Personally, I love how BMW has entered the chat with regards to the releases of their upcoming models. The brand came in and shook the motoring world by building up from footprints created by the i3 & i8 in the latest i-electric range of cars; namely the i4 M50, the iX3 and iX – but this is another conversation all together. What shook me, was how they came for the performance saloon category with the introduction of the M3 Touring, the brand’s first performance station wagon.
The BMW M3 Touring has been in the works for a bit with BMW teasing us with some shots taken during testing stages through the development of the car, and we can see why it took so long to make an official announcement.
A look under the hood will reveal that the engine & drivetrain have remained as is from the sedan counterpart with the 3L V8 staying as is. This will ensure that the car puts out a performance of 375kW through its twin-turbo six-cylinder engine, clocking 0-100KM in 3.6 seconds and topping a max speed of 280km/h. The handling has been catered for with a pairing of the variable-ratio steering and adaptive M suspension tuned specifically for the wagon body style while sitting on 19-inch front & 20-inch rear tyres.
The interior keeps up with its sister in that it encompasses an update interior from the 3 series, complete with a touch of M Power. There is a spotting of the ‘curved display’ infotainment system, that also features in the iX, along with a 12-3-inch digital instrument panel combining with 14.9-inch central touchscreen. The car is said to come standard with the M bucket seats with an optional extra on the carbon fiber-backed seats. The extra space to fit in your entire crew of mates comes standard with the model noting to hold over 1500 litres in load capacity, coupled with automatic tailgate operation as a standard feature and the option of a load compartment package comprising features such as a control panel on the right of the boot for folding down the individual elements of the rear backrest remotely.
Looking at the numbers from performance, a look in the interior and taking into account that one can fit a few bikes in the back (actually want to test this one out), there’s no denying that the introduction of the “wagon” might not serve well in South Africa as we are not really a ‘station wagon country’ at all. The current market can be seen as being owned by Audi (in the RS4 & RS6 respectively) and even these are very rare on the road today. This should not be a concern for most people as the car has not been confirmed to come to South Africa, so we will just catch glimpses of the car on the socials at this stage (although, I have a feeling that there might be a die-hard BMW fan that might just want to gift this baby as ‘push present’ in SA – just saying)
*images supplied by BMW
