Can we just state as fact that estate cars are awesome? And they are considerably more so (awesome) when you add in all the additional attributes of a super saloon. BMW themselves have demonstrated this most recently with the last known M5 Touring, the E60, but broke some hearts when it was clear that its successor, the F10 M5, would only be offered as a four-door.
That said, the Munich automaker seems to be warming back up to the idea of a very fast M car, but with added practicality and perhaps a rakish shooting brake body style. Performance wagons based on compact executive saloons are not anything groundbreaking, quite the opposite in fact.
It is in light of the competition that BMW may not be able to keep the M3 in a single form as, so far, Audi’s RS4 Avant has been running away with the market for almost two decades.
In fact, arch rival Mercedes-AMG have also had success in breaching the performance market time and again with the C63 and E63 Estate. Rumour has it that Alfa Romeo and their very well received Giulia QV will be entering the fray with a Sportwagon version as well, and who is to say that Jaguar won’t ever offer the XE as a Sportbrake just as they have with the larger XF.
Supposedly, this new BMW M3 Touring will be previewed alongside the reveal of the M3 sedan at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, offering such features as a split tailgate and offering more than 500-litres of boot space with the rear seats up, or so says Autocar.
The development costs associated with this new spin on the M3 would also be quite low relative to the various other body styles BMW have introduced within the past few years: the 4 Series Gran Coupe, 3 Series Gran Turismo, 5 Series Gran Turismo (now called the 6 Series GT), and there’s clearly demand for such a vehicle in addition to considerable momentum from critics.
With the new G20 3 Series now being built on the lighter and more structurally rigid CLAR platform, BMW’s M division now has a comfortable ceiling from which to engineer a performance 3 Series that does not compromise handling and sharpness from its sedan twin. Heck, Alpina have been supplying the public with the excellent B3 Touring and D3 Touring for years. Time for BMW proper to get in the game.
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