2026 BMW M2 Facelift: More Power, Same Wild Spirit

The 2026 BMW M2 doesn’t try to reinvent itself — and that’s exactly why it’s brilliant. This updated LCI (facelift) version keeps the wild spirit of the original alive, adding a touch more power and a few subtle design tweaks while staying true to what made the M2 special in the first place. It’s still the purest, most entertaining driver’s car BMW builds today — raw, compact, and unapologetically old-school in a digital world.

The M2’s Wild Character and Everyday Duality

It’s still the best-to-drive BMW that you can buy today. If you keep the electronic nannies on, it will flatter you through the corners, make you think you’re better than you really are. Disable the aids, though, and the car can quickly show that you still have a lot to learn when it comes to car control. Unless you’re a hardcore canyon carver with lots of track experience, the best way to experience it is with its systems halfway disabled so that they can still drag you back from the edge of disaster while still allowing you to play around with the car a little.

BMW M2 Facelift: More Power, Familiar Attitude

This has to be one of the laziest BMW lifecycle impulses ever—not that I’m complaining. The refreshed M2 gets new paint colors, updated wheels and darker exhaust tips, but that’s about it. Inside, it gets the new-design M flat-bottom steering wheel, which in my tester was wrapped in Alcantara and featured a red center mark.

Seeing this car drive down the road, you wouldn’t know if it was the refreshed model or not, unless you knew which colors are new or were able to peek inside and see the new steering wheel.

More Power from the S58 Engine

The big news with this so-called LCI is extra power and torque from the S58 engine. Power rises by 20 hp to 473 hp and torque goes up to 443 lb-ft (600 Nm), although only in cars equipped with the automatic gearbox. It makes an already bonkers-quick M2 even quicker, although you can’t really tell it has extra power. I sure couldn’t, as it’s been a while since I drove an M2, but I’m sure that if you drive them back-to-back, you will notice the extra oomph. This car has the same problem putting all of its power down in the lower gears on anything other than a perfect strip of hot tarmac.

Driving the pre-refresh M2, one thing I didn’t think about was the car needing more power. However, having more power is always better, right? If this feels as rowdy as it does, I wonder what the M2 CS that’s even more powerful, lighter and more aggressive is going to feel like?

Driving Experience: Why the M2 Still Feels Like a Pure M Car

You don’t buy an M2 for status or posing. You buy it because you absolutely love driving and you enjoy scaring yourself a little on your Sunday drive. This car delivers thrills like nothing else in its price bracket. It’s not going to be as quick as a Porsche 718 with comparable power out on track, but you will be grinning from ear to ear as you see the mid-engined Porsche pulling away.

Steering Precision and Chassis Balance

The steering in the 2026 BMW M2 is pin-sharp, making up for the lack of feel that all BMW steering racks suffer from these days. The helm doesn’t exactly communicate what the front tires are doing, but when you think you feel understeer creeping in, you can always correct it with a bit of right pedal application.

This is the beauty of the M2, facelift, or otherwise. The fact that you can play around with the car, slide its tail out a bit around a good road, and all without having to feel like you’re seriously exceeding its limits (or yours as a driver). I will say that the rear end in my facelift tester felt harder to unstick with throttle application alone compared to the non-facelift car that I drove a while back. This latest car had covered some 8,000 miles, and its 285-section Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rear tires were still in good condition.

If you pin the throttle mid-corner, the rear doesn’t explode sideways. It just kind of squirms a little bit, even with the nannies off or partly disabled. You can still get the car to swing its tail out, and it’s easy enough to catch the slide, so you know there’s some serious chassis tuning making all of it possible. On a dry road on a warm day, it’s a bit too difficult to get lateral movement out of the rear. Sure, it did rain a bit on one of the days that I had the car, and it became instantly easy to play with the rear end, even get some pretty alarming angles, but overall, I thought this car was tuned for sheer grip rather than tail-out naughtiness.

Once you settle into the M2, it starts to feel more like a bionic upgrade to your body rather than a car. Like any good BMW, it hugs you and feels considerably lighter than it actually is. The M2’s shorter wheelbase (compared to an M4) helps make it feel more nimble and agile, even though the weight difference between the two vehicles is less than 100 lbs. Threading together a few brisk corners in a current M2 is one of the best experiences you can have in a new car today, regardless of price.

BMW M Performance Parts: Style or Substance?

As much as I like the 2026 BMW M2, I dislike the available carbon fiber M Performance parts that are attached with double-sided tape. My tester literally looked like it had crashed through a shed full of M Performance bits, and some of them stuck to the car in weird places.

For some reason, some of the parts don’t seem to match the design. Now I understand that this is a statement in and of itself, but it’s not very visually appealing. The little winglets that stick up from under the corners of the front bumper and from the rear part of the side skirts don’t make the car look any better in my book.

Then there are the carbon parts from around the wheel arches, which get three strakes to match the design of the rear bumper. This is also a bit childish, and it’s probably aimed at young 20-something drivers who would do anything to stand out. Carbon fiber is supposed to make a car lighter, but when it’s used like this it makes the car ever so slightly heavier, which just doesn’t sit well with me.

I did like the carbon ducktail spoiler, though, as well as the tasteful graphics along the upper part of the car’s beltline. The carbon fiber diffuser in the back is also nice, since it replaces a plastic part and it doesn’t look like an afterthought. My tester had the optional titanium exhaust, which changes the way the four tips are arranged and just makes the rear of the car look even more special. They also make the car a little bit louder and add some rasp to the exhaust note.

The carbon air intake trim helps lift the look of the exterior and it makes the car seem even more special, so I would tick that box, but not in combination with the carbon splitter, which gets the upturned winglets that don’t match the rest of the design.

M Race Track Package and Carbon Upgrades

My tester had the M Race Track Package, which adds a carbon roof (which no longer comes as standard in the M2 facelift), carbon trim inside and the M carbon bucket seats. There’s no denying these optional seats hold you well through the corners and are more comfortable than you would think just by looking at them, but the carbon hump in the seat base is annoying enough to make me seriously consider whether I’d put these seats in a car configured for myself. It limits your legs’ sideward range of motion and unless you want to fit a racing harness (which you probably aren’t) it’s just pointless.

Small Changes, Same Big Thrills

This car feels almost identical to what it did before. Yes, the new steering wheel instantly tells you you’re in the new model, but that’s really all you’re going to notice. The extra power isn’t really noticeable either, so if you are thinking of buying one of these cars, you can save a few bucks and just get a pre-LCI used example. If you really want to, you can retrofit the new-style helm to make it feel more modern, but it’s not really necessary.

The M2 is as good as it’s always been and not significantly better than before. It still weighs a bit more than it should, especially when you compare it to the old generation, and it’s not as naughty-feeling to drive as the old car. But the way this car (still) makes you feel is unmatched through its combination of a superbly tuned chassis, a fantastic engine and one of the best driving positions in the industry.

I thought BMW would change the squared-off details on the front and rear fascias of the M2 with the facelift. However, I’m glad it didn’t, because it’s these details that help give the M2 a unique character, making it stand out from the larger M4. You can buy a more conventional-looking aftermarket front end for your M2, but I think that detracts from the car’s visual impact as it comes from the factory. Those BMW designers really knew what they were doing, and I’m happy they stuck with their idea, enduring waves of initial criticism for the car’s appearance.

Final Thoughts: The M2 Facelift Remains BMW’s Best Driver’s Car

The only thing that would make the M2 better is xDrive. Sure, it will make an already too-heavy car even heavier, but if you’ve driven a new M with xDrive, then you know how it changes the car for the better. It’s not only much better at putting (all of) the power down for a pin-you-to-your-seat launch, but punching it out of a bend, you can still let the rear hang out a little, as powering the front axle just adds a bit of extra stability, reassurance, and capability.

An M2 with xDrive is something I definitely want to experience when it comes out next year, and I think that’s the one I would pick for myself. Even without driving one.