New M2 — Blog — Healy Chen

That's a no from me

Much have been said, lots of it negative, about the exterior design of the new BMW M2. The incongruously boxy design makes the new car look like a Chinese knock-off of the old one. You know it’s not a winning design when people have to caveat it with, “It looks better in person!” Beautiful objects look good no matter if it’s in person or on photographic medium.

To test out the hypothesis that the new M2 looking better in the flesh, I got an opportunity to stare at one when I took my own M2 (previous generation) to the dealership for service. The copy in the showroom is in Black Sapphire Metallic, which helps to camouflage the bulbousness of the lower half. In person, the front end of the new M2 looks rather decent. I wouldn’t call it cohesive, but it’s effective in translating the latest BMW design language. Again, the color black really helps to hide some of the awkward shapes.

What black cannot hide is the hideousness of the new M2’s rear end. The rear bumper design is as atrocious in person as it is in pictures and videos. Why the need for so many elements that jut out? Like warts on an otherwise pristinely smooth face. If I were in a car following this new M2, I would want to pass it as soon as possible so I don’t have to keep looking at that rear end design. It’s simply awful.

The service advisor asked me if I were looking to upgrade - from my old M2 to the new one. I had to be diplomatic about it (instead of laughing out loud ) and said the new car’s exterior is too polarizing. Obvious bias aside, the F87 generation BMW M2 Competition will go down in BMW’s rich history as one of its classic designs. Elegantly aggressive is how I would describe it.

Thoughts on the new M2

So there’s a new generation BMW M2. And it’s rather ugly! The front end looks decent enough - it’s very boxy - though I’m not convinced about horizontal slats on the iconic BMW kidney grilles. The side profile is the best looking aspect of the new car. The classic three-box coupe shape is still there. The bulging fenders to accommodate the wider track from the M3/M4 looks delicious.

It’s the rear of the new M2 where the styling fails completely. What the heck is going on with the rear bumper treatment? It looks like there’s warts growing out of the body. The taillamps also bulges out for no apparent functional reason. In a text to a friend I said the new M2 looks like a fake copy of the old M2 done for a Grand Theft Auto game. It is definitely not a looker.

It gets worse on the inside: the new M2 has BMW’s iDrive 8. There’s a giant horizontal slab of LCD screen for both the instrument cluster and the infotainment system. I much prefer analog gauges and physical buttons. Curse on Tesla for jump-starting this trend of having touchscreens to do and show everything in car interiors. I’ve had newer BMW cars as service loaners, and the digital instrument cluster is utterly useless in terms of getting information at a glance. I’m not a fan.

What else is bad in the new M2? The weight. It’s some 200 pounds heavier (at about 3,800) than the old M2, which wasn’t the lightest thing to begin with. Despite the weight and overall size increase, the interior space isn’t that much larger in the new car! The braking system have changed to by wire: there’s no physical connection from the brake pedal to the master cylinder. That just reads artificial to me. There’s no reason for brakes to have different modes! It either stops brilliantly or it doesn’t.

One last thing: the new M2 will be built in Mexico. Call me a snob - because I am - but I want my high-dollar performance German car to be built in the fatherland. This also means prospective buyers won’t have the option to do European delivery. It’s something I wanted to do when I bought my (previous generation) M2. But the COVID pandemic put a halt to all of that. Shame!