BMW M2 review

The new M2 is priced from £65,855 and arrives as standard with an automatic gearbox. Because BMW’s bean-counters would’ve preferred to engineer it for the auto only and the manual is only being offered at the engineers’ behest (good work, team) it’s a £1,200 option. Blimey.

You now get larger wheels as standard on the back axle: it’s a staggered 19/20-inch set-up, while adaptive LED headlights join the standard kit list. Cruise control and front/rear parking sensors remain standard, but also thrown in this time are a Harmon Kardon hi-fi, reversing camera, carbon fibre roof (in the UK), head-up display, electric front seats and adaptive suspension.

Spec the manual and you go from 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds. Stick with the auto and that drops by two tenths. It also lowers official CO2 emissions from 227g/km to 225. BMW expects nine out of ten buyers to choose the paddles.

A race track package is also available, bringing stickier tyres and the carbon seats. On top of that, the M Performance Parts catalogue offers a wide variety of accessories to turn your M2 into a sort of carbon fibre Christmas tree. Don't expect to see a return on that in resale value - it's a very subjective tightrope...