If memory serves a forum member had a 2 Series Active Tourer, think it was a PHEV, which was liked well enough and had no issues with. But I think that would have been a new car i.e, with a new car warranty.

Despite the image, the reliability of most BMWs is no better than average with some being quite poor. My understanding of this (which may well be outdated for the age of car you are looking at) was that in terms of most to least reliable, it went 6 cyl petrol, 6 cyl diesel, 4 cyl petrol, 4 cyl diesel.

Because of my own mistrust of their reliability, I wouldn't have one personally unless I could afford a new car.

Ignoring that, while your journeys (on paper at least) would appear to suit diesel (long journeys to keep DPF healthy), the risk when buying 2nd hand is that you just don't know how it has been used by its previous owner. So you could be buying something who's DPF is about to cause major expense due to having been used for short journeys only. But I suppose these comments could be levelled at most 4 year old diesel cars you may be looking at.

I think I've read that BMW approved used warranty is pretty good(?). So for peace of mind in general, I'd suggest if you must have one, to buy from a BMW dealer.

As mentioned above, I ran a 225xe PHEV for 30,000+ miles in 3 years as a company car. It was the best car I've had in my ownership: versatile, comfortable, surprisingly good fun to drive and (in 225xe form), eye-openingly quick. The 220 petrols and diesels will be quite brisk, I'd expect.

I had mine from new and had precisely zero faults / problems, but it also went back at the end of the warranty period.

The 220 2-litre variants have the B47 diesel / B48 petrol engines and those seem to be relatively reliable. The diesel will give better mpg, obviously, and if you're doing longer journeys at weekends then that should keep the DPF clear. The automatics are proper torque-converter 8-speed jobs and are excellent - smooth and very responsive to throttle input.

Don't even think about buying outside the BMW Approved Used scheme, the warranty is good (my son bought an Approved Used BMW which developed a slight hesitation on acceleration and threw an engine management light in the first year. Turned out one of the catalyst cores had collapsed, all diagnosed & replaced by the dealer while we had use of a courtesy car).