Grey BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe Rental in Los Angeles

Grey is the finish that stops a compact car looking cheap. On a small four-door the danger is always that it reads as a rental in white or silver; a mid metallic grey with the dark grille and dark wheels gives it enough weight to look chosen, and it flatters the drop of the roofline rather than flattening it.

It is a good week-long car. Grey never looks dirty, never glares, and never gets a second look at an office car park — and this is a car most people take because it is easy and cheap to run around a city that punishes anything wide. Take it for a working trip where parking matters more than presence.

The 2 Series Gran Coupe is BMW's compact four-door, and the thing to know about it is the shape. It has a frameless-looking roofline that drops from the B-pillar into a short tail, so from three-quarters behind it reads as a small coupe rather than as a compact saloon — which is exactly what it was drawn to do.

It is front-driven rather than rear-driven, which purists will tell you matters and which, on a commute down La Cienega and a run up the coast, mostly does not. What you get instead is a lighter, cheaper, tidier car that parks anywhere in Santa Monica, returns real economy on a long freeway day, and still has the cabin architecture and the switchgear of the bigger cars.

Honest hook: the sloping roof costs rear headroom, and this is the entry BMW rather than a fast one. Book it because it is the smart size and the right look for the money.