Anthony on Autos: 2023 BMW M2

by   Anthony Fongaro - photos by Michael Satterfield and BMW - 09/25/2023

It’s a time for celebration with BMW’s M division getting ahold of one of their coupes. They take almost all of BMW’s products and pump them up to 11. Granted, their first bespoke vehicle was the BMW XM but let’s gloss over that. This time, they took the BMW 2-series, an already awesome car, and made it the full M. It gets some different styling, a much more powerful engine, and various details to show it's an M vehicle. A couple things. First, the M240i is already great, so how much greater is the M2, and is it worth that badge? Short answer…

Let’s get to the exterior which has some big changes. No longer do you have the curved front end of the M240i. BMW is known for funky grills, but this one is a monstrosity. Instead, it’s…square? I…I don’t get it. What I did like was the Brooklyn Gray metallic paint along with staggered 19 and 20-inch tires. There is a color called Zandvoort Blue which is a free paint and looks great on the M2. You’ll notice bigger bulges in the rear arches and a squat design. At the rest is another BMW badge with tri-color coloring along with four exhaust pipes. The M2 means business and looks the part!

Jumping inside, it’s all from the BMW M division. The door sills have M2 on them as do the seats. More tri-color is going on in the doors and the seats have red and blue accents. I love the color combination of the black with the brighter colors that really pop. At the driver’s seat, there’s a head-up display with various features for speed and navigation. Underneath are the digital dials that house a G-Meter. Since the steering wheel is from M, there is an M1 and M2 buttons you can customize for maximum attack mode! It’s a grippy steering wheel with controls for the infotainment system and huge paddle shifters, and the steering wheel is heated. 

BMW has a great infotainment system, but the climate controls are now integrated into it. Are they difficult to use? It may take a few takes to get used to the controls since the climate control doesn’t use a slider. For various reasons, there was one button I never clicked. That’s the M Drift Analyzer. It’s exactly what it sounds like and I guess the suburbs aren’t very driftable? The M2 uses the same shifter and button setup as the XM and other M vehicles, so you can adjust the transmission, engine, suspension, and steering. The front seats are comfortable, but the back seats could hardly hold an Anthony. They’re not useless, but I wouldn’t put people I like back there.

The main reason you get an M car is because it’s at the top of the pecking order. Since the M2 (as of right now, before any Competition or other packages) is the top, it gets a 3.0 liter turbocharged inline-six producing 453 horsepower/333kW and 406 lb-ft/550 Nm. Currently, the M2 is rear-wheel drive only. You can get a six-speed manual, but mine came with an eight-speed automatic. This means the M2 can get from 0-60 MPH in a scant 3.6 seconds. Can the M2 drive slow? Sure. Does it want to? Oh god no. This wants to go fast and carve corners. Remember those M1 and M2 buttons? I usually had a maximum attack for all parameters minus the transmission, which was at the lowest setting. Not a fan of hard shifts. 

It corners and accelerates so well, this thing was born for a track. During regular driving, I had the feeling that both myself and the car were bored. Not because of the excellent exhaust, but it almost seemed like a waste to just drive it to the train station. Granted, I had a ton of fun driving it to the train station. Regular Porsche 911s watch out because this can out-accelerate you. Fuel economy was a not-surprising 18 MPG but that’s worth it for how fun and alive this is. When you have to be sedated, the M2 has BMW’s safety systems of adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist and blind spot monitoring. 

Since this is the top-of-the-line M2, it doesn’t come cheap. It starts at $63,000, but this had a few options. Brooklyn Grey paint is $650. Carbon Fiber trim is $800. The Lighting Package is another $650. Want a Carbon Fiber roof? That’s $2,600. When little options like the Active Cruise Control for $500 are added, this M2 retailed for about $73,000. Honestly, that’s in line with optioned-out vehicles from Mercedes-AMG and Audi RS. Other than changing the paint to blue, these are all the options and packages that I would choose.

So, should you get an M2? Normally, I’d say absolutely, but there’s a caveat. That’s the almost as good M240i. See, that has all-wheel-drive, is more comfortable, has enough power, and is built more for everyday situations. The M2 has more soul and passion, but that doesn’t always translate to a daily commuter. You can definitely use it as a daily and I highly recommend it, but do me a favor. Please, take it on a track? Take it at a place where you can open it up and utilize its full potential. If you do, you’ll be giggling and have a big smile on your face.