BMW M3 Touring review

The first ever BMW M3 Touring: the really fast version of BMW’s class-leading 3 Series, now with an estate bodyshell. To give it its full name, it’s the BMW M3 Touring Competition xDrive: in English that means the estate is only available with BMW’s superb all-wheel drive system. ‘Competition’ is just a trim level, and all M3s in the UK of any shape are Comps.

It means you get over 500bhp and an automatic gearbox as standard. On top of that there’s the newly arrived hardcore CS version – if you want to spend an extra £35k-odd.

Why has this car created such a fuss?

There’s a coolness about fast estate cars. Even though they are at heart a bit of an odd concoction: if you’ve got a dog or a lawnmower or bags of garden waste in the big 500-litre boot, you tend not to drive very quickly. And if it’s empty and the road looks inviting, you’re in an estate car, which is naturally heavier and less stiff than a coupe. Like, say, a BMW M4. Hold that thought…

But people who like cars tend to really get off on the idea of a superwagon, because it’s a ready-for-anything, all-season, all-occasion device, and they tend to be a bit more subtle than an out-and-out sports coupe. In an M4, you broadcast an image of thrusting power. In an estate, you’re just taking the kids to school, or off to the hardware store.

And while BMW has now delivered three M5 Tourings over the years, there’s never been an M3 Touring sold to the public… until now.

How fast is it?

BMW claims it’ll get you from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and go on to a top speed of 174mph, and even that’s limited. We’d wager it’d be quicker still, after an M3 xDrive saloon we timed against the clock managed 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. The Touring’s a bit heavier, but it still feels brutally, ruthlessly quick.

Tell me more key numbers.

Just remember one: five hundred. At the front, the M3’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight six delivers just over 500 horsepower to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. At the back, you get a smidge over 500 litres of boot space. That’s it. That’s the recipe. Party at the front and in the rear.

And what about the CS? More power again?

The CS pushes power up to 542bhp, dropping a couple of tenths from the 0-62mph time (claimed at 3.5s, likely not much over 3.0s flat in reality), and the 174mph limiter is raised to 186mph. The CS recipe has already been applied to the saloon and coupe, and is largely repeated here, although it does without the carbon fibre roof panel the shorter-roofed cars get.

It’s not a limited edition model, but it is more specialised, gaining a carbon fibre bonnet, titanium exhaust, plus retuned electronics for the gearbox, 4WD system and stability control. There’s a load more carbon around the place, forged wheels, and an aluminium strut brace and more robust engine mounts as part of extra chassis strengthening measures. You still don’t get carbon ceramic brakes as standard though. 

Come on then, how much is all this?

Ah yes. Price. It’s not cheap to own more car than anyone could ever possibly want or need. M3 Tourings start at £91,865 (they’ve gone up six grand since they first arrived two years ago) and it’s terrifyingly easy to propel that beyond six figures if you lob some carbon fibre-laced option packs at yours. And if you do that, well, you’re hardly likely to be filling it with unsheared sheep or bags of cement.

Meanwhile the CS Touring weighs in at a whopping £126,275. An extra £35,000 give or take, and about £10k more than a hybrid 717bhp M5 Touring. Not saying that would be our choice, just pointing out the potential profit margin BMW enjoys with its CS cars.

So is the M3 Touring a pointless endeavour that merely panders to the fantasies of those who have no intention – or means – of buying one? Or is it in fact one of the coolest cars made by BMW today? There is of course the possibility that the M3 Touring is in fact both of those things simultaneously, and still a pretty glorious bit of kit.

Does the driving live up to the hype?

Yes. The CS has remarkable precision and genuinely spectacular body control, the only drawbacks being extra road noise and more exhaust drone. To be honest, unless your hound particularly loves track days (this is a joke, not a suggestion), the regular M3 Touring is probably the better all-rounder. More on all this in the next tab.

Folks who’ve yearned for BMW to build an M3 Touring for years – to be all the car they could ever want – might be dismayed to learn the result isn’t in fact perfect. It’s flawed. The fuel tank is on the small side. The gearbox still has moments in which it behaves like it’s a regular automatic transmission that accidentally stowed away in an M car. And there’s no getting away from the fact that if you can afford to buy one, you are certainly not in the position where you need one car to cover all bases. You probably have a couple of sporty toys for the weekend already, and a more humdrum shopping car.

But don’t get hung up on the semantics. The bottom line is this: the M3 Touring is eye-wateringly, cheek-pufflingly good to drive fast, and because it shares a body with the excellent 3 Series Touring, it’s also an incredibly competent, well-made family car. No, it’s not going to cause an overnight collapse in BMW X3 or Audi Q5 sales. It isn’t supposed to. You get the feeling BMW will be happy with a few steady sales, while basking in the reflected glow of appreciation for having built a small fast estate at last. Ok, not small exactly, but definitely a more versatile size then the cruise liner than is the M5 Touring.

It doesn’t dilute the M3 lineage and it does bring something new and fresh to this little niche of the car world. Life for the next Audi RS4 Avant and the hybrid-powered AMG C63 is tricky right now. We’d have this over either of them any day of the week.