10,000 Miles on a 2024 BMW M2

Eighteen months ago I began my journey to collect 10,000 miles on a 2024 BMW M2. Well here we are today and I can say with 100% confidence that I made the right decision in giving up my 2016 Porsche Boxster Black Edition. A very difficult decision and I am asked, usually with a very quizzical expression, about how I could give up such a beautiful convertible in exchange for a dark and somewhat bull-doggish and teutonic automobile. Read on to get my take on this version of the Ultimate Driving Machine.

What is a BMW M?

You see a lot of M branding from BMW these days – you can choose an M package on just about any BMW you build to order. I guess you do what you need to do to make money, but it can be confusing for folks to know the difference between a package and the real thing. An M car is a vehicle designed, tuned, and tested by a subsidiary of BMW AG, BMW M GmbH to maximize the racing and track performance of the car. The goal is to deliver on that “ultimate driving machine” promise. Engines, transmissions, suspensions, braking systems, and aerodynamics/body panels are quite different from “stock” BMWs. There is a big difference between a BMW 240i with M badging, the so called M240i, and a real M2. That’s not to denigrate the M240i, it is a fantastic car, but the level of performance is not even close to the M2.

Things I Love About My 20204 BMW M2

Raw Power

When you get a car with 453 HP you are going to get a reaction when you hit the accelerator. This car does not disappoint. I’m not tracking the car – this is my daily driver. This car makes any drive fun. During daily drives and fun weekend driving, there is plenty of get up and go even in normal driving mode. Hit the M1 button and the car takes it up a notch with stiffer suspension and steering adjustments. This is a real wheel drive car so you do have to learn how to control that power, especially at launch. Takes practice especially with manual, but that’s why the car is fun to drive!

Manual Transmission

The manual transmission is snappy and reasonably short for a stock shifter. It has a nice notchy feel moving up and down the gear progressions. I like the layout with the push down and up to the left for reverse. The clutch does have a long travel, but you can install a clutch-stop if that bothers you.

The manual option will not beat the auto for pure speed, but I still prefer it. It took me a good 4 months to make the mental change from my Porsche’s very long gears to the BMW’s shorter shifting pattern. The hardest change for me was to stop skipping gears. Porsche’s philosophy is that long gears mean less shifting, which is better for racing. Because the gears are so long it becomes common to downshift from 5 to 3 and skip 4. The M2 does not work like that, especially if you have the rev matching on.

The clutch engagement point seems a bit vague to me and that also took me quite a while to get used to vs. Porsche’s very precise mechanism. Now that I am used to it, I really enjoy driving and shifting – even in heavy traffic.

There is a rev matching option that I use quite a bit given this is a daily driver. The hill hold function is also super handy. I have several traffic lights on my route that have fairly steep hills with a light at the top.

I did add some M splash with those cupholder inserts…for anyone that noticed those.

Technology Package

The technology package in the car is top notch starting with the curved screens that orient the driver behind the wheel. They cut across to the entertainment/navigation cluster and the main instrument console. The screens are easy to configure and functions like navigation can move between the main instrument cluster behind the steering wheel and the main screen. Plenty of buttons, maybe too many, to control things between the steering wheel, the touch screen, and the joystick controller. I guess options are good. I find myself relying on the steering wheel and the main touchscreen.

The mobile app is actually a useful application. You can control the car – locking, unlocking, remote HVAC startup, navigation control, and more features. Lots of car metrics are available in the app and you get monthly reports on your driving. You can also control firmware updates to the car through the app. Pretty much one stop shop: you can schedule maintenance and if you are financing through BMWUSA you can see and do that too. The app is getting frequent updates with fairly cool new content and features. One important tip –> never store your complete home address in the app or car nav system. You can check and edit your home address in the app and it will synch with the car.

Interior Look

I have the all black interior with carbon fiber trim. I have the standard leather seats with blue stitching – no red and blue stripes one the seats. Check my original post for more interior photos. It is definitely a dark germanic/teutonic feeling inside the car. That works for me. If I could get rid of the remaining silver interior trim, I would do that in a heartbeat. All the materials are top notch feeling – especially the plastics which all feel solid and firm. Great visibility out of all windows.

The interior lighting package is pretty cool. You can adjust the brightness and the colors. The BMW M2 colors on the doors light up and look nice at night as do the M2 logos in the seats. Definitely a bigger hit with the family than I thought it would be. I did change out the stock puddle lights for really nice LED M2 puddle lights from Open Throttle. Super easy to install, cheap, and very cool! Highly recommended.

Interior – Storage

There is plenty of storage with a fairly large glove box, cup holders, door pockets, and the center console storage. Given that, my needs are simple (mostly driving to work – between 25 and 70 miles a day depending on which office I need to go to) so I don’t need to store a lot of stuff.

I have done quite a bit of research on the cupholders and what will fit – yes, OMG on occasion when getting in the car at 6:00AM or earlier, some coffee would be nice. I know that is sacrilege for many. The shifter makes using a coffee mug a challenge; anything tall hits in R or 1st gear. Looks like the Yeti Stackable mug might be a winner, but I have to wait for Santa to know for sure.

Considering this is a 2-door sports car, the trunk capacity is amazing. I can fit a ton of groceries in the back. 6 full-size bags of charcoal fit with no problem at all. Putting down the back-seats brings enough storage to fit everything I need for a 2 week vacation, including plenty of “refreshments”. A cargo-net for the back is a good idea. This would keep things from flying around back there when it is not full. Of course to get all this room, you give up any kind of spare wheel/tire.

And yes – that is a set of wheel chocks…be prepared my friends.

Fuel Mileage

As my daily driver car, I was a bit concerned with the combination of MPG and the size of the fuel tank. So far I have been very happy with the gas mileage. I generally get at least 22MPG during my various commutes. On longer highway trips I can get as good as 27MPG while not being grandpa. That is really quite good! I always use at least 93 octane and 94 when I can get it.

PPF and Tinting

Finally, although this is not a BMW installed option, I did choose to PPF my car up to the A pillar and also tint the side and rear windows. Great decision! For the PPF, I went with XPel’s top of the line Ultimate Fusion “self healing” film. I cannot even tell it is there until I am 2-3 feet from the car and know exactly where and what to look for. I’ve seen several little rock hits “self heal” – really cool. I do wish that I did told them to put it also along the door sills, as you tend to bump these getting in and out of the car.

In terms of tint, I went for none on the windshield, 15% on the sides and 30% on the rear. 30% on the sunroof too. This is pretty modest in terms of tint, but it keeps me legal in PA and cuts down on glare. Looks great from the outside without being so dark that it attracts the kind of attention you do not want.

My 20204 BMW M2 – Things I’m not such a fan about

That Gas Tank!

Ok, let’s get get it out there: WTF is BMW thinking??? I hear all sorts of lame excuses trying to justify a 13 gallon fuel tank for a car that gets 20MPG average. Sorry, no, not buying any of the excuses. The most common excuse is weight ratio and a bigger tank would screw that up. No, not buying that. Another one is that more fuel would make the car slower and thus ruin it as a track car. No, no, no. The tank is basically too small for this to be an effective track car. Two extra gallons would make a huge difference. Ok, I’m done…I will say I knew about the tank before I purchased and bought it anyway, but its still stupid…ok, really, I’m done this time.

Brake Squeal

I own Porsches – 3 of them. This is my 4th BMW. I am very familiar with brake squeal and the whole “that’s what you get when you drive a real sports car” thing. So, yes I have put up with squeal for man, many years. No problem. However this car takes squeal and bumps it up to SQUEALING!!! Dang. I’ve done quite a bit of looking and will be moving over to ceramic or composite pads. I don’t track the car so I really just need a pad that has the same basic characteristics as the OEM pads, but without the squeal. The iSWEEP 1500 pads look pretty good to me and I’ll be swapping the OEMs out for these.

The Sunroof

Coming from a 2016 Porsche Boxster, a decent sunroof was a requirement. I just need some air. The M2 does deliver, but it is pretty teeny tiny. A revised model where the gas slides back outside the body, similar to Audi and Mercedes, would allow for a bit more glass, although I know this will also be criticized for reducing lateral stability in the chassis, but hey this is my list, not Motor Trend’s.

Black Sapphire Metallic

This next one is my fault. Looking at the BMW site, it never even crossed my mind that a custom color was an option. On other websites custom colors are dangled in front of you left and right, but not on the BMWUSA site. So I never asked. I should have. True black is the way to go. I may even opt to re-spray my car to get it. I don’t hate the Black Sapphire Metallic as much as I hated the Mineral Grey in my 2012 328i, but it is pretty close…

HVAC Always Cooking Me

The AC is fine, but the heat – WTF? I’ve got this thing constantly blowing heat at me. There’s no way to shut it off. If its like 25F out, heat is great. Other than that, off!

Minor Gripes

I’m getting picky here, but the lack of decent looking winter floor mats sucks. Anything that looks good really is made for the automatic and interferes with the clutch without modifications. x1mats.com is a good example of something that looks good, but does not fit the manual. They are in the gallery above and you can see I did some hefty surgery on the driver side mat. I love the backseat mat and I do like the look overall. I simply hacked away with a boxcutter and then sealed the edge with Flexseal. Bush fix, but it worked.

The keyless locking system is slow to respond so I constantly find myself pulling the handle too early. Annoying.

Finally, I find Android Auto pretty crashy. Too bad because the messaging dictation functions are really cool. Both Google maps and Waze (also owned by Google) will crash the car’s entire system when you are in navigation mode. Pretty much happens every time. Luckily the BMW app’s navigation function works pretty well.

Things That are Over-Emphasized as Problems with My BMW 20204 M2

That “numb” Steering

For years much has been made of BMW’s move from hydraulic to fully electric “drive by wire” steering and the “numbness” of this solution to steering the car. I’ve owned a lot of cars and still own a 1988 Porsche 911. Nothing has more direct road connection than my 911 that is lowered to the point where it redefines bump-steer. Is the steering in the M2 “numb”? Well I suppose compared to my 911 where, if I do not have both hands firmly on the wheel, all sorts of mayhem could break out. So yes, the M2 is much more refined and reliable. I don’t equate this with numb. If it is numb then I suppose the whole car is – the seats, the suspension, the transmission. You can also adjust the steering to give it more weight, which I do take advantage of.

Tame Exhaust

The exhaust is rumbly, but pretty refined. I would like a bit more punch to it and have been thinking about upgrading to either a Fabspeed system or an AWE system. Both are still not too crazy loud. I definitely don’t want anything obnoxious. I’m leaning towards the AWE since the word “cut” does not appear in the installation instructions.

Exposed Radiators

The lack of protection for the front radiators and the oil cooler is discussed quite a bit in on-line forums and several owners have lost their car due to a rock kicking up and puncturing a radiator and causing catastrophic damage. The problem is particularly bad on automatic cars. there is some minimal protection on the manual. I did order the Zunsport grills and had them fitted, but currently they are in my garage and not on the car. I just didn’t like the look and will be trying something else. The other problem with the front grill is the vacuum effect sucking up leaves. I’ve not found this to be a problem, even living in PA where there are a ton of leaves.

Overall – Looking Forward to 20,000 Miles

I’m quite satisfied with the M2 replacing my Porsche Boxster Black Edition. The car is more than I expected – a lot more. It brings speed/power, character, modern technology, and a certain gravitas to my commute that meets all my needs and more. As I enter my second winter with the car, I’ll be fitting all-seasons and then in the spring going for the new exhaust system. I may also invest in the roof rack and rails to carry around my road bike.

All in all i’m looking forward to 20,000 miles on what I think is a “last of a kind” car that combines power, all gasoline, a manual transmission, and a compact size! Long live the manuals! Long live the M2!