 km/h it seems to lose control and doesn’t fare all that great in the test, at 77 km/h even missing the gate completely.
It should be mentioned that this is a front-wheel drive sDrive20i model we’re looking at here. The X2 is built atop the UKL platform and it can, therefore, be fitted with all-wheel drive, although the system used on UKL-based models is different than the one used on CLAR-built cars. More specifically, it is FWD-biased, sending power to the rear axle only when needed. That could change the results of the test here but until an xDrive X2 gets put through the same test, we can’t but make guesses as to how it would fare in the same situations.
