Once upon a time the humble estate car was all the rage. Driveways were full of interesting wagons during the late 1980s and 1990s, offering a diverse choice of how to get your family and a dog to Cornwall for the weekend. However, things are rather different today with estates falling out of fashion and SUVs very much being ‘on trend’. That said, BMW might be about to change that.
To be fair, the Audi RS4 Avant and Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate have been rocking the fast medium estate thing for a while, but we never got a BMW alternative. Sure, we’ve had M5 Tourings and even an M3 Touring concept car some years ago, but BMW is finally coming good at last.
We’ve got spy shots galore of what appears to be a practically finished prototype trundling around Germany, and it has got us rather excited. The notion of having a car practical enough for runs to the tip or taking the dog on holiday, combined with the performance of a BMW M3, is the stuff of dreams. Take about having your cake and eating it.
The M3 Touring will obviously be based on the saloon, and while very few people are a fan of that car’s huge kidney grilles, its ‘get up and go’ is highly commendable. In the UK we’ll likely only be offered the top dog Competition model, meaning 503bhp from a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre engine. A 0-62mph run of 4 seconds or less and a beautifully engineered chassis will make this estate something to relish from behind the wheel.
Considering just how many fast SUVs are on the market, and how much harder it must be for designers to justify equivalent estate cars to the finance department, the M3 Touring should be celebrated. Purists might hate the existence of vehicles such as the X6 M, but they sell. Could this new M3 variant ignite the long-lost love of fast estate cars? Regardless of its looks, the new M3 is a good omen for just how much potential this wagon has to offer.
The E46 M3 Touring prototype car was such an open goal back in 2000, a missed opportunity that rival Audi really capitalised on. Let’s hope the new BMW M3 Touring is a case of better late than never.
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Keyword: Why you should be excited about the new BMW M3 Touring