The BMW M2’s Manual Option Is Way More Popular Than The M4’s

Manual BMWs have been a hot topic in the CT office this week, and it’s all thanks to the BMW M235i. We’ve been testing one alongside the 1M to prepare ourselves for the incoming M2, and have found the shift to be rubbery and unsatisfying. In fact it irked my colleague Darren Cassey so much, he had a big rant about it.

This seems to be a common trait of BMW manuals, and the interesting thing is that they’re becoming particularly uncommon on the hotter models. In fact, on average a whopping 90 per cent of UK BMW M4 buyers go for the monstrously quick-shifting dual-clutch version over the manual. But what about the new M2? It turns out the stick shift version is a lot more popular in the ‘baby’ M car.

Since the first drive reviews of the M2 are beginning to emerge, we got curious and asked BMW how many buyers were going for a car with three pedals. So far in the UK it’s a 70/30 split in favour of DCT (pictured above), so while the auto is still by far the most popular option, the manual is (proportionally) three times as popular here as it is in the bigger M4.

It could perhaps be something to do with the M2’s predecessor - the 1M - being manual only, or maybe the M2 is more of a BMW for the hardcore enthusiast. Whatever the reason, we’re just hoping when we get our first drive of the M2 in a few weeks, the shift action proves to be more satisfying than in the M235i…