2023 BMW M2

A 2023 redesign brought a larger, heavier, and more powerful BMW M2, but thankfully it didn’t take away from its core appeal.

The 2023 BMW M2 isn’t a perfect sports car — is anything? — but it’s damn close. If BMW can figure out how to give it a better exhaust note and make the steering more communicative, it’d be even closer. Just don’t stare directly at it.

The list of model-year 2023-24 cars with manual transmissions skews mostly to affordable models and those that are more enthusiast-oriented, but there’s still a decent range of choices.

The 2023 BMW 2 Series received a major redesign for 2022, so the German luxury automaker is making only minor changes to the compact coupe for 2023.

The 2023 M2 gets a more powerful engine, track-oriented technology, a performance-optimized exterior and interior tweaks, and an optional eight-speed automatic transmission.