It’s no secret that enthusiasts are turning on BMW. Between pursuing a styling direction that’s garnered little praise, adopting a seemingly callous view of the brand’s past, and having key performance products put on serious pounds, diehard fans are all wishing BMW would find direction and offer a performance car that’s truly appealing outside of simply putting numbers on the board. Something handsome, something compact, something engaging, something like the old BMW M2.
When it was launched for the 2016 model year, the M2 encompassed all that was great about BMW, and gave fans something to hope for in an era of numb-helmed 3 Series sedans and the reliability scandals surrounding early hot-vee V8 applications. An old-school recipe remastered, if you will.
With enough practicality to be liveable, yet enough excitement to induce tachycardia, the M2 is truly one of the greatest BMWs of the modern era, and dare I say, one of the greatest of all-time. Best of all, this little slice of recent Bavarian driving nirvana can be had for the same price as a new Honda Accord. Tempting, isn’t it?
What Are We Looking At?
The best M-car of the late 2010s wasn’t supposed to exist. It took a skunkworks team of BMW engineers to shove M3 suspension and drivetrain parts underneath a widened, hotted-up M235i, but the end result was so captivating, BMW’s board simply had to say yes. After all, who wouldn’t want a Corolla hatchback-sized, widebody, rear-wheel-drive, 365-horsepower pocket rocket? Even though it didn’t feature a dedicated BMW M engine, the original M2 showed it could party, and won rave reviews from the moment it went on sale.
Needless to say, the OG M2 put serious numbers on the board. In fact, Car And Driver’s long-term test car posted a zero-to-60 mph time of 4.1 seconds, blitzed the quarter-mile in 12.7 seconds at 110 mph, and pulled an entire lateral g around the skidpad. However, the real benefit here was joy. A hyperactive, overcaffeinated take on a historically great formula, a version of BMW’s smallest coupe raised on whey protein and Muay Thai. It’s sharp, precise, immediate, and eager to steer from the rear with a twinge of your right foot. Sure, the suspension feels granite stiff over bad roads and the driving position’s a little bit crooked, but if you want a properly compact backroad terror that doesn’t look out of place at a business park and can actually accommodate real adults in its rear seats, few cars of the past decade are better.
How Much Are We Talking?
Despite being one of the most desirable performance cars in recent history, the M2 certainly isn’t immune to depreciation. For context, a mid-range Honda Accord EX-L Hybrid stickers for $36,035 including freight, and it’s not hard to find plenty of M2 for that sort of money. For starters, there’s this 2018 model with a nice 69,000 miles on the clock that recently hammered on Cars & Bids for $32,000. Sure, the seven-speed DCT in this one might not be as engaging as a manual, but you’re looking at a mechanically bone-stock car with a clean Carfax. For the money, that seems like it could be a worthy trade-off in a daily driver.
Looking for a six-speed manual car? They tend to be pricier, but if you’re willing to wait, you’ll find one within budget. This 2017 M2 with a whole host of Dinan go-fast goodies and just 37,000 miles on its odometer hammered on Bring A Trailer earlier this year for $35,250. It also sports a rare M Performance steering wheel, and although it’s not cosmetically perfect, it still has a clean Carfax. Score.
Needless to say, these examples aren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel, but you might be surprised at how a few questionable cosmetic modifications like a wrapped roof and M-stripe grilles can conspire with mileage to drag down an otherwise seemingly well-maintained M2. This DCT-equipped 2016 Texas car with 81,000 miles on the clock hammered on Cars & Bids earlier this year for $26,500. Sure, it could do with a bit of aesthetic decluttering, but it has a clean Carfax and proof of regular maintenance.
What Can Go Wrong On A BMW M2?
Since the N55 three-liter turbocharged straight-six in the 2016 to 2018 M2 comes from BMW’s N5x engine family, we need to talk about oil filter housing gasket failure. It’s not an expensive part, it doesn’t take many hours of labor to replace at an independent shop, but it has a potentially engine-killing failure mode should a leak get really bad. If you notice any weeping from this area, book your M2 in for oil filter housing gasket replacement immediately, and make sure to go with a trusted shop. It’s absolutely crucial that the oil system is properly primed once this repair takes place, as the N55 engine in the M2 doesn’t like even momentary losses in oil pressure. The other big one is the coolant flange on the front of the engine. It’s made of plastic, and while aluminum replacements are dirt-cheap, it’s a potential trip-interrupter and something that’s worth getting ahead of, particularly as these cars age.
Otherwise, plastic charge pipes are known to crack and leave you without boost, but metal options are abundant in the aftermarket. A small handful of early M2s did suffer from differential leaks, but pretty much all of those were fixed under warranty, as the issue usually became obvious almost immediately after delivery. Beyond that, you’re really just looking at the odd valve cover gasket leak, interior rattle, and typical used car stuff like worn bushings. For a used German high-performance machine, the M2 is actually a pretty okay car.
Should You Buy A BMW M2?
If you have a few grand laying around for maintenance, by all means, go right out and buy an OG BMW M2. They’re brilliant cars to drive, and in the grand scheme of things, not ruinously expensive to own. Will one be as cheap to run as a Honda Accord? Absolutely not, but you probably knew that already. Still, if the idea of a high-performance BMW M car has always been a dream of yours, this is one of the absolute best to own from an upkeep and enjoyment perspective.
(Photo credits: Cars & Bids, Bring A Trailer)
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I think someone in the comments is very confused about what the word “buy” means.
“Buy” is not run and maintain. “Buy” is not Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). “Buy” does not include ruinous repair bills or fuel or anything else after the purchase.
“Buy” is about the amount of money one [figuratively] hands over in order to take possession of a thing, i.e. the figure on the price tag, and it happens in one transaction. Everything else is not-buy and thus not within the scope of the headline.
tl;dr – If A costs $25000 and B costs $25000, one can buy A for the price of B. The end.
These are cool, have always been cool, and always will be cool. The M2 is already an icon and with how many have been lost to the tooner wars values on decent examples are going to start going up again. IMHO these aren’t far from the bottom of their depreciation curve where things stand today. They’re also being hit because the G87 is now out and has received mostly excellent reviews outside of a handful of BMW purists who will never be happy.
They’re great cars too. I see them running with the big dogs at the track every time I’m there. They’re damn fast with a skilled driver. They’re a little bit of a handful when it comes to oversteer but if you can tame them they’ll throw down great times all day long. They sound great as well, the modern boosted BMW six pots have a very unique and pleasant tone.
Would I take it over an NA V8 when it comes to the auditory experience? No, but they’re way better than pretty much any other six or four cylinder. Hearing them at full throttle on a straight is fun and they’re certainly a good counter to the “no replacement for displacement/muh V8” crowd. Also the M DCT is so good that folks are swapping them into older M cars rather than keep the SMGs.
If you’re a manual purist I’m sure you don’t care but make no mistake: you’re not making a huge sacrifice buying a DCT. It’s a great transmission and the savings are significant. Anyway I love these and I’m one of the rare sickos who loves the G87 too. It’s currently my attainable dream car, and people are going to be nostalgic for it as soon as the next gen M EV stuff launches.
No, you can’t buy an M2 for the price of a new Accord, that is being rather disingenuous. The BMW is going to cost FAR more to run from maintenance to gas to insurance, even if the monthly payment is the same. In my home state of Maine, after the first couple years it’s even going to cost FAR more to register annually due to excise tax based on original MSRP.
I owned a ’16 M235i, and to tempt me to upgrade my dealer gave me an M2 for a long weekend to try out back then. I wasn’t tempted. Too much muchness – that hyperactivity gets old fast. Make sure you can actually live with the dial turned up to “11” all-day-every-day. For most, an M235i or M240i is going to be a rather more reasonable proposition for rather less money.
To be fair, nearly every vehicle in this series of “cool car you can buy for cheap new car money” is in the same boat, reasonable purchase price, high service cost. Everyone considering an M2 or an M3 or used Porsche over a new Civic or Accord knows it’ll be expensive to keep running, but it’s still a great premise for an article showing what you can get for your money if you’re willing to make some concessions. And in other ways, an M2 will never have the price floor that a new accord will over time, they’ll both depreciate sure, but all commodity cars will eventually depreciate to next to nothing, while a true M car will never get to zero unless crashed or seriously neglected.
An awful lot of them get crashed and/or seriously neglected. And fools still pay too much money for them. And no, not everyone is that smart about it. Not at all.
It’s just a dumb overall premise, and these articles should just not exist.
You have every right to be as cynical as you choose, but when garbage sites are popping up and spitting AI generated content out en-masse, established sites are getting shut down or conglomerated, and everything seems to get bleaker online, complaining about a lighthearted premise like this on a strong independent site seems foolish.
Maybe I should amend my prior statement, nobody on this website reading articles like this are under even the faintest illusion that the running costs of a 7 year old M2 will be equal to that of a new Accord.
Furthermore, when the new M2 cannot be reasonably had for less than double a used one, to say people are stupid for buying a car to their tastes and not yours is willfully ignoring the emotional aspects of car ownership. Regardless of what you consider the purchase price of a car should be classified as, when someone say “you can buy a car for $XYZ” that is universally understood to mean “if I give you $XYZ, I receive car, keys and title” which is the definition of buying something.
LOL – evidently your opinion of the average enthusiast is higher than mine.
There are simply better and smarter ways of writing an article about interesting enthusiast options than this tired “get this depreciated high-performance car that will ruin you in maintenance costs for the price of this new reasonably priced car”. It’s a dumb, WAY overused trope, and it needs to die.
If your dream car is one of these, more power to you, and you do you. I certainly don’t see the point of a faster version of a car that is even MORE expensive in every way than a car that is already faster than you can legally use on the road in the US.
Maybe spitting hairs a little, but I think the operative word there is “buy”. You purchase an M2 for Accord money but you can’t maintain one for anything close to the Honda.
Good point regarding the day-to-day livability. After reading reviews and such and hearing from my wife, who is not fond of having her bones rattle while being driven around, I went the 240 route. Nice to hear that this was probably the best decision for us.
It’s not even the maintenance, it’s ALL of it. Everything from gas to insurance to tires is going to cost FAR more.
To me “buy” is not just the upfront cost of the car – that’s just the downpayment on owning one. And too many people ONLY think about that aspect of it. If you only have the money for a new Accord, you had best set your aging highest-performance German car budget at 50-75% of that at most.
I think you are at least getting the joke now.
The trouble is, too many people don’t consider the actual cost beyond the monthly payment. Especially younger people.
This is not helping quell my simmering M2 urges. This is really starting to look like an ideal second vehicle.
It’s funny to me to see the M-striped grille listed as a flaw; to me it’s one of the best & coolest accents—aftermarket or otherwise—on any car, now or in the recent past. Every time I see one, even on big, dumb SUVs, I think about how good it looks.
A key factor is simply that the colors are good: it’s not fire engine red, screaming yellow, or blacked out. But most important is that it’s not changing the form at all, simply introducing a color where there was none, and doing it in a way that’s more than a pinstripe or patch.
I really can’t imagine owning a BMW, but if I did, I’d want an M, and if I had an M, I’d want those stripes. I can’t think of any kind of car flair from this century that I’d say that about.
This may cause me to add a manual M2 to the shortlist for my next daily. Certainly be more comfortable than an Evo IX like I’m currently looking for.
Hardcore enthusiasts will be selling organs to buy unmolested examples of these in a few years. Yes, you should absolutely buy an M2 instead of an Accord.
Can I propose that future installments in this series include the fees required to buy these cars on the online auction sites?
The $32,000 buyer actually paid $33,440.
The $35,250 buyer actually paid $37,013.
The $26,500 buyer actually paid $27,693.
Quoting the raw auction number without the fee is like when automakers list the MSRP without the destination charge. It’s not optional, so it should be part of the conversation.
I certainly would have appreciated that insight, as I am not a regular purveyor of Bring a Hammer Bay for used cars, and this artificially deflates the cost. While it’s not an order of magnitude expense, it does matter for the poors like me.
Especially since, in this case, the Accord price used for comparison does include freight.
Hey V10omous, I totally get where you’re coming from, I just want to share my viewpoint.
Auction fees are closer in nature to dealer fees than freight charges, in that they’re imposed by the intermediary in the transaction, and that while avoiding them is annoyingly hard in this day and age, it’s not impossible — one can either go to another dealership for a new car that doesn’t have $2,000 worth of goofy stuff like hideously inflated door edge protectors and a dubious ceramic coating slapped on all in-stock units, or go for a used car listed privately or by a dealer on a conventional used car classified site instead of on an auction site.
The main reason I use auction results as examples is because they’re publicly available records of how much buyers are willing to pay, rather than how much a sellers are willing to ask. Despite the auction hype effect, hammer prices for driver-spec mass-produced cars like the M2 seem to fall around list prices for used examples on traditional used car websites, outside of a few outliers. In the future, I’d be more than happy to include examples from typical used car listings, with the caveat that those are list prices rather than transaction prices.
I totally understand and agree with your rationale for using the auction prices vs other listings, but I just think its more accurate to say the buyers are willing to pay hammer price $X + 4.5-5% rather than just hammer price $X.
The potential problems on this BMW for once appear to be….not that bad! It seems like purchasing one of these and then immediately doing the suggested fixes and upgrades would give you a pretty bulletproof high performance M car without a ton of worry. Bonus is the fact that the 2 series isn’t swimming in high tech, screens and sensors which is the other huge headache of recent BMWs.
Cars have largely met in the middle now that even perfectly ordinary cars are just about as high-tech as “luxury” cars once where. Once you get past the absolute bottom of the barrel there isn’t much in it.