BMW’s M division may build the best freude am fahren you can buy, but the motorsport badge appears to be more profitable when stitched on a floor mat than etched on a steering knuckle.
That impression, years after Munich started associating M’s all-out, purpose-built sports cars with M Sport appearance packages and mildly-tuned M Performance models, is furthered here with the 2018 M240i M Performance Edition. A collection of cosmetic accessories for the 2-series coupe, the M Performance Edition may claim a smidgen of extra performance from the 19-inch two-tone wheels on run-flat Pirelli P Zeros, plus minor aero revisions to the front splitter and rear valance. Otherwise, it’s the excellent 10Best-winning M240i with more M markings than an actual M2. Don’t confuse it with the M2 M Performance Edition, which comes with more serious hardware upgrades.
Brand dilution aside, the M240i MPE is happiest being a BMW catalog queen. It features black kidney grilles, carbon-fiber mirror caps, a carbon-fiber lip spoiler, exhaust tips wrapped in carbon fiber (über-freude!), black sill trim with M Performance badging, and a microsuede-wrapped steering wheel with carbon-fiber inserts and a red hash mark at the 12-o’clock position.

2018 BMW 2-series: Aesthetic Refresh, Manual Saved
Instrumented Test: 2017 BMW M240i Coupe Automatic
Long-Term Test Intro: 2017 BMW M2

BMW USA says it will import ?about 40? of the MPE’s 750-car production run. If you ...