2025 BMW M240i xDrive Review: Healthy Baby M

As so many new (and old) parents tell me, a chunky baby is a healthy baby.

The 2025 BMW M240i is thus a very healthy baby for Bimmer. The smallest coupe in the brand’s lineup is a chunker at over 3,800 pounds (1,724 kilograms), putting it well above something like a GR Supra or Nissan Z, and on par with the much larger Ford Mustang GT. People love to freak out about the latest M5’s curb weight, but at least that is a) a big car and b) powered by a plug-in hybrid powertrain.

Blessed with big power and sure-footed all-wheel drive, BMW’s youngest is already a strong performer. It also slots into a rather unique position within the scene at large and—in some ways—is more successful at doing so than the full-strength M2.

The 2 Series lineup came in for BMW’s Light Cycle Impulse (LCI) this year. Even for BMW this was a subtle one: there’s no tweaks to the standard exterior styling, only two additional paint colors for the 230i and M240i including the Skyscraper Gray you see here. Different 19-inch wheel designs are also on the menu. An available M Sport Professional Package does add darkened headlights, a subtle lip spoiler, and additional gloss black exterior elements.

Changes are similarly subtle in the cabin. The curved twin-display now runs BMW OS 8.5, which brings with it improvements to the main screen including a quick-select feature. There’s also updated ambient lighting and a new M steering wheel.

For better or worse, the 2 Series does not look like the rest of the Bimmer car family, be it the safely conservative 3, the bucktoothed 4, the angular 5 or the imposing 7. It does its own thing, with beady headlights framing wide kidney grilles up front and big, angular intakes in the lower nose giving it a distinctly pointy visage. The smallish taillights give a slightly hammerhead shark feel to the rear, though the swollen arches provide the 2 with a great stance. Viewed in profile the cab-rearward proportions are clear. The muscle is apparent even from here, and even in uneventful Gray with nondescript (and non-standard) black wheels to house the winter rubber. It’s not pretty, but the 2 Series design is distinctive.

I’m running out of ways to sing the praises of BMW’s inline-six. It is as satisfying as it is adaptable, be it here or in mild-hybrid form in the X3, plug-in hybrid form in the 550e, or even the same setup (with a six-speed manual) in a Japanese sports car. Power builds early and stays put, making the M240i as happy to trundle around town riding a wave of torque as it is surveying the upper reaches of the tachometer.

This flexibility is only aided by the eight-speed automatic, which can smoothly short-shift to stay in the torque sweet spot or (in sportier drive settings) hang onto a cog for the next short highway on-ramp. BMW’s paddle shifters are a good size and shape, each pull resulting in a quick reaction from the ‘box. All the while, the silky six-pot soundtrack is apparent but never overpowering; this isn’t a full-M, after all.

Not only is this setup powerful, the 3.0-liter is surprisingly fuel efficient too. The EPA puts the M240i xDrive at 23 mpg city and 32 mpg highway, good enough for a 26 mpg average. Those numbers are 2, 1, and 2 mpg worse than the four-cylinder 230i xDrive, respectively; not a bad sacrifice for well over 100 hp. Canadian official fuel economy figures are 10.3 L/100 km city and 7.3 L/100 km highway, for a combined 9.0 L/100 km. During our week together, the M240i did only slightly worse than that despite colder temps and the winter rubber.

While xDrive has slowly crept into every model BMW makes (M2 aside), this is still a commendably rear-biased layout. The driver sits closer to the rear axle than the front, so that feeling of the tail wagging the dog is only more pronounced here. It’s fun, with the short wheelbase also aiding low-speed agility.

Yes, you feel the weight in prolonged, high-speed corners, where any changes from the initial line come with body lean and a slight hesitation. Remove pressure from the right pedal and the 2 tucks its blunt nose in. Even on poorly surfaced tarmac or loose gravel, the all-wheel drive setup gets every pony in on the action.

There’s little in the way of feedback through the rim, a modern BMW “feature.” The weighting feels best in the default setting, as switching over to Sport adds artificial weight in a non-linear way.

Don’t wring it out: the M240i is at its happiest as an eight-tenths sort of car.

Riding along on modest, equal-sized winter rubber, the M240i has a grown-up and yes, comfortable ride you won’t find in many other two-door choices on the market. That might read like a slight, but it isn’t: not everyone wants or needs an always-on sports car ready to set its latest hot lap. The 2’s strength is its ability to blend weapons-grade straight-line thrust with the calm and collected daily ride expected of a luxury brand. There’s little road or wind noise, and it traverses speedbumps and potholes with less jiggle than the oddly over-stiff X3 I drove earlier this year.

The M Adaptive suspension is standard on the M240i in America, and optional in Canada. If you live in the Great White North, check that box (part of the M Enhanced Track Package): it gives the 2 a broader range of suspension comfort and capability than you’ll find in most other coupes in this end of the market.

Seating comfort is excellent, with BMW’s buckets offering a good range of adjustments built on a happily low-mounted base. Getting to the back seats isn’t the easiest of feats, but once back there there’s good space even for adults, at least on shorter trips.

Not much has changed within the 2 Series cabin because not much had to. This is all still very traditional BMW, though the center stack a few years ago shed some buttons, forcing more controls within the touchscreen. The layout is tasteful and yet, with the addition of carbon fiber trim and red accent stitching, still appropriately sporty. Every bit of the cabin feels properly screwed together too, with no movement or creaks to be found.

There isn’t a whole lot of storage space in here. I know, it’s a coupe, that’s not really the point. Nonetheless, given its size and weight, the 2 can come across as unnecessarily stingy here, with tiny cupholders ahead of an equally small cubby. Larger drinks will awkwardly sit right in front of the few remaining physical buttons.

Like most every BMW model these days, the 2 Series runs the brand’s OS 8.5 on its twin-screen layout. This setup is a good one: while it’s possible to get bogged down in sub-sub-sub menus, many of the most common controls are just a flick (or rotation of the iDrive controller) away. The main menu now houses the native navigation and customizable quick-access tabs, so it is generally slick and intuitive. Wireless Apple CarPlay also works easily, and BMW is one of the few brands to integrate navigation from the phone with the digital instrument cluster. A head-up display works well, providing drive, navigation, and audio information as needed. Personally, I’m only slightly bothered there’s no option for ventilated seats—this is a luxury vehicle, after all.

BMW’s drive assist suite is fine, though buyers will have to cough up additional cash for full-range adaptive cruise control and the parking assistance package, which includes a surround view.

Packaging for the M240i is wildly different between Canada and America, though it is possible to spec a US car to almost exactly the same as this Canadian-spec tester—it’s just different boxes. This tester has just about everything BMW will offer the 2 with, putting it well into M2 territory.

In America, the basic sticker is $55,875 including destination, and buyers can shave two grand off that by skipping xDrive. From there the biggest increases come from the Cooling and High Performance Tire Package ($2,400), Premium Package ($1,900), and black-and-red leather upgrade ($1,500). Throw in other up-sells like the (acceptable) Harman Kardon sound system ($875), lumbar support ($350), and other visual upgrades and the final tally is an even $66,000.

Canadian pricing begins at $63,455 CAD including destination; there is no rear-drive model available. The big add-ons on this side of the border are the Premium Enhanced Package ($5,400 CAD) and M Enhanced Track Package ($3,500 CAD). Toss in the rest of the upgrades and we’re talking $78,805 CAD.

At this price, the M240i competes with vehicles as diverse as a well-equipped Ford Mustang GT, the Toyota GR Supra, or the Mercedes-Benz CLE 300. That tells you just how thin the coupe market is these days. Neither the sharpest nor the cushiest, the M240i nonetheless carves out its own individualistic niche, striking a better balance between those two extremes. It might be BMW’s baby, but the 2025 M240i has maturity beyond its years.

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