BMW has unveiled the first-ever M3 Touring and as with most vehicles featuring this practical body style, it is not confirmed for a South African introduction.
We can speculate all day on why this is the case, but the most likely reason is that the local appetite for station wagons is known to be rather small.
The M3 Touring is based on the M3 Competition M xDrive, and as such, it is only available with a four-wheel-drive setup and in the Competition guise in the markets where it is sold.
Production of the all-new Touring will kick off in November alongside the M3 Sedan at the BMW plant in Munich.
What’s new
The biggest difference between the new M3 Touring and Sedan is also the most obvious one, that being the elongated body.
“The first BMW M3 Touring goes to particularly impressive lengths to deliver on the traditional M promise of dynamic flair, agility, and precision combined with unrestricted everyday practicality and mile-covering ability,” said the manufacturer.
Clean, flat surfaces combined with M-specific design cues not only lend the Touring a distinctive and sleek look but also serves to aid in cooling and aerodynamic performance.
The frameless kidney grille, large air intakes, muscular wheel arches, pronounced side skirts, and sporty front and rear aprons form a “Black high-gloss band” around the new BMW, while M gills in the front side panels as well as quad-exhaust outlets further enhances the emotional design.
No matter the exterior colour chosen by the buyer, each new M3 Touring will also be fitted with a high-gloss black roof as standard, alongside a matching black Gurney flap spoiler and roof rails.
However, the roof can be finished in body colour if you tick the box, and an M Carbon exterior package can also be found on the options list.
Thanks to the unexpected mixture of performance sedan and usable station wagon, the new BMW offers a racing feeling in the cockpit with a highly versatile rear compartment that carries 500 litres of cargo with the rear seats up and a maximum of 1,510 litres in two-seater mode.
Automatic tailgate operation and a separately-opening rear window are both standard and a storage compartment underneath the boot floor provide space for the luggage compartment cover and boot partition net.
Creature comforts are also plentiful in this top-end M3, spoiling owners with three-zone climate control, Merino leather sports seats, front-collision warnings, lane-departure warnings, cruise control, and a large digital instrument cluster and infotainment display integrated under a curved housing.
These screens offer navigation and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, as well as M-specific widgets showing high-performance driving information at a glance.
Optionally, buyers can get M Carbon buckets seats that weigh 9.6kg less than the standard ones, a heads-up display, and a host of additional driver assistance features.
Performance
The M3 Touring is driven by the same 3.0-litre, six-cylinder, twin-turbocharged petrol engine as the rest of the M3/M4 line-up, pushing out 375kW and 650Nm.
In the heavier station wagon 0-100km/h is shredded in 3.6 seconds, compared to the 3.5 seconds of the four-wheel-drive sedan.
The Touring then clears 200km/h in 12.9 seconds and goes on to a top speed of 250km/h.
“The engine joins forces with an eight-speed M Steptronic transmission with Drivelogic, which offers three gearshift programs and can be operated using shift paddles on the steering wheel,” said BMW.
An active differential on the rear axle amplifies handling prowess by distributing torque to the wheels that need it most, whereas multiple drive modes can assist in anything from saving fuel to setting lap records, depending on the selected setting.
The Touring can also be driven in full two-wheel-drive mode and sits on 19-inch and 20-inch alloys at the front and rear, respectively.
The list of performance-enhancing extras is just as extensive as for the rest of the vehicle and includes M Carbon ceramic brakes, track tyres, and the BMW driver’s pack that raises the maximum speed to 280km/h.
BMW M3 Touring
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