BMW M3 Touring (G81) | Cars to be thankful for

It always seemed like the M3 wagon would never happen - the car we got was well worth the wait

For the first time in the near-40-year history of BMW selling an M3 and M5 together, it’s now possible for the M customer to choose a Touring variant of either. That fact alone feels worth celebrating. In a world seemingly obsessed only with cars that’ll sell by the boatload (so SUVs from Puma to Purosangue), it’s great to see a niche bodystyle finally offered for both M car icons. They’ll make up a small amount of the circa 200,000 BMWs with the tricolour that’ll be sold in 2025, but they’re cool. Certainly cooler than any equivalent M saloon, coupe, or SUV. Or X4. And that’s gotta be a good thing.

Currently, M3 and M5 Touring exist without much by way of opposition, too. Neither the Mercedes-AMG C63 nor E53 can claim to match their M rivals; the last RS4 wasn’t really at the races until it received a coilover’d special edition, and the car that could best rival the M5 - the C8 RS6 - is soon to go out of production. So maybe this has all just been 39 years of waiting for the right time.

The history of the M3 Touring, and BMW M estates in general, is well versed by now, if strange enough to briefly recap. It’s taken six generations to reach the point where an M3 wagon is viable, but there’s never been a version without a convertible. Yep, even the original - and that still seems weird. BMW made M5 Tourings when the engines were high revving and naturally aspirated, yet didn’t proceed when a burly V8 - both atmospheric and twin-turbocharged - was under the bonnet. It produced an M3 Touring concept so perfect it was still a lockdown dream 20 years later. Alpina longroofs, both 3 and 5 Series-shaped, have consistently been lauded as just about the best things on four wheels, and still BMW didn’t budge.

Granted, sometimes an M3 Touring wouldn’t really have worked, however much we loved to dream otherwise. That E46 did look sensational, but you just know it wouldn’t have had the torque to really do an M3 badge justice. A drop-top can be excused for its performance; an estate less so. Ditto the V8 car, already the heaviest M3 ever at the time even with the carbon roof. The comparisons between a 295lb ft Touring and a 442lb ft C63 wagon would surely have been brutal.

But in 2022, the confirmation we never thought was coming finally arrived; in the 40th anniversary year of BMW M, an M3 Touring would exist. There hadn’t been such excitement for a new car since, well, the GR86 the year before, but we had a good few months of it back then. It was revealed at Goodwood in fact, courting all comers in either a mean black and gold colour combo or Daytona Violet; we’d have always taken an M3 estate however it came, but with experience of the G80 saloon - fast, luxurious, thrilling, unflappable - to make educated guesses about the Touring, hopes were very high.

Popular opinion, as you’ll no doubt remember well, was mixed three years ago, mostly because of the grilles, but also the automatic gearbox, the all-wheel drive and the resulting 1.9-tonne kerbweight. But nothing is as ‘pure’ or as light as it used to be, and against the two-tonne tech fests that are the C63 and the M5, a plain old 3.0-litre six in a pumped-up 3 Series wagon now seems reassuringly old school. And all the better for it.

Let’s not forget, either - likely few have - that the base G80 was a heavy car, so the weight gain of a Touring was less keenly felt. It was the ideal M3 for Touringification. The 90kg penalty would surely have been more noticeable on a 1,500kg M3 than it is on a near-1,800kg one. Not that anyone would ever, ever be able to tell. A standout quality of both the current M3 saloon and M4 coupe is their borderline remarkable ability to make kerbweights in excess of 1,700kg feel like ones a quarter of a tonne less; it’s a very neat trick that most certainly transferred to the Touring. Maybe it was a mite less keen in direction changes, and perhaps there was actually more traction with extra weight out back, but the characteristics that marked out the G8x M3 era - ferocious speed, flawless four-wheel drive, supreme damping - most certainly survived the transition to dog hauler.

Unsurprising, then, to find things much the same a few years later. The headlights are different now, the steering wheel squarer, the air vents fiddlier, and the carbon seat humps perhaps even larger, but this is still the M3 Touring we know and love. Complete with screens that feel a bit big, a straight six of unending potency, and, yes, the grilles.

What’s changed since 2022, of course, is the arrival of the larger BMW M Touring. Far from upstaging the existing model, however, the M5 has really only shown just how great the M3 is - which probably wasn’t the original intention. Boot capacity is identical, for one thing, at 500 litres with seats up. Yet this car is easier and more rewarding to place on a road, thanks in part to the physical dimensions but also the greater sense of connection. Every control is more satisfying in M3 than in M5. It must be just as fast to 100mph, if not beyond. To these eyes, it looks smarter. And it’s 20-odd grand less.

There remains a distinct 911 Turbo vibe to the way an M3 Touring goes about its business, and that’s intended very much as a compliment. We’d all love a bit more of the touchy-feely stuff at lower speeds and commitment levels; however, the combination of a rampant forced induction six, a spookily sorted all-wheel drive system and wondrous body control arguably makes amends. Both feel like unbeatable, unbreakable, omnipotent performance cars for any day, any weather, any time. A perfect template for the ultimate fast estate, then.

Consequently, when the opportunity does come to extend an M3 Touring just a bit, it’s little short of staggering. Time has really only served to make the S58 3.0-litre feel even more impressive, docile and responsive despite more than 175hp per litre and never keener than when chasing 7,200rpm. It must be another factor in the M3 feeling lighter than it does; your brain says there’s no way ‘just’ 530hp and 479lb ft could move so much car with such unabating violence.

And for all the tech, for all the configurability and complexity, the Touring drives how you’d want a modern M3 to drive. Delicacy may have been eschewed for all-consuming ability, but there’s still a front end to trust (which actually hasn’t always been a strong suit), a rear axle to have fun with, and that M car fizz— the feel, the sound, the speed— to goad you on just a little bit faster all the time. The same feeling never quite materialises in an M5.

That the same car is then capable of a motorway mission in complete comfort (bar some tyre noise; you’ll take it for the cornering) is what secures the Touring immediate modern classic status. You’ll see the odd one around with a roof rack and curse your own life decisions; that’s the existence to have, with a great M car and interesting hobbies (or a lot of toddler clobber to haul).

It would seem that buyers think the same, with a fairly even split in the UK between saloon and estate M3 in the Touring’s two full years on sale. Its popularity must surely have influenced the decision to forge ahead with the M5 equivalent. Now we must hope that it’s sufficient for the wagon to become a permanent fixture in the M3 line-up; we know a dual powertrain solution is coming for the next model - an electric one and a hybrid straight-six - but it’s not clear yet whether the Touring will continue.

The absorption of Alpina into BMW will mean the end of B3s as we know them, so that must help the M3’s cause. And hopefully the M5 can return the favour for its (slightly) smaller sibling; if it takes off in markets that don’t get the M3 Touring, like the US - all signs are positive for the moment - then that should help the case for the replacement of this G81. Because now the impossible dream has been realised, it’d be a huge disappointment to go without. We’ll even accept another M4 cabrio, if needs must. In short, the M3 Touring is better even than we hoped it would be, and while nothing about future product seems guaranteed, nothing would validate BMW’s belated decision to produce a wagon than it building a new one. Or you buying an old one - which you absolutely should. Even if you do feel the need to park it nose in.

SPECIFICATION | BMW M3 TOURING COMPETITION XDRIVE (G81)

Engine: 2,993cc, twin-turbo straight-six
Transmission: 8-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 530@6,250rpm
Torque (lb ft): 479@2,750-5,500rpm
0-62mph: 3.6sec
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,865kg DIN, 1,940kg EU
MPG: 27.4
CO2: 233g/km
Price: £86,898.33 (price as standard; price as tested £109,473.32 comprising Skyscraper Grey Metallic paint for £875, Style 826 M forged wheels with track tyres for £850, Yas Marina Blue and black extended Merino leather with Yellow Accents for £325, M Carbon Ceramic brakes with Gold calipers for £8,800, M carbon bucket seats for £4,450, Ultimate Pack (Heated Steering Wheel, Comfort Access, BMW Individual Lights Shadow Line, Extended Storage Contents, Adaptive LED Headlights, Driving Assistant) for £7,275

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cerb4.5lee

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