Mileage: 985
Economy: 30.9mpg
A change is as good as a rest, they say. In Issue 1,475 I waved goodbye to the M240i Convertible I’d been running, replacing it with this fixed-roof version of the car – and what a difference.
While I enjoyed running the drop-top take on BMW’s compact M car lite, not least the few occasions where I managed to get the roof down and bask in the rich exhaust note from the engine, there were some niggles that put me off. That’s less so with the M240i Coupé, and the more time I spend with it and miles I do, the more I am falling for the hard-top.
• BMW M240i Convertible long term test review
Just occasionally you come across a car that over-delivers on your expectations, maybe because your expectations of it weren’t that high in the first place, and the M240i is absolutely one of those cars.
I think what I like most of all about it is that it doesn’t look anywhere near as quick or as exciting to drive as it actually is. Unless you look very closely indeed, it could easily be a more humble 220d Coupé in mildly sporty M Sport spec. The bodywork isn’t swollen in any way like it is, almost to the point of comedy, with the full-on M2. Its 18-inch wheels are not especially large, and it’s refreshingly free from wings and skirts.
Yet beneath the bonnet is a turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six engine that is potent enough to fire it from 0-62mph in just 4.6 seconds, which 10 years ago would have been supercar quick. Its performance is entirely usable as well, in that there is always enough but rarely too much.
It puts its power down neatly on to the road, despite not benefiting from a limited- slip diff, and it’s also a touch softer than you might expect, in an entirely good way. True, you can stiffen up its £515 optional adaptive dampers by playing around with the Sport and Sport + driving modes, but the setting I drive it in mostly is with the engine and gearbox in Sport and the chassis set to Comfort. This gives me nice, snappy responses from the powertrain but without the filling-removing ride.
If a really tasty piece of road appears in the windscreen, I sometimes switch to Sport +, which firms up everything and puts the ESC into a more playful mode.
It’s a much more cohesive and complete performance car than the Convertible, but it’s not all perfect, as it suffers from the same issue with the rear seats as its sibling. Once you’re ensconced in them they are just about OK to sit in, but getting in and out of them is a bit ridiculous for adults.
The 390-litre boot, on the other hand, is surprisingly decent for a relatively small coupé, swallowing all sorts of filming gear, cases, crash helmets and other luggage.
*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.
- Model: BMW M240i Coupé Sport Automatic
- On fleet since: May 2017
- Price new: £37,465
- Engine/power: 3.0-litre 6cyl turbo, 335bhp
- CO2/tax: 163g/km/£140
- Options: Metallic paint (£550), Media Package Professional (£900), Adaptive M Sport suspension (£515), reversing camera (£330), electric memory seats (£650), heated seats (£295), Apple CarPlay (£235), wireless charging (£395)
- Insurance: Group: 39
- Quote: £987
- Mileage/mpg: 985/30.9mpg
- Any problems?: None so far
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