[yousefnjr]

Originally Posted by Chris13002

He couldn't have said it any better...
"I like this car... but you know what, I think I like this car even more because other people don't like this car."

Have to agree, the new cars are great in isolation but knowing that their existence is a huge middle finger to a certain type of guy on these forums is *chefs kiss*

[///M TOWN]

Originally Posted by yousefnjr

Have to agree, the new cars are great in isolation but knowing that their existence is a huge middle finger to a certain type of guy on these forums is *chefs kiss*

Yeah, I like the guy posting above that’s on my ignore list.

He drives a salvage title car and he’s over here pissing on peoples excitement.

[4Y_stack_acceleration]

What get this if it’s similar power and weighs more than the f82?

[Bimmerfun82]

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I almost bought an M2 and decided to go with the M4. My take - he’s glossing over weight and design; value retention f87 argument is unfair, as those values have come down to earth with the exception of the limited production cs; he needs to go back and drive an e46 because the steering feel is there. The key question for buyers: do you want a car that objectively performs better, or one that is more subjectively fun/ appealing? Each person has to decide… one thing is for sure, as he pointed out, BMW plays mental gymnastics on us and has for decades.

[swagon]

Originally Posted by Chris13002

He couldn't have said it any better...
"I like this car... but you know what, I think I like this car even more because other people don't like this car."

I bought this manual G87 and fell in love immediately, and when I watched others trash the car (::cough:: TH), I smirked and walked to my car and wanted to drive it even more.

why are you so preoccupied with what others think about your car.

enjoy it for what it is, and not (also) because some random person told you it's shit.

harris also was one of the very few UK journos who loved the F80; the older he gets, the grumpier and more controversial opinions he likes to get out on the internet whilst buying the newest to gain clicks even though he claims to be against youtubers/influencers.

[SW19]

The guy is so entertaining and fun to watch pushing the car.I always enjoy his reviews.He is definitely the best.I am still looking forward to eventually driving the car when one is available.I’m sure it’s a blast to drive.

The looks are still the biggest problem with the car for me.I just can’t get past the unfinished look of the front bumper.I am still hoping the LCI cleans up that area.BTW i always find these G87 track reviews amusing because all the cars seem to have a bunch of leaves stuck in that unfinished front bumper area.

[kiysersosae]

It doesn’t matter how many people say this is a great car it still looks awful. Its like saying that even though your missus is ugly she’s a great girl and a great ride! Fact is, she’s an ugly bird and at some point you will through her to the kerb.

[Ctothej]

Originally Posted by kiysersosae

It doesn’t matter how many people say this is a great car it still looks awful. Its like saying that even though your missus is ugly she’s a great girl and a great ride! Fact is, she’s an ugly bird and at some point you will through her to the kerb.

That's not fact, that's an opinion, "your opinion" to be exact. Think you need to revisit the dictionary.

[M2siast]

Originally Posted by ///M TOWN

Yeah, I like the guy posting above that’s on my ignore list.

He drives a salvage title car and he’s over here pissing on peoples excitement.

You mean the farting guy

[ThreeStripes]

Big “just happy to be here” energy on display. I get it. We’re nearing an end of an era with these cars and that’s particularly top of mind in Europe.

The last 5-8 years have given us amazing cars. So many that every opinion in this thread can find some to love.

[FryCookOnVenus]

Originally Posted by kiysersosae

It doesn’t matter how many people say this is a great car it still looks awful. Its like saying that even though your missus is ugly she’s a great girl and a great ride! Fact is, she’s an ugly bird and at some point you will through her to the kerb.

If you don't like the looks of the G87, by all means, don't buy one. Problem solved.

As for your attitude towards women, that's between you and your therapist.

[kiysersosae]

Originally Posted by FryCookOnVenus

If you don't like the looks of the G87, by all means, don't buy one. Problem solved.

As for your attitude towards women, that's between you and your therapist.

I definitely won’t buy one and I definitely don’t have the time to be telling people how good it is, even though it looks like a boy racer styled it using parts from Smiths toy shop.

Women are ace! I have no issues with women at all, and to be honest, I have total respect for women after watching my missus give birth, talk about strength!.

But, do you honestly believe that women don’t think the same way?

[shehatezme]

I love my g87. I have been telling people the same thing that Chris has said in his video today. The chassis is so fuking good. One of the best platforms out there right now. Everything just works. This is why I never understood the other reviews. It seems like they just like the old car but doesn’t acknowledge that the g87 platform is light years more capable. It’s ok to like the old car but don’t bash the new one because it’s isn’t the old one. No auto manufacturer will make essentially the same car 2 generations in a roll. This review is a big Fuk U to TH. Let’s face it, CH makes genuine videos regardless you like them or not. TH and other YTbers makes entertainment to make sure you like their videos.

[TruthOne]

I thought the looks were what everyone had a problem with? I don’t remember too many people saying anything bad about the driving dynamics aside from a few random manual complaints , other than that 99% of the issue with this car has been the polarizing looks which still hasn’t changed that much with people outside of BMW forums.

[Tag]

Full Transcript

Chris Harris Drives The New BMW M2 | Never Judge A Book By Its Cover
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does everybody hate the new BMW M2?

So, this is the new BMW M2 and like you when I first saw the pictures, I thought what the hell have they done here? Another new BMW that doesn't look right compared to the lovely old beautiful M2 Competition, I forget the F or G number whatever it was. I'm not that much of a nerd but the fact is I was wrong and everyone else that hated it you were wrong too. This is and I don't use word lightly, a sensational motorcar. It might be one of the best all-rounders I've ever driven. So why is it so good? It's just a very, very talented car. It's a much better road car than the one it replaces. So, all the keyboard warriors out on the forum saying this is dog shit are only doing it for one reason, to protect the residuals of their cars at the moment. I don't see why you could drive this back to back with an M2 Comp or even an M2CS and deduce anything other than this is a much, much more competent car.

I'll tell you why, the engine is more responsive. Okay, it's a bit flat sounding because they have to have all this special emissions noiseless stuff going on but the fact is it's got 450ish horsepower. It's incredibly responsive and it pulls like a bastard. There you go, demonstrate pulling like a bastard. That's the numbers are rising quite quickly on that digital speedo thing which we'll discuss in a minute. The steering is a bit inert but it's very accurate. Traction is fantastic, the brakes are good, it's a fast compact package with a manual gearbox and you sit in just the right place. These cars aren't made by anyone other than BMW anymore, so we should celebrate that. The real talents though are in the chassis department. This is a sublime road car chassis, it's supported so well, so it's firm enough to feel that you can change direction it feels like a sports car but it's supple. This got a bumpy road, the car stays level, it's got exceptional wheel control. It's just a really, really talented car. And also, I suppose if you don't like the way it looks, when you're in it, you can't see the outside, so shut the fuck up, it's fine.

Now I had a couple of those old M2s, a Comp and then a CS and I have to say this manual gearbox is miles better than either of those because it feels like it was meant to be a manual from the start. So the way that you interact between your left arm and your left leg, you know that sort of seamless connection between just working a manual gearbox, it is more intuitive in this car. It's an easier smoother car to drive than either of those and that matters to me cuz I love the manual gearbox, which on the spec sheet says there's a 500 something pound option. So they charge you to have a manual gearbox over a DCT, which I do find odd.

Now the cabin, okay bear with me on the cabin. There is a slight issue I'm going to demonstrate it now. I'm going to stop and do what I call an M2 adjustment. Now, if I just pull over here quickly, the seat isn't actually straight, it's offset and you've got the old nutcracker here so what happens is that the left of your man berries actually just gets caught on a ridge there so you just have to give a tweak, get them out the way and there you go. That is something we'll miss in the future with electric cars. You won't have to untangle your testies from the seat in a Tesla in 5 years time but in a good old fashioned BMW M car you still have to do that. You see, we're still remaining in touch with the more base elements of motoring. No, it's a bit odd, it is offset, I'll give you that but you sit low and this optional carbon back seat is fantastic. You can sit in this thing for hours and hours and your bottom will not fall asleep.

How do I get on with the screen stuff? Well, you know what, it's not ideal but like anything once you learn it, it’s absolutely fine. I hate the fact that I have to turn off the lane departure and the speed warnings but that's just life. Apparently, if you have the app which I don't have you don't need to do that but crucially BMW still gives you a knob for your volume and you can go forwards and backwards on a track. That's really all I need, the rest of it I'm not too worried about. One area of discussion that I, I think is valid around the M2 is size and what constitutes an M2. It's a slightly nebulous, um way of approaching the subject, but to me this is more of an M3. This is the size an M3 used to be, this is in many ways the logical successor to cars like the E46 M3. The back seats are miles bigger now. I've got children so I really enjoy being able to put them in the back and not feel like I'm crushing them. On long journeys, this is so much more comfortable and less tiring to drive than the last M2. There's a lot less head toss, there's a lot less NVH so you just get out feeling fresher. It's got a fantastic Hi-Fi, the Aircon is brilliant. All that jazz, it works superbly but a lot of people think that that's somehow detracting from what an M2 should be, that it should somehow be a raw road racer. I just think that's bullshit. Why do you want to be uncomfortable for the sake of being uncomfortable? This is a better car to drive, and it's more comfortable, you can do both.

Now, if you look at the specification of this vehicle, I've already mentioned it, because it begins with a seven, that's right, a seven. It has something called an M track pack, for, wait for it, sit down, 6,600 pounds. If a car's got a track pack that's worth as much as a normal car, um, then you have to go and drive one on a track, don't you? We get 19/20in wheels, these beautiful carbon bucket seats, a load of special trick stuff you can play with on the ESP and the traction control, but fundamentally I just want to drive it around here. Because, I reckon this is a fantastic motorcar to drive on a circuit as well. I've driven it at Goodwood before, it's my first time here at Llandow, let's see what it's like. Okay brakes, good, good strong brake pedal, there are only steals on this, no ceramics. For 70something grand, seems a bit mean to me. Steering, it's got a very thick steering wheel rim which I don't think is ideal but you know what, I don't reckon an M car's had really, really great steering since maybe the E36 M3 Evo. We're going back that far, we're going back to mid-90s. So, E46 M3, bit blunt really and this it's no different. It's you know, it's steering, it's accurate, uh, I like holding the wheel. I don't have much more to say about it.

So the engine, inline six, quite a bit of turbo charging, 450 horsepower-ish. Look, you know the recipe, it's nothing that standout, and because of all the emissions regulations and the fact that they can't make too much noise anymore it's not the centerpiece of the car perhaps that you'd expect but my Lord is it impressive in terms of response. People are going to tune these things to bugery, they're going to give them 500-600 horsepower but you might lose the way it's been mapped by the factory which is just wonderful because it's got so much, it's got so much response. You find yourself in third and fourth gear booting it thinking, blimey, alrighty, that feels like I'm in second.

There's the talk, I've got to behave because I don't have an awful lot of rear tire at the moment. We will deliver the obligatory slidy bollocks, but for now let's concentrate on the dynamic. So, we've got really good brakes, we've got very accurate steering that's lacking in some feel but frankly most cars don't have much steering feel anyway. Um, we've got a chassis that's very wide of track and is providing a huge amount of grip. Mechanical grip is really high and this is on a normal Pilot Sport tire. Traction, really, really good, because this is the area of the M2 that I want to talk about, it's the chassis. There's something going on at M, they have discovered something in terms of springs and dampers that they didn't have before. It's so impressive, I can pile it over curves and it just rides them.

Now, let's turn some buttons off completely and see if we can um apply some traditional BMW M angles. DSC off. (I didn't quite understand you) Will you fuck off, are you going to help me slide by this corner, no? Go away, stupid person. I don't want an M drift analyzer because it spells anal-y-zer and that isn't right in a car. We don't need any of that here. (Searching for anal eyes…) Fuck off! Drifty, drifty, slidy, slidy. How does it work then? So we got loads of torque. Yes, it's a BMW, it does all the slidy stuff quite brilliantly. I mean it's so composed and so well balanced. I mean it should come a no surprise that a BMW M2 likes to slide but to confirm that Catholics like shitting in the woods or other mixed metaphors the M2 slides like a doozy.

Oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, oh, oh... ahhhh. An adjustment, sorry about that. I like this car. Do you know what? I think I like this car even more because other people don't like this car. Okay, the thorny issue of weight, I've got a very, very simple answer for this. A number on a piece of paper is meaningless if you don't feel it on the road and this car doesn't feel 1,700 something kilograms to me on the road, it just doesn't. It rides so well, um, it changes direction so well. I mean you could drive an E30 M3 in many ways that's 500 kilograms lighter and you'd think it was heavier than this car. This, you just don't feel the mass. Ultimately it has massive brakes to stop it but it's not like it won't stop. Maybe stopping an ultimate really fast direction changes you feel a bit of mass but, but I just don't feel it. Modern chassis engineers are magicians, they have such tools at their disposal that they can make these things cheat physics. So as far as I'm concerned it's just a number on a piece of paper. I just don't feel the weight. If you don't feel it, it doesn't matter. If you love your driving and you want to remain rear wheel drive and manual for as long as humanly possible this is the car for you.

And as for the looks, right, when I first saw it I thought it looked like some weird geometric blobby shapes that have been sort of heaved over some small wheels that were lost in massive wheel arch cavities, and it didn't look right. I think as ever the BMW press shots were almost deliberately shit so that we then were allowed to build a relationship with this car that would improve. I think they do it on purpose. I think BMW deliberately takes terrible shots of their cars initially so then we begin this process of admiring the styling and it's the same with this. It's been parked outside my house for several months and the people that laughed at it to start with are now going, actually it does look quite good, doesn't it? Okay, it could do with being a bit lower, I'm sure there'll be a lower one coming. The black wheels don't work at all, they should be silver. If you could pull them out to the sides of the car a bit more it would work, but I love it. Why is it that when Alfa Romeo makes the SZ we think it's a hero car and we celebrate it, we call it monstro, but if the Germans do it, we just think it's shit? I was guilty of that, and I'd like to apologize to BMW for getting it wrong.

[BRAKE!]

I think the new M2 is amazing. I'm not sure why there seems to exist an arbitrary "law" that a new car design has to be something non-controversial, traditional, and instantly likable by the masses. It doesn't.

When I drove the previous generation F87 M2 against the new generation of M cars G80 on the track at the M school, I found the older car more raw, but less composed, less capable, and more tiresome with varying sessions. The stability of the new G series chassis is something to be celebrated as it's more predictable and less-snappy than the F series (does anyone remember how many accidents there were due to a surge of torque when the F8X M3/4 first came out?)

I also happen to think that the new car looks awesome. This isn't discounting how great the last car looked, but if the last car was classy in appearance, the new one is modern-athletic appearing.

For those who are putting the G87 down, it's hard to explain why that is... the F87 and G87 can co-exist without having to one-up each other. You can enjoy one and appreciate the other. It's okay, there is enough room for both cars on the road.

[matty_f]

Admittedly, it didn’t move me when I first saw that sneaked bumper pic, but I love the looks now.

Great design will push the limits. It should be polarizing and not appeal to folks that are stuck in the old boring incremental design updates that other manufacturers do. I adore this funny looking robot car and bmw for taking such design risks.

All the pot shots people take at the looks just make me laugh.

[MMMGuy60]

Originally Posted by kiysersosae

I definitely won’t buy one and I definitely don’t have the time to be telling people how good it is, even though it looks like a boy racer styled it using parts from Smiths toy shop.

Women are ace! I have no issues with women at all, and to be honest, I have total respect for women after watching my missus give birth, talk about strength!.

But, do you honestly believe that women don’t think the same way?

Woman loves the F87 because it looks like a wimpy secretary's car. You know.. like the Mustang V6. Typical butt-hurting F87 owner as usual.

[Chris13002]

Originally Posted by swagon

why are you so preoccupied with what others think about your car.

enjoy it for what it is, and not (also) because some random person told you it's shit.

Because it makes me feel better? Don't worry, I've been enjoying all the miles that have been piling up on the car and you enjoy your F80.

Originally Posted by swagon

harris also was one of the very few UK journos who loved the F80; the older he gets, the grumpier and more controversial opinions he likes to get out on the internet whilst buying the newest to gain clicks even though he claims to be against youtubers/influencers.

Harris reminds me of myself so I like him even more now, thank you!

[AndreM2]

Now my life is complete! Chris has Approved.

Just take my Money.

[ghaffari46]

Here you can see the difference between a real car journalist ( who understood engineering) and you tube influencers!

[MmmmmM2]

Everything Chris Harris touches turns to gold. I just love the guy. It makes me really want a G87 now.

Unfortunately, I paid cash for my 2021 F87C, and the fact that it only has 16,400 miles on it, makes me not in the market for a new car for quite some time.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my F87. Love it to pieces...

That being said, I'd love a more comfortable ride. It's probably why, for the most part, the M2C is reserved for my commute to work and back. A whopping round trip of about 6 miles. Add in 4 more when I go get lunch, and that's 10 miles of driving a day. I drive the wife's CX-5 on the weekends as it is much more comfortable.

Realistically, it's going to be some time before I get a new car.

Enjoy your G87s, gents! I'm a bit jealous!