Unlike most rivals, BMW hasn’t given up on the manual gearbox. The take rate for three pedals remains strong enough for the M division to insist on selling a stick shift for the M2, M3, and M4. The Z4 M40i recently joined them for the 2025 model year. However, the do-it-yourself transmission will inevitably go away. Why? It’s mainly because of stricter emissions regulations and increasingly sophisticated driver and assist systems that work best with an automatic.
For now, BMW still gives you the pleasure of rowing your own gears, and this M2 G87 with an all-black attire has the desirable manual. It recently arrived at a dealership in the United Kingdom, hence the right-hand-drive layout. Inside the body-matching dark cabin, the rear-wheel-drive machine has optional bucket seats.
The M2 is no longer the baby M car it used to be since it’s considerably bigger than the F87, and quite the porker compared to the 1 Series M Coupe / 1M from the E82 era. This all-black look does a good job of hiding the G87’s more substantial footprint. It also disguises the unexpected boxy shape BMW’s designers chose for the second-generation M2.
We’ll be seeing more on the M2 front later this year as M boss Frank van Meel has promised there will be an “upcoming model revision.” The mayor of M Town was tight-lipped about the changes but the most important of them all could be an upgraded inline-six with 473 horsepower. That would represent a 20-hp increase, without the car earning the “Competition” suffix. It’ll still be just an M2 since the company has stated M cars will start as Competition-level base models and go up from there.
A hotter M2 isn’t expected until 2025 when the CS is scheduled to hit the market, with a potential M2 xDrive possibly arriving roughly a year later. We expect these two flavors of the G87 to be sold strictly with the automatic transmission.
Source: andrew.barker.bmw / Instagram
