BMW 2 Series vs Ford Mustang

What's the difference?

Coupes are back.

Heading into the second half of the 2020s, buyers of affordable sports cars seem better-served for choice than when the current BMW 2 Series Coupe surfaced earlier this decade.

Mazda’s MX-5 keeps gently evolving. Toyota and Subaru have rejuvenated their respective firecracker 86/BRZ twins. The glorious Nissan Z is as evocative as it is entertaining. The recent Ford Mustang revamp serves rousing American muscle car. The reborn Honda Prelude looms as a hybrid hero. And even Audi’s TT is set for resurrection soon.

All reinvigorate the genre. Just like the (G42) 2 Series Coupe, the third in the series since 2007, released during 2021 and facelifted in 2024.

Here we revisit the M240i xDrive, our favourite version (sorry, M2 owners), to see if it remains the definitive brand experience.

The new Ford Mustang GT was not designed for Paris.

Fighting through the morning peak hour rush (which seems to extend through the middle of the day and the afternoon), the new Mustang feels like a caged animal. Which is appropriate, given the car’s namesake is a wild horse that exists to roam the American wilderness.

But once we finally break the shackles of Parasian traffic we find ourselves getting to let this Mustang gallop across the French countryside and unleash its full potential. But more on that later…

The reason we're driving the Mustang in France is because the American brand wanted to connect it to its new racing program at the famous Le Mans sports car race (you know, the one in the Matt Damon movie, Ford v Ferrari).

No less than Bill Ford, great-grandson of the company’s famous founder, was on-hand to see the Mustang at Le Mans, such is the passion for performance.

Ford (the man, not the company) took the opportunity to declare that the Blue Oval brand is not only committed to internal combustion engines for the foreseeable future, but it will retain the V8 under the bonnet of the Mustang GT for as long as it can legally do so.

Australians will have to wait a few more weeks (maybe months) before the seventh-generation Mustang arrives, but here’s what you can expect when it lands on local roads.