The Hidden Genius of the 2022 M240i xDrive

Over 20 years of writing about cars, certain moments stand out. One was the day I first experienced the genius of a BMW M vehicle. It was early spring 2014, at Road America during a furious squall. I recall motoring out of pit lane in a new M4 provided by BMW, ready to piss my pants because I had no experience track driving in this much rain, and because Road America is the real deal. I feared breaking the car, or worse. I got sideways on cold tires in turn one. But then, I started lapping and building speed confidently, moving through high-velocity sweeping bends (turn 7, turn 11) with my foot down. The car made me so much better of a driver than I’d ever been before, on a track full of swimming-pool-sized puddles.

Since then, I’ve been a fan and have driven countless M cars. The only problem? I could never afford to own any of them. So it was with huge expectations when I recently climbed into a 2022 M240i for a week-long test drive. The M240i (two doors) and M235i (four doors) are the lowest-cost cars that carry the M-sport badge, with a base price under $49,000. In other words, cars that mere mortals might actually afford.

But was the M240i a real M vehicle? Or a 2-series with a few add-ons and a single letter that can jack up the price? On the high-speed roads of California’s Gold Country, I aimed to find out.

Before leaving my driveway, I could make some snap judgements. Styling is subjective, but for me, the vehicle presented a critical balance between attitude and understated panache. The Mineral White Metallic paint and Tacora Red Vernasca leather suited this vehicle. People often fail to mention, when speaking of BMW (or, for that matter, Mercedes and Audi) how much attention the designers and engineers pay to brand DNA, something American manufacturers have failed to do over the years.

I’m a fan of the Mustang Mach-E but to call an electric Ford SUV a Mustang is a bit ridiculous. A Cadillac of today will resemble nothing of a Cadillac from the 1960s or 70s or 80s. A glance at the M240i and you instantly see the design language that has run through these vehicles for generations. The kidney grille, for example—in some unmistakable form—has adorned nearly every BMW car going back to 1933—even the concept cars. A pair of healthy kidneys sit on the M240i’s nose.

Pop the hood and there it is again: attention to brand DNA. The M240i’s power unit is a 3.0-liter twin-turbo, 24-valve inline-six-cylinder. BMW has been perfecting the inline-six for generations. Recently I was flying around in a 1917 BMW IIIa airplane. Okay, that’s not true, but if I was, guess what engine layout would be powering that aircraft, built over a century ago? An inline-six. Same with the legendary 1936 BMW 328. Same with the old 3-Series that my mother used to drive, and countless thousands of other BMW vehicles. The Godfather of all BMW M cars is the 1972 3.0 liter CSL, which was powered by a 3.0-liter straight-six, similar to the M240i’s (albeit, without the turbochargers).

None of that, however, answers the question of whether this is a true affordable-ish M car. So off we go, ready to piss off the cops and the neighbors.