A high general rate of inflation seems like a handy smokescreen for car makers looking to make extra profit out of every new performance model, doesn’t it? And yet here we are. The original BMW M2 that arrived in the UK in 2016 came with an opening showroom sticker price of less than £45k – and, over the full course of its lifecycle, it outsold every other M car on the books.
Correcting that price for seven years of UK inflation, it might be reasonable to expect this new second-gen M2’s price to start well below £60,000. But because it’s a more powerful, more mature and more technical M car than any of its predecessors, it actually opens for business at a whisker under £65,000. More still if you want that mechanical highlight denied on any other current M car: a manual gearbox to go with your ‘standard’ rear-wheel drive.
Can it be worth that? You know what? When a six-cylinder Porsche 718 Cayman GTS with three pedals and a stick costs north of £70k, perhaps. An opening blast on UK roads has given us plenty of very promising signs.
Now closely related to the M3 and M4, and having swollen quite a bit on overall length and kerb weight, this car was at risk of losing its dynamic identity. But BMW M appears to have managed and mitigated that risk very well - with the M2’s chassis tuning, at least, if not quite so well with the car’s more divisive styling.
A bit of the threadable compactness and spring-heeled handling agility of the first-gen BMW M2 seems to have been given up, along with some of its slightly bouncy, terrierish charm. But more sophisticated B-road body control comes by way of the trade - with no shortage of tautness and bite about the car’s primary ride when you dial up the new adaptive dampers.
Moreover, this car still manages to make its own impression - to conjure its own shtick. It’s significantly shorter of wheelbase than an M4 and, thanks to the M division’s special suspension, steering and active diff tuning, it does have an accessible handling vivacity that an M4 Coupé, as good as it undoubtedly is, narrowly misses.
It doesn’t quite goad you into chucking it around. There’s more of the maturity and precision of the modern M car here than that. It doesn’t quite dart into bends, either. But nonetheless, the M2 wants to rotate and move around underneath you that little bit more than an M4 would - to take a second directional bite at a corner as you feed power to its rear axle. Thuggish it isn’t, but fun it most definitely is.
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This automobile is mainly about demonstrating that you can sell a car with a manual transmission for a lot more money these days since it has become the exception and is perceived as somewhat of a luxury.
This car is really about explioiting the fact tha you can sell a car with a manual gearbox for a lot more cash these days now that it has become the exception and seen as something of a premium, especially on the S/H market where manual versions fetch something of a premium these days. This has not gone unoticed by certain manufacturers, so expect to see more of this.
Car looks much better in person than in photos.
0-60 in 4 .3 sec would have been fast a fe years ago but now is nothing to shout about!
4.3 seconds is still quick and only matters to Top Trumps players and drag racers. Most drivers want to drive and the 1,700kg is getting a bit portly for a baby M3.