RE: BMW M2: Review

[s m]

kambites said:

s m said:

Mr Prior certainly seems to enjoy it more than he did the new Boxster - at times it was difficult to hear him over the exhaust noisespeakers though

Edited for accuracy.

Hopeful it'll sound just as good as the 1M outside too - they have a nice 'bark' to them

[as7920]

s m said:

Autocar review has come out

Mr Prior certainly seems to enjoy it more than he did the new Boxster - at times it was difficult to hear him over the exhaust noise though

http://youtu.be/21uVSuzja2Q

Interested to read the twin test with the Focus RS in a few days time

He didn't mention the wonky seats as far as I could hear although will see if note is made of them in the proper mag test

Did my own M2/RS twin test this past week. Dare I say I enjoyed the RS more, despite driving for 1/4 the amount of time.

[s m]

as7920 said:

Did my own M2/RS twin test this past week. Dare I say I enjoyed the RS more, despite driving for 1/4 the amount of time.

Blimey, you did really well to get a steer of both those

[PhilEvo]

Read the various arguments about looks/seats/quality....

Personally I love the look of the whole package, having covered over 50k miles in my E36 328 Sport many moons ago and having owned 2 other Beemers over the years, I'd love to one day consider another and one of these would be very cool

But with a family of five and having also been the proud owner of a C43 AMG, I can't help thinking that as a total package and when explored to its considerable limits, the A45 AMG is a far better all round package?

Yes, it might not be quite as rewarding dynamically but it has a boot, 4wd, fantastic seats, gorgeous interior, blistering pace, ....I love mine and won't be swapping anytime soon, can't think of any other answer to the question 'what is the best all rounder?'

Thoughts?

Edited by PhilEvo on Monday 25th April 09:24

Edited by PhilEvo on Monday 25th April 09:25

[s m]

PhilEvo said:

Read the various arguments about looks/seats/quality....

Personally I love the look of the whole package, having cone red over 50k miles in my E36 328 Sport many moons ago and having owned 2 other Beeners over the years, I'd love to one day consider another and one of these would be very cool

But with a family of five and having also been the proud owner of a C43 AMG, I can't help thinking that as a total package and when explored to its considerable limits, the A45 AMG is a far better all round package?

Yes, it might not be quite as rewarding dynamically but it has a boot, 4wd, fantastic seats, gorgeous interior, blistering pace....I love mine and won't be swapping anytime soon, can't think of any other answer to the question 'what is the best all rounder?'

Thoughts?

If you're a family of 5 you have to remember the M2 is only 4 seats

[vsonix]

Personally I don't get all this moping about the seats. If you can afford to buy one of these brand new, presumably you can afford a proper recaro/corbeau/whatever driver and or passenger seat for a couple of thousand. You then put the OEM seeats in a safe place so when it becomes time to sell, you put them back in the car and hey presto no typical BMW driver's bolster wear, therefore the car looks newer/better and it sells for a wee bit more than it would have thereby offsetting the cost of the aftermarket seats.

[Patrick Bateman]

How many folk want to do that on their £50k BMW?

[s m]

as7920 said:

Did my own M2/RS twin test this past week. Dare I say I enjoyed the RS more, despite driving for 1/4 the amount of time.

Looks like Nic Cackett from Autocar thought the same, partly as the Focus 2/3 the price of the M2

Full test of the Focus next week and the M2 presumably a couple of weeks later

[tankplanker]

PhilEvo said:

Read the various arguments about looks/seats/quality....

Personally I love the look of the whole package, having covered over 50k miles in my E36 328 Sport many moons ago and having owned 2 other Beemers over the years, I'd love to one day consider another and one of these would be very cool

But with a family of five and having also been the proud owner of a C43 AMG, I can't help thinking that as a total package and when explored to its considerable limits, the A45 AMG is a far better all round package?

Yes, it might not be quite as rewarding dynamically but it has a boot, 4wd, fantastic seats, gorgeous interior, blistering pace, ....I love mine and won't be swapping anytime soon, can't think of any other answer to the question 'what is the best all rounder?'

Thoughts?

Edited by PhilEvo on Monday 25th April 09:24

Edited by PhilEvo on Monday 25th April 09:25

When I looked at the A45 the boot and the back seats felt smaller than the RS3 and the Golf R, it didn't feel like you could sit three on the back bench for long distances.

[nickfrog]

Patrick Bateman said:

How many folk want to do that on their £50k BMW?

Not sure as it's £44k ;-) and the seats are fit for purpose anyway. But the tiny minority of actual buyers who can't live with them have an option. Remember that those in this thread who can't live with those seats in an M2 were never in the market in the first place so not really a big issue.

[vsonix]

Patrick Bateman said:

How many folk want to do that on their £50k BMW?

shouldn't make a difference if it's a £50k car or a £500 car - the seats come in ad out the same way and removing them won't damage anything unless you store them somewhere stupid.

[iSore]

Dale487 said:

Better to drive than the M4


Is there a better car that covers the day today & performance driving for less than £50k? (Focus RS, may be)

Probably not. And it's so inexpensive for what it is, I'd feel compelled to pay BMW Individual 3 grand or so to do me one in Daytona violet. I thought the M135 was terrific so this must be astonishing.

[vsonix]

iSore said:

Dale487 said:

Better to drive than the M4


Is there a better car that covers the day today & performance driving for less than £50k? (Focus RS, may be)

Probably not. And it's so inexpensive for what it is, I'd feel compelled to pay BMW Individual 3 grand or so to do me one in Daytona violet. I thought the M135 was terrific so this must be astonishing.

not sure if it was earlier in this thread or a different one but someone said that there wasn't going to be a BMW individual program for the M2 because the factory it's made in doesn't have the sufficient equipment. Which to me is a crying shame because although that turquoise colour is one of the nicer 'exclusive' M shades offered recently, apparently it will be THE only option if you don't want black, white or grey. I too think that some of the classic E36 shades would look epic on this. Id be rather into a Boston Green one. Daytona is nice but always preferred Techno Violet personally. I'd also prefer lighter seats, like chanmpagne nappa on black instead of black on black on black.

[s m]

Anyone ordered the Performance Exhaust on one? Read somewhere that the valves are switchable via a Phone app between Road and Track?

[iSore]

vsonix said:

not sure if it was earlier in this thread or a different one but someone said that there wasn't going to be a BMW individual program for the M2 because the factory it's made in doesn't have the sufficient equipment. Which to me is a crying shame because although that turquoise colour is one of the nicer 'exclusive' M shades offered recently, apparently it will be THE only option if you don't want black, white or grey. I too think that some of the classic E36 shades would look epic on this. Id be rather into a Boston Green one. Daytona is nice but always preferred Techno Violet personally. I'd also prefer lighter seats, like chanmpagne nappa on black instead of black on black on black.

Aaah, but there's BMW Individual for the hoi polloi and another for the seriously minted. A guy had the latter paint his M4 in Macao blue with monogrammed headrests. Not as horrific as it sounds!


A pity BMW brought Estoril back, a bloody horrible colour in 1995 imo. Avus would have been better. It's time purple made a comeback anyway.


What about an M235i in Henna red with old style tricolour M striping ? :-)

[Leins]

iSore said:

A pity BMW brought Estoril back, a bloody horrible colour in 1995 imo. Avus would have been better

Agreed, never got the fuss with Estoril. Avus is the finest colour BMW ever produced IMO

[aeropilot]

iSore said:

vsonix said:

not sure if it was earlier in this thread or a different one but someone said that there wasn't going to be a BMW individual program for the M2 because the factory it's made in doesn't have the sufficient equipment. Which to me is a crying shame because although that turquoise colour is one of the nicer 'exclusive' M shades offered recently, apparently it will be THE only option if you don't want black, white or grey. I too think that some of the classic E36 shades would look epic on this. Id be rather into a Boston Green one. Daytona is nice but always preferred Techno Violet personally. I'd also prefer lighter seats, like chanmpagne nappa on black instead of black on black on black.

Aaah, but there's BMW Individual for the hoi polloi and another for the seriously minted.

It doesn't matter how seriously minted - you won't get BMW Individual on the M2.

It's possible there might be a few done at the end of the production run, just as there were half a dozen or so 1M's done in Individual colours, but these were all for high ranking BMW Exec's, so unless you are a BMW board member, you ain't getting a M2 done in Individual

[MitchT]

Nothing to stop someone getting it wrapped in the colour they really want and if you're minted enough you could get the car independently stripped, repainted and reupholstered.