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 picked up a decent mileage, decent price 2016 M2 DCT earlier this year and all I have to say is if you want one, and can swing it, do it. I’m a manual die hard and daily drove a five or six speed for 20 years and don’t miss it in this car at all. It’s a blast to drive, track ready, but you can take it to the grocery store if you want or need to. The N55 is a pretty good motor and this one has already blown up the plastic charge pipe and has a nice aluminum one in its place.
If you seriously consider a Honda then don’t even think about a BMW.
If you like to enjoy your automotive life for a couple of years then stay away from sensible family cars.
It is like comparing some super model (a woman, that is) with your average neighbor girl which isn’t that attractive, but oh so reliable.
I’m enjoying every mile I get out of my super model and while the price per mile is higher ; I don’t live forever.
Life is way too short to drive boring sensible cars forever. High maintenance German car for me.
I’d rather have the Accord
Yeah, acceptable performance and includes a warranty.
To be fair, every BMW has had oil filter housing leak issues since at least the m52 series of engines. And let’s be honest if you own one of these and the odo goes into six digit mileage be ready for virtually every other oil related gasket to seep, weep, leak, or just fail.
Sounds like they’ve continued with the plastic cooling components-is this still a every 80k miles replace your whole cooling system proposition or have they gotten better? Nonetheless a lot of car for the money and where BMW gets you is that while yes I could get a very clean used 996 for the same money it has a potential for big $$$ failures that make a BMW look like a Honda; even if my guess is short run a Porsche is actually better built.
I’m now on my 3rd Bavarian Maintenance Wagen
New acronym for a BMW.. love it. I really enjoy the way my e36 drives but, I don’t think I’ll go through this again. Fix one thing, two others break. My $ per mile is abysmal, especially for a non-M car
Yeh I’ve had an e30, e46, and currently am on an e28 annnd the only one that approached what I’d call being reliable daily transport was the e30. Granted the e28 is 41 years old and has 250K miles. Thanks for bringing me to my senses I had been window shopping e36 M3s…
I feel like I go on this cycle where I get sick of BMW maintenance and buy something Japanese but I can’t afford any of the really good Japanese cars so then I get bored and buy another BMW. Rinse and repeat lol , before I bought the e28 I told myself I’d only buy another BMW if it was an M car so at least I’d have owned one and maybe there’d be a stronger feeling of the juice justifying the squeeze.
The thing I keep coming back to now is I don’t know what I’d replace the e28 with on my sub 20K budget. A slightly newer BMW will be more daily driver friendly but will probably be just as prone if not more prone to breaking (at least in my price bracket) and most of the Japanese and American car makers stopped making practical performance cars over the last 15 years so there’s not a lot of alternatives. Everything I’ve read makes me think VWs are likely just as bad as BMW, the last two generation of Civic Si are somewhere between dumpy and hideous, and the sedans aren’t that common anyways. Finding a used WRX that is clean, un-modded, and not thrashed to within an inch of its life will be my signifier to go out and buy a lottery ticket. Maybe an 86/BRZ but see previous comment on those too and not super practical anyways. And I’m too tall to fit in a Miata 🙁 guess I’ll check if there’s any clean e36 M3s on fb marketplace…
Honestly man, find a nice e36 M3. This chassis is great. I met a guy last year with 300k+ on his. Things break but they’re rarely catastrophic. I’m just a little salty because mine was neglected heavily. FWIW, its never left me stranded.
I also look at the toyobaru twins. Similar cars on paper. If it’s just a daily, I’m sure it’d be fine. Grippy tires seem to shorten the life of them on-track and I have to imagine in the twisties, too.
Good to know…I mean honestly most of the issues with my e28 have been due to age, the fact that I’m pretty sure it sat with a bad motor for 5-7 years, and bad kludgy diy work by PO. And for all it’s small issues my e46 had 215K when I sold it and only stranded me once when the coolant tank crapped out and I probably should’ve been more proactive about replacing it anyways.
Why does every M car have to have an achilles heel that can be catastrophic?
Adds to the thrill of ownership.
I was in the market for one of these but the release of the G87 has totally flipped the equation.
I know the new styling isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (to say the least) but I think it made the old one look instantly dated.
Add in more generous parts sharing with its more expensive sibling and you end up with a much better daily, a more modern platform, a real M engine, and crucially, still available in a stick.
Now looking at spending way more for a G87 – but I still think it’s an incredible value prop at the 65k new mark.
They look great. I genuinely don’t get all the styling critiques. I’ve had my eye on one for a while now and agree on the value proposition. 65k ain’t cheap but it’s a hell of a lot of car for that much. Keep us posted on your journey, I’ve been playing the long game on convincing the wife to let me get one but now that we’ve got an infant in the equation those odds are sadly growing longer by the day.
They have a ton of presence in person and they’re also track ready out of the box.
Congrats on the infant! You can let the wife know the back seat of the G87 is even suitable for adults on short journeys so the car is fine, totally fine I tell you.
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.
Also: this whole series is a gag. The whole bit is “You can buy [fancy used exotic] for the same price as [sensible family sedan]!” Of course it costs more to maintain, repair, insure, shoe, etc. Of course it does. Everyone knows that. THAT’S THE JOKE.
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.
The OG M2 actually sounds better than the later Competition and CS trims as well, the N55’s single turbo muffles the inline-6 a lot less than the S55’s twins.
Disclaimer: Most of my experience with N55/S55 noises is from comparing my former M235i (with a full aftermarket exhaust at the time I bought it) to an acquaintance’s M4, so it may be a bit apples to oranges, but I do think the sounds of other people’s M2’s driving by have confirmed this for me, though one can never bet on a BMW M-anything to have stock exhaust.
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.
I think it’d be more fun to change it a little to be: You can buy XXX car for HALF the price of a new Camry or Accord or whatever, and spend the other HALF of that budget to fix it and insure it and feed it and use it for the same five year span before you get as bored of it as you would the Camry or Accord or whatever. Now there’s a bit of a challenge involved.
A much more honest approach.
That is what I did for many years. As a young poor I figured out I could either buy some relatively new boredom-mobile, or I could spend a lot less upfront on a nicely depreciated bit of fun, as long as I did the wrenching myself as much as possible. Worked out great, and I got to experience a bunch of interesting cars. Rarely spent more than $5K on them. Always figured $1-2K immediately to go through them and sort them out properly, then drove them until something else caught my eye and sold them on.
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.
Yes, Mitsubishi ruined their entire reputation as generally decent vehicles by at one time offering them all at no down, no payments for the first three months… Lots of people were all “Hey, zero down and nothing for three months? I’ve got exactly that in my bank account, I can make that work!”…
Sure, but I think The Autopian could publish a “responsible car buying” article once a week and it isn’t stopping another 22-year old who gets a $150/week raise from deciding he deserves a “nice car” now and heading over to check out the V10 BMW M5 at Frank’s Used Carz 4 U with no maintenance records.
Only one way to learn…
What could possibly go wrong? YOLO!!
This is not helping quell my simmering M2 urges. This is really starting to look like an ideal second vehicle.
Honestly, I’d recommend it as a primary car.
I once had an M235i RWD, and it was almost as practical as the A4 I had before it. The trunk was enormous before you fold down the rear seats, and the latter were legitimately usable. The upright seating position seemed to magically create headroom and legroom out of thin air, like a family hatchback. It’s a 2-door sedan, a true four-seater that carries 4 adults in comfort, not a 2+2.
My only ergonomic gripe was that the seats were moved inward a couple centimeters for side-impact ratings, so the transmission tunnel intrudes into the driver’s space, putting your right foot almost at the centerline of your body. (notice the position of the pedals and the steering wheel relative to the center seam of the seat in the image. Also, the little cushion on the center console makes a huge difference as my knee touched it regularly). The position of the pedal hurt my hip a bit after a long drive, especially in traffic where my foot had to cross over to the brake often, but all my friends said it was a non-issue for them, so YMMV.
I also found the steering wheel too thick/soft in the M235i, many people like the M steering wheel, but it wasn’t for me. Like the pedal position, YMMV.
Performance-wise, I only wished I had more camber+caster at the front to combat understeer and provide more steering feedback, and a limited-slip diff to make the rear end more predictable. Good news is, both are featured in the M2 and are a must for the “genuine” BMW experience. The brakes, which share calipers with the M2, had great feel, and should be even better with the M2’s larger rotors.
On Blizzaks, it dealt with Michigan Winter just fine, no weather ever caused me to wish I was in something else. It bears mentioning that it was on lowering springs, so I imagine a stock-height, LSD-equipped M2 would fare even better.
I ultimately sold it because my wife got a car and we moved somewhere with a garage, so I didn’t need a roomy, automatic, hard-top 4-seater anymore, so I downsized to a roadster.
Hopefully this long-winded mini-review was helpful, I tried to stick with only the parts that it shares with the M2 (interior space, layout, calipers) and steer clear of making too much commentary on performance, since I haven’t been in the real M-car.
Nice review and I 95% agree. I’ve driven a M235i and it was a lovely experience. If you didn’t need extra space, this could totally be a do-most-things daily. I happen to have a 100lb+ Bernese Mountain dog who might disagree with replacing my X3 M40i with an M2.
Hmm, yes, 4-legged creatures aren’t very good at climbing into the back of a 2-door. I see your struggle there.
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.
Ive owned both the IX and X, if you want even a bit more comfort you want the X.
I currently have a CTS vsport which is very comfy but I want to get back to a manual and have something with more of an edge. I know the IX is raw but I figure it can’t be worse than the Miata I daily most of the summer.
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.
The N55 was among Consumer Reports’ most reliable engines for a couple years there, it’s really quite a good powertrain, and the M2 has a stronger version with a forged crank and more advanced oil sump. Now, you’ll be paying BMW M prices for things like brake service and electronic doodads, but at least a windshield washer pump or ambient temperature sensor won’t grenade your engine.