The BMW M2 is the smallest, least expensive M car. But this new one is also the sequel to the best-selling M car ever. More than 60,000 of you bought the old M2, in its original, drastically improved Competition and limited-run CS forms.
This time, there are no versions (yet). There’s just the M2. And it’s a refreshingly simple spec in this world of hybrid drives and niche-busting bodystyles. There is only the coupe; no cabrio, no four-door. You can’t have four-wheel drive: the 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight six’s power only goes to the back wheels.
How much power? 454bhp, tying with the M2 CS. It gets there via an eight-speed automatic gearbox as standard, though for £545 extra, BMW will fit yours with a six-speed manual. Yep, it’s more money for DIY gearshifts.
BMW says it was a ‘real fight’ to get the manual signed off, as it makes the M2 slower, less economical and more CO2-emitting than the flappy paddle version, but the need to please the enthusiasts won out. Even though it’ll only account for one in every ten M2s sold.
Why is this M2 so important?
It’s potentially the end of a storied era. Welcome to the last ever pure petrol M car. Everything from here on out is hybrid or electric. Meet the final ever manual gearbox-equipped M car. And even that was a fight, say the boffins. Only ten per cent of the previous car were specced with the stick – everyone else paid extra for the admittedly superb flappy-paddle DCT. That’s why the new car is an auto as standard and if you want DIY gears, it’s a £545 option.
Odds are this is also the final rear-wheel drive M car. No-one’s complaining the M3 and M5 are now AWD, what with xDrive’s freakishly agile power delivery, the hilariously silly option to bribe the front driveshafts into taking an early bath, and M’s electric test mule is known to be a quad-motor freak investigating torque vectoring and drift modes.
There’s an inherent rightness about a BMW coupe with a straight six in the front, a lever in the middle and all the power spooling up the back. And now it’s dead.
Time to enjoy the feistiest M car while we can, huh?
If you’re thinking ‘aha, this little terrier’s having one last tear-up before the vet snips its knackers off’ then hold that thought very tightly. Now throw it away. Because this is not a sequel to the fighty 1M or a kindred spirit with the hairy-chested old M4. The smallest, lightest, cheapest, least powerful M car has got bigger, heavier, and considerably more powerful. And good luck trying to spec one below £70k.
As with every new BMW, the looks will be divisive. The M2 escapes the engorged nostril disease seen on the 4 Series, going for a square-jawed, almost Porsche GT2 RS-like no-nonsense look. Some of the blockiness sits ill-at-ease with a coupe’s curves, and overall the car lacks the delicious stance and tension the old M2 carried in its swagger, despite a 44mm wider track at the front and 18mm wider rear track.
What's the verdict?
“No other small sporting coupe is as practical, and in many ways the M2 now asks very serious questions of the M4 itself”
Overall this is an improved vehicle. Quieter, roomier, more generously equipped and less wearying as a GT than the old M2. That’s a crowd-pleasing move from BMW, but the die-hards in the mosh pit don’t want an M4-lite. They want an M2. Now it’s bigger and more grown up just about everywhere, what the M2 lacks is a personality all its own, which the uncomplicated, uncompromising old M2 had in spadefuls.
If we were a current M2 owner, we’d be feeling pretty smug that our car looks prettier than the new M2, has a more intuitive (if less plush) dashboard, sounds fruiter, and goes with more poise, more purpose, more sense of being a barely contained ball of fury straining to escape from a working-class hero chassis. Perhaps that was where the era ended after all.
That said, if you’re looking purely at new car options, the M2 really is in a class of one. No other small sporting coupe is as practical, and in many ways the M2 now asks very serious questions of the M4 itself. There, we just saved you £18,000.
Porsche 718 Cayman GTS
Toyota Supra
£45,400 – £53,495
Lotus Emira
Continue reading: Driving
Driving
What is it like to drive?
BMW insists the new M2’s personality shift is in response to feedback from customers upside down in ditches. But that’s rubbish, because if the last M2 had truly been a death trap, it wouldn’t have sold like… we were going to say hot cakes but ‘fresh fruit and veg’ is more of a 2023 analogy.
No, the culprit for the M2’s growth spurt is the 1 Series. Because it’s now based on front-wheel drive Mini bits, the 2 Series coupe became a refugee. BMW’s ingenious solution was to base the new one not on the slightly chopped underpinnings of a 4 Series. Great! Space for rorty engines, adaptive suspension (which you never got on the stiff old M2) and a posher interior, straight off the peg.
So this is more a short-wheelbase M4?
Exactly. You get the same engine, developing around 60bhp less than an M4 Comp. It doesn’t make an especially sensational noise, but it’s rich in torque: maximum punch lasts from 2,650rpm right though to 5,870rpm so overtaking’s a doddle.
Yet despite the huge wall of power and torque, there’s more traction than the old M2. It isn’t fighty or snatchy. Set it all to Comfort and this is an unrecognisably comfier, quieter, more town-friendly device than its dad.
Tell me about the transmission.
You get the same eight-speed automatic as an M4, or the option of a self-shifter denied to British M4 buyers. And as per all the other M cars it’s been fitted to, it’s almost as good as a DCT twin-clutch. But not quite. Particularly on downshifts, you notice it’s not as crisp as a Porsche PDK or Mercedes MCT shift.
So is this an M2 with all the sharp edges chamfered off? On first impression it seems that way, though we suspect it’ll be a lot more engaging on a track, where you can play with the ten-stage traction control.
What’s it like on the road?
The M2 is hugely competent but seems to lack just a bit of sparkle. It’s incremental: the larger footprint (it’s 114mm longer), stretched wheelbase, an extra 75-100kg and the less precise auto’s shifts… it’s like going bowling with the gutter barriers up. Still fun, but with zero jeopardy.
It steers into corners with total disdain for understeer, the body control is deeply professional and if you spec the manual, it’s delightfully nostalgic. Not a world-class Civic Type R or Porsche-great shift, but well worth spending £545 on. Plus a bit more on petrol every day.
We’ll caveat this with the fact BMW chose to launch the M2 in Arizona, where decent driving roads are scarcer than locals who believe the Earth is spherical. A prototype we tested on track last year was more entertaining, so let’s revisit the M2 when it arrives in Europe.
Previous: Overview
Continue reading: Interior
Interior
What is it like on the inside?
Because the M2 now sits on an M4 platform, guess where the interior comes from? So far as showing off to your mates goes, the new M2 feels more spacious and far better trimmed inside than before.
Perhaps the M-colour graphics on the door inserts are a bit ‘greetings, fellow kids’, but overall this feels like an expensive place to sit, stuffed with equipment. More spacious than the old M2 as well, as you’d hope from the wheelbase swelling.
Though, the M2’s rear seat USP isn’t a complete slam dunk: access is narrow and adults will only tolerate being that cramped for very short trips.
Atop the dashboard lives the now familiar 14.9-inch ‘curved display’, with its annoyingly unintelligible dials and fiddly menus. And now the heater controls live in the screen, it’s more irritatingly (and less safe) to use on the move than the old M2. The new one feels more opulent, but it’s come at the expense of common sense and user-friendliness, which rivals like the Porsche Cayman and Toyota GR Supra (with its ironically BMW-based interior) are able to exploit.
As usual for a modern M car, you can avoid delving into the furiously complex screen too often by taking the time to set up your favourite M1 and M2 modes while stationary and armed with the instruction manual. These are then saved and accessible via the little red cat’s-tongue levers on the steering wheel.
As an optional extra, you can spec the carbon fibre seats from the M4, complete with the silly thigh gutter spoiling your attempts to left-foot brake and causing passengers to judge your lifestyle choices. The stock response is “actually they’re phenomenally supportive and surprisingly comfortable long-distance.”
BMW says the M2 doesn’t have rivals, because all the other £60k+ sports coupes are two-seaters. They kinda have a point. The M2 is practical as a tourer too, with 390 litres of boot space, plenty of oddment stowage in the cabin, and a 40:20:40 split folding rear seat.
Previous: Driving
Continue reading: Buying
Buying
What should I be paying?
The new M2 is priced from £65,855 and arrives as standard with an automatic gearbox. Because BMW’s bean-counters would’ve preferred to engineer it for the auto only and the manual is only being offered at the engineers’ behest (good work, team) it’s a £545 option.
You now get larger wheels as standard on the back axle: it’s a staggered 19/20-inch set-up, while adaptive Led headlights join the standard kit list. Cruise control and front/rear parking sensors remain standard, but also thrown in this time are a Harmon Kardon hi-fi, reversing camera, carbon fibre roof (in the UK), head-up display, electric front seats and adaptive suspension.
Spec the manual and you go from 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds. Stick with the auto and that drops by two tenths. It also lowers official CO2 emissions from 227g/km to 225. BMW expects nine out of ten buyers to choose the paddles.
A race track package is also available, bringing stickier tyres and the carbon seats. On top of that, the M Performance Parts catalogue offers a wide variety of accessories to turn your M2 into a sort of carbon fibre Christmas tree.
My favourite BMWs are the ones you can’t actually buy. Even if you see them at a BMW showroom. A few months back, BMW Park Lane in London collaborated with Evolve Automotive. It was a great example of a manufacturer paying attention to the aftermarket, and getting involved with arguably the ...
• Auto123 reviews the 2023 BMW iX M60. BMW takes straight aim at Tesla and its top-selling Model X with the iX all-electric SUV’s new M60 edition. This is the third variant of the model BMW has put out, after the xDrive40 and iX xDrive50 that debuted with the 2022 ...
Photo: Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik Having entered its eighth generation, the BMW 5 Series is all new for 2024, and for the first time, there are fully electric variants of the iconic sports sedan. While those electric i5 models are moving the 5 Series lineup into the future, the ...
A side view of the BMW R12 nineT 2024 BMW R12 being ridden A static view of the BMW R12 cruiser A pair of BMW R12 nineTs riding together Ten years on from the introduction of the first R nineT retro in 2013, BMW have pulled the covers off ...
Photo: Jalopnik / Owen Bellwood Automakers around the world are looking for a way into the burgeoning electric bike market. Porsche bought up European bike builder Greyp to further its two-wheeled ambitions, Jeep partnered with American outfit QuietKat, and now BMW has a range of e-bikes built in partnership ...
Imp, (noun), a mischievous child or little devil. That word description is hardly something a standard Hillman Imp could embody, but James Williams‘ 1976 Imp – seen here on the Lancaster Pride of Ownership stand at the recent NEC Classic Motor Show – well and truly lives up to its name. When you think ...
