[MrBucket]

I'd put my name down on the list at 2 different local BMW dealerships for the M2 after I'd loved my 2014 6MT M235i so much. I thought the car was just a great platform being held back by just a few things, and that with the M2 BMW seems to have solved all of those things. So about a week and a half ago now I wandered into the dealer I'd bought my M235i from just to see where I was on the list for getting an allocation for an M2, and my salesman said "DUDE! I called you two days ago and left you a message saying someone had a 2017 M2 with 6MT and Exec Pack coming in and decided not to pick it up and that they had told me I had until the next morning to decide if I wanted it. Alpine white wasn't my first choice, but after thinking about it I think it actually works really well. I just can't go for Long Beach Blue after having had an Estoril Blue M235i, its just a far inferior color in my eyes and I'd never be truly happy with it. So after some thinking and getting some of my finances in order, I messaged my salesman and told him I'd take it. It came in from the port even quicker than imagined, but luckily I was able to get my check for the car on the 31st of the month (we all know dealerships wan't to get everything done right at the end of the month to pad their numbers) and picked it up first thing that morning. I had to head to work immediately after, but first I had to drive it over to Phil @ DetailersDomain to do the new car prep and do some Prestige ClearGuard Nano paint protection film on it on the front half (includes front bumper, fenders, mirrors, and rocker panels) along with some kind of sealant as well on it. So now I'm stuck driving my 15 year old Audi A4 winter beater with an exhaust leak (I'll fix it sometime in the fall when its cooler with it up on my lift in the garage) until Phil has it done. He's also installing my carbon mirror caps I had and installing a M Performance carbon lip spoiler on it for me as well. I did it by myself on my M235i, and I ended up putting some scratches in the Opticoat Pro treated paint that I was able to buff out myself, but I'd rather have a pro do it for me and not need to worry about that at all.

So anyway after typing up that novel, here are some pics of my new baby


Couple of some last shots with my old trusty steed








That's a nice booty



Dropped it off at Phil's shop next to his Laguna Beach Blue M2 with lots of work done to it.


Some quick and not so high quality shots of the interior





I'm SO glad mine came in as a MY2017 with the new iDrive 5.0, 4G LTE WIFI hotspot (not that I ever imagine using that), and I hope I can get Apple CarPlay retrofitted or coded into the car as that seemed to be an August build option and my car was built on 7/30/16...

Remembered I hadn't taken the manual out to read at home while I endure this torture so I stopped by one day and also finally popped the hood and took a pic.


I've noticed a few things different in the engine bay from my M235i besides the obvious extra bracing, one thing being the vacuum line going to the intake that used to only be on the automatic M235i and some other minor things.


In the 5 miles it took to drive it from the dealership to my house and then to DetailersDomain, I had one guy on a bicycle come up to me at a stop light and tell me he thought my car was awesome and asked my how I liked it. I screamed back that I'd just picked it up 15 minutes ago and that it was amazing.


In those 5 miles it became apparent that all the little things I thought that could be improved on the M2 vs the M235i seemed to be done. The suspension felt so much more solid and communicative and the steering just felt better overall. And thats just on a drive where I was just driving normally and never got above 4,500 RPM.

This is my second BMW and I think this one will be staying around FAR longer than the first one. The M235i is an amazing car, no M2 owner should be bashing it, its just that the M2 is truly a special car.

[gk09]

Originally Posted by MrBucket

I'd put my name down on the list at 2 different local BMW dealerships for the M2 after I'd loved my 2014 6MT M235i so much. I thought the car was just a great platform being held back by just a few things, and that with the M2 BMW seems to have solved all of those things. So about a week and a half ago now I wandered into the dealer I'd bought my M235i from just to see where I was on the list for getting an allocation for an M2, and my salesman said "DUDE! I called you two days ago and left you a message saying someone had a 2017 M2 with 6MT and Exec Pack coming in and decided not to pick it up and that they had told me I had until the next morning to decide if I wanted it. Alpine white wasn't my first choice, but after thinking about it I think it actually works really well. I just can't go for Long Beach Blue after having had an Estoril Blue M235i, its just a far inferior color in my eyes and I'd never be truly happy with it. So after some thinking and getting some of my finances in order, I messaged my salesman and told him I'd take it. It came in from the port even quicker than imagined, but luckily I was able to get my check for the car on the 31st of the month (we all know dealerships wan't to get everything done right at the end of the month to pad their numbers) and picked it up first thing that morning. I had to head to work immediately after, but first I had to drive it over to Phil @ DetailersDomain to do the new car prep and do some Prestige ClearGuard Nano paint protection film on it on the front half (includes front bumper, fenders, mirrors, and rocker panels) along with some kind of sealant as well on it. So now I'm stuck driving my 15 year old Audi A4 winter beater with an exhaust leak (I'll fix it sometime in the fall when its cooler with it up on my lift in the garage) until Phil has it done. He's also installing my carbon mirror caps I had and installing a M Performance carbon lip spoiler on it for me as well. I did it by myself on my M235i, and I ended up putting some scratches in the Opticoat Pro treated paint that I was able to buff out myself, but I'd rather have a pro do it for me and not need to worry about that at all.

So anyway after typing up that novel, here are some pics of my new baby


Couple of some last shots with my old trusty steed








That's a nice booty



Dropped it off at Phil's shop next to his Laguna Beach Blue M2 with lots of work done to it.


Some quick and not so high quality shots of the interior





I'm SO glad mine came in as a MY2017 with the new iDrive 5.0, 4G LTE WIFI hotspot (not that I ever imagine using that), and I hope I can get Apple CarPlay retrofitted or coded into the car as that seemed to be an August build option and my car was built on 7/30/16...

Remembered I hadn't taken the manual out to read at home while I endure this torture so I stopped by one day and also finally popped the hood and took a pic.


I've noticed a few things different in the engine bay from my M235i besides the obvious extra bracing, one thing being the vacuum line going to the intake that used to only be on the automatic M235i and some other minor things.


In the 5 miles it took to drive it from the dealership to my house and then to DetailersDomain, I had one guy on a bicycle come up to me at a stop light and tell me he thought my car was awesome and asked my how I liked it. I screamed back that I'd just picked it up 15 minutes ago and that it was amazing.


In those 5 miles it became apparent that all the little things I thought that could be improved on the M2 vs the M235i seemed to be done. The suspension felt so much more solid and communicative and the steering just felt better overall. And thats just on a drive where I was just driving normally and never got above 4,500 RPM.

This is my second BMW and I think this one will be staying around FAR longer than the first one. The M235i is an amazing car, no M2 owner should be bashing it, its just that the M2 is truly a special car.

Congrats! You're extremely lucky

[DrKevM5]

Congrats!

[MrBucket]

Oh yeah I also swapped my P3 Cars VIDI vent gauge into the M2 as I was doing the trade in. I had yanked the whole vent assembly out of my M235i before going to the dealership, and then while at the dealership I yanked the M2 one out and swapped the trim rings between the vents and then I had to go sign some paperwork so I left the vent sitting on the seat of the M2 with the weather stripping pulled down and the side panel of the dashboard pulled off. Apparently another salesman walked by the car and noticed it and ran up to my salesman in a panic, but he already knew what I was doing so there was no crisis lol.

If anyone is wondering what it is, its this vent gauge, connects to the OBD2 port with a flush connector and then you tap into the 5v line for the trunk release switch to do the auto dimming feature.

In my old M235i trim ring when I first did the install nearly 2 years ago.


Installed in the car


I never felt comfortable with how little information about the car that BMW provided to us with how small our gauge cluster is and nothing on the iDrive screen. It can display oil temp, water temp, boost pressure, throttle position, timing, rpm, IAT, EGT, 0-60 time, and possibly other features I'm forgetting. I got mine with M235i/F22 group buy about 2 years ago so you can't get it as cheaply as me, but its still a really nice product.

http://www.p3cars.com/shop/bmw/bmw-1...p3-vent-gauge/ Mine is the OBD2 multi gauge, not the basic boost one. You can also add on a 80psi mechanical boost tap onto it if you want to take your boost readings that way. I liked it more than the AWRON vent gauge as you don't lose the whole center vent, and its FAR cheaper and still tells me the things I want it to.

[NachoM]

Congrats! Hope you really enjoied. Mie is alsow Alpine White as well. Also thinking on the vent gauge myself. Thats a great add, and also like it better than the AWRON.

LOVE the wheels on the LBB M2 man! those wheels are sick!

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by NachoM

Congrats! Hope you really enjoied. Mie is alsow Alpine White as well. Also thinking on the vent gauge myself. Thats a great add, and also like it better than the AWRON.

LOVE the wheels on the LBB M2 man! those wheels are sick!

Yeah, Phil has a set of BBS FI-R on his M2, they are crazy expensive wheels. Hes also lowered on the M Performance coilovers and some other suspension mods.

[Zippster]

just curious, how does the HK radio sound? I have heard some negatives on the 16s and a few who think they made some changes to the 17s......

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by Zippster

just curious, how does the HK radio sound? I have heard some negatives on the 16s and a few who think they made some changes to the 17s......

Can't really give you an opinion on that yet, I've driven it a total of 5 miles and not all of that was with music on. Once I get the thing back from Phil and actually drive it, I can provide some insight into that.

edit: I did notice though that it only had the highs, mids, and bass adjustments just like my 2014 M235i with HK system had, so I'm not sure I'd count on it really being an improved system.

[toastie]

On the P3 Gauge, is the oil temp gauge accurate? Also what about the boost? I know for the Golf Rs, the boost gauge is a hit or miss because it isn't tapped directly to any vacuum lines to get a mechanical reading.

[Benzima]

Congrats! Curious to know your review of the M235i vs the M2.

[Zigarum]

Originally Posted by MrBucket

I'd put my name down on the list at 2 different local BMW dealerships for the M2 after I'd loved my 2014 6MT M235i so much. I thought the car was just a great platform being held back by just a few things, and that with the M2 BMW seems to have solved all of those things. So about a week and a half ago now I wandered into the dealer I'd bought my M235i from just to see where I was on the list for getting an allocation for an M2, and my salesman said "DUDE! I called you two days ago and left you a message saying someone had a 2017 M2 with 6MT and Exec Pack coming in and decided not to pick it up and that they had told me I had until the next morning to decide if I wanted it. Alpine white wasn't my first choice, but after thinking about it I think it actually works really well. I just can't go for Long Beach Blue after having had an Estoril Blue M235i, its just a far inferior color in my eyes and I'd never be truly happy with it. So after some thinking and getting some of my finances in order, I messaged my salesman and told him I'd take it. It came in from the port even quicker than imagined, but luckily I was able to get my check for the car on the 31st of the month (we all know dealerships wan't to get everything done right at the end of the month to pad their numbers) and picked it up first thing that morning. I had to head to work immediately after, but first I had to drive it over to Phil @ DetailersDomain to do the new car prep and do some Prestige ClearGuard Nano paint protection film on it on the front half (includes front bumper, fenders, mirrors, and rocker panels) along with some kind of sealant as well on it. So now I'm stuck driving my 15 year old Audi A4 winter beater with an exhaust leak (I'll fix it sometime in the fall when its cooler with it up on my lift in the garage) until Phil has it done. He's also installing my carbon mirror caps I had and installing a M Performance carbon lip spoiler on it for me as well. I did it by myself on my M235i, and I ended up putting some scratches in the Opticoat Pro treated paint that I was able to buff out myself, but I'd rather have a pro do it for me and not need to worry about that at all.

So anyway after typing up that novel, here are some pics of my new baby


Couple of some last shots with my old trusty steed








That's a nice booty



Dropped it off at Phil's shop next to his Laguna Beach Blue M2 with lots of work done to it.


Some quick and not so high quality shots of the interior





I'm SO glad mine came in as a MY2017 with the new iDrive 5.0, 4G LTE WIFI hotspot (not that I ever imagine using that), and I hope I can get Apple CarPlay retrofitted or coded into the car as that seemed to be an August build option and my car was built on 7/30/16...

Remembered I hadn't taken the manual out to read at home while I endure this torture so I stopped by one day and also finally popped the hood and took a pic.


I've noticed a few things different in the engine bay from my M235i besides the obvious extra bracing, one thing being the vacuum line going to the intake that used to only be on the automatic M235i and some other minor things.


In the 5 miles it took to drive it from the dealership to my house and then to DetailersDomain, I had one guy on a bicycle come up to me at a stop light and tell me he thought my car was awesome and asked my how I liked it. I screamed back that I'd just picked it up 15 minutes ago and that it was amazing.


In those 5 miles it became apparent that all the little things I thought that could be improved on the M2 vs the M235i seemed to be done. The suspension felt so much more solid and communicative and the steering just felt better overall. And thats just on a drive where I was just driving normally and never got above 4,500 RPM.

This is my second BMW and I think this one will be staying around FAR longer than the first one. The M235i is an amazing car, no M2 owner should be bashing it, its just that the M2 is truly a special car.

Great write up mate.

It's 3am and I can't sleep. Picking up my M2 this morning after ordering back in January. Soo excited about getting this car ????

Ordered the black manual with sunroof.

Should try and sleep but doubt it'll happen

[toastie]

How was the wiring install for the P3 VIDI? Was it straight forward? I assume we can use the M235 install guide right?

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by toastie

How was the wiring install for the P3 VIDI? Was it straight forward? I assume we can use the M235 install guide right?

Yep exactly the same as the M235i, I could do it in about 10 minutes if the screen is already in the vent. Just tap into the grey/red wire to the trunk release for the auto dimming (don't forget to change the setting in the menu that the install guide that comes with it says to do for auto dimming, or whatever kind of units you would like it to display i.e. metric or imperial) and then just side the flat cable down for the obd-ii plug and that's pretty much it and then put the trim and window seal back in place on the frame opening.

[Nashvillain]

And today I discovered that I bought your old M235i! So I'm thrilled that you made the upgrade. ;-) congrats! Looks awesome.

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by Nashvillain

And today I discovered that I bought your old M235i! So I'm thrilled that you made the upgrade. ;-) congrats! Looks awesome.

Couldn't be more thrilled that it went to a fellow enthusiast

[toastie]

Originally Posted by MrBucket

Yep exactly the same as the M235i, I could do it in about 10 minutes if the screen is already in the vent. Just tap into the grey/red wire to the trunk release for the auto dimming (don't forget to change the setting in the menu that the install guide that comes with it says to do for auto dimming, or whatever kind of units you would like it to display i.e. metric or imperial) and then just side the flat cable down for the obd-ii plug and that's pretty much it and then put the trim and window seal back in place on the frame opening.

Yeah the youtube install video makes it look straight forward and easy. I saw that secret menu unlock someone on the 2addict forums did, has anyone tried this as well? I saw there was a oil temp meter in that menu.

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by toastie

Yeah the youtube install video makes it look straight forward and easy. I saw that secret menu unlock someone on the 2addict forums did, has anyone tried this as well? I saw there was a oil temp meter in that menu.

The secret menu thing is a complete pain in the ass to do. You have to press the button to reset your trip meter to put in your VIN and pressing the button once just raises the number from 1 to 2 and so on. With my VIN I counted it was like 50 something times I had to press the button. Also the text is absolutely tiny and you have to do it all over again once you shut the car off. It's neat to look at once but otherwise pretty useless.

[toastie]

Originally Posted by MrBucket

The secret menu thing is a complete pain in the ass to do. You have to press the button to reset your trip meter to put in your VIN and pressing the button once just raises the number from 1 to 2 and so on. With my VIN I counted it was like 50 something times I had to press the button. Also the text is absolutely tiny and you have to do it all over again once you shut the car off. It's neat to look at once but otherwise pretty useless.

P3 VIDI it is then!

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by toastie

On the P3 Gauge, is the oil temp gauge accurate? Also what about the boost? I know for the Golf Rs, the boost gauge is a hit or miss because it isn't tapped directly to any vacuum lines to get a mechanical reading.

The one I have gets the boost pressure from the OBD-II sensors, they do have a slightly more expensive model that can have its own up to 80 PSI tap into a charge pipe an get the actual pressure reading that way.

[toastie]

Originally Posted by MrBucket

The one I have gets the boost pressure from the OBD-II sensors, they do have a slightly more expensive model that can have its own up to 80 PSI tap into a charge pipe an get the actual pressure reading that way.

Yeah they have the same options for the Golf R, but the OBD one should be fine. I just need it to really for the oil temp so I can safely gauge when I can romp on the car.

[MrBucket]

Originally Posted by toastie

Yeah they have the same options for the Golf R, but the OBD one should be fine. I just need it to really for the oil temp so I can safely gauge when I can romp on the car.

Yeah the oil temp one is what I leave mine on 90% of the time at least. My old M235i used to get up to about mid 240f range in normal driving, M2 with the better cooling stays more around 200-220 for the same exact driving style and weather conditions.

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

I think the M2 looks great in AW, too bad it doesnt come with red interior (my favorite color combo).

I looked into trading my 15 235xi in on one but was 6k underwater on my lease so I walked for the time being.

Enjoy it!!