It took precisely two seconds after I parked up on the seafront. A bald, shirtless man accessorized with bad tattoos and a can of fighting lager, impressively inebriated considering it was before lunchtime, began gesticulating wildly at me through the windscreen. “Nice car mate! That is WELL WICKED! FAHKIN’ SWEET!” Well quite. Does the M stand for moron?
I’ve not driven a car that attracted quite so much attention since I bought my Nuova Fiat 500 some 15 years ago. Everywhere I went I got similar, less drunken appreciative comments, although I should point out the majority of my week with the BMW M240i xDrive (you could probably lighten the car 10kg by prying all the badges off) was spent in the taste-free county of Essex. It’s basically England’s Florida.
Front bumper triangle violence aside, it’s an aggressively handsome car—well proportioned and, if not exactly under the top, it’s not over the top either. All 2 Series (including the M2) share the same body in white now (the bare metal shell stripped naked), with the different models defined by front and rear bumper treatments.
The amazing purple hue my loaner came in is known as Thundernight Metallic and at our regular meeting last week it was accepted into the palette of acceptable gothic car colors. I loved it. But before we get into the specifics of what the M240ixDrive is and isn’t, there’s a large elephant in the room to deal with, and I’m about to piss on its peanuts.
Will the Armchair Design Critics Shut Up Already
The hate-boners from BMW fans that accompany every new release from Munich are getting increasingly fucking tiresome. A subset of cars, consisting mainly of the E30, E36, E46, E39 and E38 (but curiously not the original E21 3 series) and a few other outliers, have been glorified and masturbated over to such ridiculous lengths by simpering shit-gibbons with BMW roundels tattooed on their dicks that any new one that doesn’t meet the untouchable perfection of earlier models is taking a giant steamy dump over everything that they worship, and how very dare BMW do that.
Get over yourselves. You’re talking about a series of cars that span, charitably, two decades, which is a relatively small timeframe for a company that started building Austin Sevens under license in 1928. BMW’s market no longer consists of German CEOs needing to storm the Autobahn at midnight with Kraftwerk thumping out the Blaupunkt. They need to sell cars worldwide to a much wider audience, and with vastly different safety and efficiency standards. These people need to stop thinking BMW makes cars exclusively for enthusiasts and journalists. They do not.
Is there a reasonable design discussion about their current direction to be had? Sure. I have criticized them myself in the past. But in our technology-drenched and attention deficit present, BMW is designing cars it knows it can sell, and that is the context we should apply to its current output. Not some adolescent wank fantasy about what BMW used to be 30-odd years ago. Stop pining like a lovesick puppy. They’re just not into you that way. Ugh.
That being said, the 2 Series remains something of a shibboleth for the BMW faithful. Of the current range, it’s the one closest in spirit, if not execution to those old athletic three boxes. When it comes to drivetrain options there’s an element of monkey paw wish granting. The cooking 230i, despite its name, is a 2.0-liter four. Sixes are only available in this M240ixDrive (a RWD, non-xDrive is available in the U.S., but not in the UK) and the M2. And the M2 is the only way to get a manual. Here’s the thing though; despite its M badging and being marketed as an M car, I’m not sure this model would be improved with a manual.
It Has An Actual Straight-Six
What you do get is a 3.0-liter straight six with a single turbo making a whopping 374 bhp. Even though it bellyflops onto the scales at over 1,600kg (about 3,500lbs), this is a Very Fast Car. There’s enough firepower underneath the curve to rocket you down the road and past dawdling pensioners with an ease that feels almost decadent.
Because it has a traditional automatic, as opposed to a DSG, even full-throttle kickdown shifts are creamy. There are paddles, but you have to be in Sport Plus mode to control the changes yourself – otherwise, it defaults back to auto after a few seconds. And in Sport mode(s) the engine howls gloriously. Is it real or is it Memorex? Honestly, who cares? It’s fantastic. US models have a launch mode that will allow an almost four-second 0-60 mph time, but because the UK is a nation of hooligans, it’s not available here lest we turn up at the local BMW service department with a box of shattered drivetrain parts.
What’s more impressive than the engine is the way this car rides. A lot of cars in sport mode become total bone crunchers (hello Civic Type R). It’s staggeringly good considering it’s on 19” wheels with 35-section Pilot Sport 4s. In comfort mode, I’ll stick my neck out and say it’s better than my old air-suspended Range Rover was. Bumps are heard and not felt – even those sharp angry little speed humps designed to knock your eyeballs onto the floor barely register.
Tuneful, big-lunged engine. Auto gearbox. Brilliant ride. You might be getting the impression the M240i (I can’t be arsed to keep typing out the full name) is a bit wafty and soggy. Not a bit of it. There’s the tiniest hint of pitch and roll on initial input to let you know it’s responding, and it then composes itself into a fluid, flowing road burner.
The four-wheel drive system is rear-biased so out of tighter corners you feel the rear digging in to catapult you from the exit, but even in treacherous weather (one day it won’t rain when I have a test car, but that day is not today) there’s no hint of it struggling to get the power down. It’s an immensely capable and confident way of getting down a bendy road quickly, helped by its handy dimensions. But it’s not a tangy, zingy, wriggly device, and this is where the first of my small niggles comes in. The M badging and marketing feel a bit incongruous. Although it makes sod all difference to how the car goes, it does sell it as something it really isn’t.
Remember those Great BMW Instrument Panels?
The next niggle is an ergonomic one. The latest 2 series all come equipped with iDrive 8, which turns the instrument cluster cinemascope. This mostly works well, although diving into the secondary menus the iconography takes on a whiff of unbranded generic media player. The problem is the gauges directly in front of you.
With traditional dials (or digital facsimiles) you read important information at a glance – the position of the needle on the dial tells you all you need to know instantly. It’s a long-established heuristic that didn’t need reinventing for the digital age. Which is exactly what the UX/UI geeks in Munich have done. You now have two sort of semi-hexagon shapes with a small rising bar to indicate road speed and engine revs. This means the information is squeezed into a smaller vertical space instead of being spread out around the edge of a much bigger one. It’s incredibly unintuitive and impossible to read. Flummoxing around with various display settings didn’t make it any better. In the end, I had to settle for a digital mph readout and gave up trying to read engine revs. In sport mode the situation is slightly better, and if you’re shifting your own a set of change-up lights appear. For a company once famed for its ergonomic clarity it’s bloody infuriating. While I’m griping, there are no volume controls on the steering wheel, which drove me absolutely loopy. The optional heads-up display however is brilliant – every car should have one, proof that on some level BMW does care about people who actually want to drive, rather than merely control.
Everything else ergonomically related is absolutely nailed on. It’s a normal sedan shape, so the visibility is superb. The driving position is perfect, although my butt is bonier than the Natural History Museum so I found the seats were a little hard over a longer journey. Non-goth supermodels will be fine. Probably less fine in the back, which despite being well-appointed with its own HVAC controls and USB ports, is decidedly snug. The front seats shuffle forward automatically when you tip the backrest, and I managed to squash my foot when the seat moved back into position after I clambered in the rear to take the interior shots. At just over 4.5 meters (179”) long though, this is still a compact car with a decent-sized trunk. There are plenty of thoughtful touches as well – a reminder if you’ve left your phone in the wireless charging tray, the way you can dip the passenger side mirror with a flick of a switch for reversing to make sure you don’t curb a wheel (ahem).
It’s Not All Misery in the Slack
I was chatting with our resident BMW expert Thomas Hundal in Autopian Slack about this car (yes, we do actually use it to talk about work. Sometimes) and he said it’s “probably the third best 6 Series of all time.” And although agreeing with him makes me crazy, he’s absolutely right. (Editor’s Note: Damn, where does that leave the 4 Series, then? —PG)
The M240ixDrive isn’t a mechanically alive road scalpel. It’s a grown-up high-performance personal luxury coupe with a slightly awkward techno-sheen and swagger for days. There’s no stupid exhaust note, no tacked-on go-faster bits, just a quiet and subtle menace about the way this car goes about its business. I wasn’t sure I was going to get on with this car. In fact, for the first day or two I did feel a little at odds with it. And then by the end of our week together I didn’t want to give it back.
Style, equipment, power, handling and build quality. You’re probably thinking this combination of killer attributes is going to be expensive. Well, about that: According to the media pack I was given, the On The Road price with a few options was £50,210. I couldn’t quite match this in the BMW UK configurator, but it represents staggering value for money. When was the last time you could say that about a BMW? Take the M badges off, fix the gauges and the volume controls with an OTA update and it would be nearly perfect.
So go ahead and crank yourselves blind into over ZHP packages or whatever other obscure BMW chassis or engine code does it for you. It’s boring and I don’t care. Because BMW is still making great cars for enthusiasts. You just need to look a little harder to find them.
And specify the metallic purple paint.
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My goodness the start of this article had such language in it. Teenage me would have been excited.
That instrument cluster would be a simple non-starter for me. I can’t conceive of looking at that for five minutes, let alone hours of GT cruising.
You sort of get used to it. Having the mph displayed as a number helped a lot when just bimbling about.
All the rest of that aesthetic though … ugh. Car just seems quite nice overall. They could have so easily provided a more classic display as an option–it’s just pixels after all.
Hot take: You’re wrong.
The 80s/90s bmws are so worshipped not only for their minimalistic, restrained (bauhausish)styling; it was also that you could option out a non m car to have nice options to reward drivers, including a stickshift.
Yes, bmw knows how to make stuff that sells but what youre not mentioning is they are selling to badge snob morons that cant even drive stick; they are catering to the ignorant unwashed masses by simultaneously reducing the enthusiast options/characteristics, and doubling down on ccs student extremely exaggerated overly busy non cohesive styling.
The brand is ruined and every bmw fanboi I know hates the new cars, regardless of their level of education in design. Lets also touch in the fact they are tripling down on oversized kidney grills, which signify radiators and ice, while cities are looking to ban ice cars in the future.
I think were going to look back on this shit in an embarassing way the big 3 added fins and obnoxious gaudy bits all over their vehicles in the 1950s. They will age very poorly, they already are.
Fuck modern bmw and fuck this ugly ass car. Imma go wank to my 72 bavaria now.
I’m going to keep going (wanking).
In your other comments you defend the automatic, saying it ‘suits the car’ because it has long legs and a powerful engine. That sounds an awful lot like a GT car, and given that this is one of the smallest cars they make, that should tell you how far off the rails they’ve gone with their lineup.
The point of a stick is that it’s rewarding to drive, and I’ve never driven a car with sporting character that would be better with an automatic. Automatics have their place, in minivans, trucks, vans, luxobarges, hybrids, or anyone who just wants an appliance.
But BMW is trying to be an aspirational brand, and in order to be one, they have to create some emotion and right now the only emotion I am feeling about any of their new cars is frustration. Automatics may even be technically faster than manuals these days, but they are not as involved, or as rewarding to drive in a spirited manner. I can have an absolute blast with 100hp in an old civic with a stickshift, but a 400hp 3600lb car with an automatic will only be thrilling in a straight line. Metrics don’t matter; experience and FEELING matters.
Enthusiasts get that, which is why they’re pissed off.
I get that, but for 90% of the time I’m not driving like an enthusiast. Most of our journeys are nipping out for cat food and taking the kids to school, and you’re not redline shifting then.
I have been looking forward to reading this since you hit me up on Discord. Loved the write up, and I think you hit the nail on the head–it’s more of a GT than anything else, and it’s a pretty damn good one (but I’m obviously biased).
Also it’s a damn shame that you didn’t have launch mode to play with–it’s absurdly fun.
I know it makes me weird, but I really want one of these with the PHEV drivetrain. It makes me sad that’s only available in sedans or SUVs.
If it makes you feel better, there’s at least two of us
I would imagine it’s a packaging issue. This thing is pretty tight as it is, I’m not sure where they would squeeze some cells in.
Who really needs a back seat cushion, anyway…
Oddly I saw one of these on the road just today and could only think “that is exactly what I would get if I had the money and no kids right now.
I would probably wince every time I paid insurance on an M2 anyways, the “one step below the M” BMWs seem to be the sweet spot for just aggressive enough without getting into trouble any time you sneeze on the gas pedal.
Saw one of these in that great dark purple metallic the other day, and aside from some details on the nose, it looked pretty damn nice vs. so many other recent BMWs. Really, the 2-series is just about the ONLY BMW they currently make that appeals to me since the i3 ended production.
Anyway, I had to roll down my window at the light and tell the guy driving it how great his car looked and especially in that color, and the smile on his face makes me think it made his day.
Really, it’s a pretty sweet car, though the fact that you can’t get a manual in anything other than the M is ridiculous. BMW makes good-feeling manuals (at least the few I’ve driven) and especially with that smooth inline six, not being able to feel the machine and row your own is beyond ridiculous. Heck, I’d even take the turbo 4 in a prior-gen 2-series if it was the only way to get a manual in my price range.
I could be mistaken, but aren’t there at least two (maybe 3?) different dark metallic purples in BMW’s current/recent palette? I’ve seen a few, and they don’t all seem the same, though maybe that’s just a trick of ambient light or something.
I also liked the pot-bellied 1-series but like all BMWs, costly ownership as the cars age has kept me from buying one. Maybe someday, when I’m so old that I don’t think I’ll live long enough to get hit with the worst of the repair bills, but not quite yet. 😉
I’ve owned my Z4 since 2016 and racked up about 60k miles on it. If you DIY your maintenance and are smart about parts sourcing it’s not that expensive.
I used to go to a specialist and I averaged 1500€ of maintenance per year, with BMW only parts and 10k miles oil changes. It’s not cheap but not the end of the world. And I track the thing!
Glad to hear your Z4 has been OK re: cost of ownership Manuel. I like ’em too (especially the way the convertible hardtop looks when it’s up) but if I ever dip a toe into the BMW ownership pool it’ll probably wind up being an i3 simply because they’re so odd and charming. 🙂 What color is your Z4? I’m just nosy. 😉
It’s a white first gen, so no hard top for me. Funny thing is, it’s a rare color because back in 2004 white was still the poor man’s choice in the public’s mind!
These weigh 3800+ lbs………..
“ “Nice car mate! That is WELL WICKED! FAHKIN’ SWEET!” Well quite. Does the M stand for moron?”
https://media.tenor.com/bwbN0jcEv6wAAAAC/maybe-fat.gif
Not the same body – the fenders on the M2 are ever so slightly wider. Comparo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cld8KNKDIbk/
Though if it’s so subtle, why even invest in new tooling? Strange choice.
I don’t think the the M2 is wider. I was going off the dimensions on the media site. But I will double check. I originally thought the non-M models had different fenders, but they don’t.
The images in the morph are taken right from BMW’s builder, so I’d expect them to be right. You can see the wheel hub staying in the exact same place, while the rims get pushed out, and the wheel arches along with them. Here’s a less fuzzy version: https://opposite-lock.com/topic/61955/thiccening-morph?_=1694957730708
The M2 is about 2 inches wider (excluding side view mirrors) than the rest of the 2 series coupe lineup, and has wider fenders. The figures you looked at may have included the mirrors, because I don’t believe that width is changed.
I like these a lot, and would definitely consider spec’ing the purple, but the piano black trim on the rear really kills it for me. BMW shoehorned that into the M340 too. I think it looks terrible.
hey bubba, take it easy. I like the new 2. the 3/4 face? come on. the upcoming 5? the x whatever? gross.
The side profile does remind me of the personal sport Coupés of yore, and that weight figure is comparable to my E46/2 (which is nowhere near as quick though). What I don’t like is the generic exterior design – lighting especially seemingly not having any connection to other BMWs.
Huh. Apologies to all I’ve just realised there was no front three quarter shot in the images. I’m sure I uploaded one (I definitely took some) so I can only assume the Autopian Mainframe (actually an old North Korean subway train control computer Torch hooked up to an oscilloscope he pulled from a Goodwood rubbish bin) threw a wobbler.
Ummm… is no one gonna say… no front fascia pic. I think you are proving the opposite of your point. I had an 325ix, a 330 cab, 535xi wagon. The new ones are designed for China as has been stated ad nauseam. They are ugly and and the video game interior more than that. This is kind of click-baity. Oh, you aren’t like the other girls and like an ugly car because it’s not the old one. OK?
late attempt at an edit – googled and it’s good/better looking than the latest trash lol. Compared to the other hideous models it is a huge improvement. If anyone thought the Bangle era of BMW design would go down as the worst ever.. I/we were wrong.
I’ve seen the China argument made a lot, and I think it’s a bit reductive and lazy. Someone much smarter than me said we in the west cannot understand the Chinese tastes, or apply the same standards. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Land Rover does very well in China and they are some of the most modern, minimal and sophisticated designs around. Read my Hagerty article linked in the piece if you haven’t done so, I go a bit more into why some `BMWs look the way they do.
“Polarizing” is what they are going for, instead of restrained/handsome/minimal like they did in the 80s/90s.
A) The only way TO Essex is clobbered with speed cameras, so that’s disappointing, but als b) I’m not getting the reference to the 6 series, which I think tends to run 500+ more pounds?
I think what he’s saying is that the 6 is less about going fast and more about looking understatedly cool while still going quickly, all in comfort.
Exactly this.
I just got my G87 M2 a few weeks ago, and I’ve never owned a car that gets so much attention. The Zandvoort Blue paint probably has something to do with that, but the 2 Series, whether in M trim or not, really does seem to have a certain presence about it. Despite all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the design on BMW forums, normal people really seem to dig it.
Excellent review! Thoroughly enjoyed it.
BTW, the +/- buttons on the right side of the wheel are the volume controls. Or at least they are on my ’23 M3.
Why would they not label them properly with a little speaker or volume icon?
Bangs head on desk repeatedly.
Can we mail a couple of Tufte’s books to every interior designer on the planet?
As far as I can recall, the previous generation had the same labelling (+/-), certainly the two F-series cars I owned (F20 1 series, F82 M4) with M Sport wheels did.
My Msport E93 has +- buttons on the left for volume and on the right for station/track selection.
Yes, I came to say the same. I have a 2021 330e with the same wheel. Great review, great color. I agree that the HUD is wonderful. I don’t understand why there is a power percentage gauge rather than RPM. I understand it on my 330e because it runs in electric mode, but it makes no sense in a 2 series.
You can change easily to rpm view
The 1, 2 and 3 one of the few remaining decent looking BMW vehicles and the offering here is sound. We can certainly get the car as tested down here in Oz but a price check made me shudder. Over a hundred grand for a small performance coupe. I just couldn’t bring myself to put that much coin out there for something like this. Weirdly, the four door version of the same car is about 10 grand cheaper…
The four door isn’t actually the same car, despite the name. The four door 2 series is based on the 1 series, and is a FWD platform.
I’ll stick with my E82 – NA straight six, 6MT, hydraulic steering, and doesn’t have all that unnecessary trapezoidal design gee-gaws. Plus, it’s paid for.
Best looking of the original 1-series models by far.
Yeah. Definitely not regretting that purchase.
Not a BMW fan but not a hater, either. But I am a car lover. From econoboxes to sport sedans(saloons) to pickups I love most. So, I’m not a snob, I guess. From my perspective, the 2 Series is the most BMW BMW builds. The complaints over trivial style details is silly. It LOOKS like a proper BMW. It’s the size of a proper BMW. It is athletic and semi-luxurious, like a proper BMW. I like it. The mile and a half road to and from my ranch makes owning one(or any car) impossible-pickups or SUV’s only. But if possible, I’d own one.
I have 2022 230i in portimao blue for about 18 months, I love it. Perfect size, traditional BMW coupe roof line, and probably closest modern BMW in feel to the traditional old school ones. Especially like the 2022 since it has iDrive7 so still physical buttons.
And I personally think the front looks great.
Is it possible to change my username? I thought my current one was peak Adrian Clarke.
I was wrong. Simpering Shit-Gibbons is now officially in my vocabulary
it’s a cool color. We need more purple cars 🙂
Incredibly strong opinion and language on the design situation without the courage to include a full front end shot. I’m not impressed by this article
The only part of the design of this car I think is problematic is the triangle lower side openings, and there’s a picture of those.
The grille isn’t bad for a BMW.
P90428459_lowRes_the-all-new-bmw-m240-2048×1367.jpg (2048×1367) (jazelc.com)
I know, but it’s still not great and the overall design state of affairs at BMW is actually worthy of an interesting discussion rather than a rant of phallicity and gaslighting
Read my linked Hagerty piece in the article. That’s why linked it, to provide additional context.