Quote:
Originally Posted by gmzanatta
To answer your last question: because the M2 and M4 are very different cars, especially around a twisty track. It depends on what you as a driver wants. I could have bought an M4 but chose not to drive a bathtub around 
One other thing to keep in mind is that there is zero guarantee the M2 production will continue past MY20, since the car was always planned for a 5 year run. BMW will at that point have moved the 2-series to the fwd platform and who knows what will happen.
There was a thread in here recently from the head of M talking about how the M2 was the last pure sports car they would make before the shift to awd/hybrid/electric starts. |
Agreed.
I very much like "last of a kind" cars for long term value. Not every last of a kind car sees massive appreciation, but they do tend to hold up well. This, of course, is predicated on the fact that it was a good car to begin with.
I think this effect is going to come to bear on the E92 M3, for example. It's the last naturally aspirated M3. Even though the F8x out performs the E9x, I think that there are factors that will prop up E9x values to a greater degree that we will see with the F8x cars:
1) Naturally aspirated heritage linking the car back to the original E30 M3. Collectors of the appropriate age for the E92 will have grown up on naturally aspirated race cars, and many bemoan the shift to turbocharging as a fuel economy driven compromise.
2) The proliferation of the S65 engine in motorsport. To understand this factor, we can look at other "legendary" BMW engines, like the S14. The S14 served as the basis for the incredibly successful E30 M3 Group A car, but also shares lineage (through the M10) with the BMW Megatron F1 engine. The S65 serves as the basis for a staggering number of racing engines, ranging from BMW's own P65, to a variety of engines from Judd, KMS, and other sources. Major components from the S65 found their way into racing cars ranging from LM prototypes, to relatively stock GT4 configurations, and everything in between.
But that's an entirely separate digression
If the M2 does turn out to be the last non-hybrid M-car developed, I think it will play a major factor in long term value.
Another aspect that will bolster the M2's long term value is the "sweetheart" and "underdog" factors. The F8x series of M3/M4 are perceived as the penultimate refinement of the performance aspects of the M brand, but regardless of one's individual feelings about the cars, the broader sentiment is that they are somewhat clinical in their execution. The language used to describe the M2 makes much greater usage of terms like "fun" and "engaging". The market perception of the M2 will be that of a car built for drivers. It makes no difference whether the M3/M4 are also drivers cars; value is affected by market perception.