If you’re looking for a comfortable daily driver, the BMW M2 probably isn’t the car for you. But if you’re looking for a sports car, something that’s designed to thrill first and foremost, but one that you can also drive everyday, the BMW M2 might be the perfect car. As evidenced by this long-term review from Car and Driver.

Some publications are fortunate enough to get long-term press cars from automakers. These long-term loans are typically about a year long, so the pub can test the car through the changing seasons and in a variety of difference circumstances, to see how it holds up. It’s far more revealing than the typical week-long loans most of us get. C&D gets a lot of these long-termers and the BMW M2 is the most recent one to have completed its 40,000 miles and four seasons of Detroit driving.

After its year in Detroit, filled with crap winters and blitzkrieged roads, the BMW M2 has drawn some mixed reviews for its ride but no quibbles about its driving dynamics. At the end of its run with C&D, the M2 was almost unanimously loved for its single-minded approach to performance and, most importantly, fun. Some C&D staffers preferred the BMW M240i as a daily driver, for its softer suspension and its quieter cabin. However, it’s hard to not fall in love with the M2 and its hilarious, hooligan character. And that singular focus on being fun makes it so endearing and allows one to overlook its stiff ride over rough pavement and noisy cabin at speed.

It was also reliable and cheap for C&D to maintain, which is not something that can be said of all of its long-term, high-performance machines. For instance, their long-term Corvette grenaded its engine quite early in its tenure with C&D, though was repaired with a recall. But, aside from damage from being rear-ended and a leaky rear differential that was handled via recall, the M2 was nearly faultless. Which, believe me, is incredibly impressive, considering 40,000 journalist miles is the equivalent of 140,000 regular human miles. Track days and 10/10ths canyon driving are harsh on cars, aging them quickly.

So if you’re looking for a fun, exciting and good looking daily driver that isn’t too compromised in terms of usability and practicality (no more so than any other small coupe), the BMW M2 is a surprisingly good little car. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s exciting and it’s easy to use everyday. It’s not the most luxurious car over rough pavement but it’s perfectly livable and, hell, even reliable.

[Source: Car and Driver]