BMW M3 Touring Review 2024

Despite the fact that on two previous occasions the BMW M5 Touring has, in the context of sales figures, pretty much risen without trace, the clamour for an estate version of the BMW M3 has finally been rewarded with this – the very first BMW M3 Touring. Is this all the car you’ll ever need? Or, like the BMW M5 Touring, a car destined for cult status among those who will never buy it? Read on for our full BMW M3 Touring review.

There’s nothing new about the fast estate formula, kick-started in 1994, when Porsche indulged in some highly advanced fettling with an already rapid 2.2 litre, five-cylinder, 230PS Audi 80 Estate S2 and duly hatched the hilariously entertaining Audi RS2 Avant.

So today the BMW M3 Touring has plenty of rapid, all-wheel-drive estate competition, chiefly in the form of the Audi RS4 Avant and the thrilling Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo. There’s also the Mercedes AMG C63 Estate to consider.

Part of the joy of fast estate ownership has always been that Q-car ability to slink along underneath the go-faster-stripe radar. Audi used to be particularly good at this, but now, in the interests of inhaling as much air as possible, the front of both the Audi RS4 Avant and Mercedes AMG C63 Estate have become a series of aggressively shaped, interconnected holes that give the high-performance game away.

Still, neither treatment is as suspect as that of the BMW M3 Touring, which has swapped the classic BMW kidney grille for the nostrils of an enraged baboon.

As with the BMW M2, the interior is well screwed together but not entirely to our taste: BMW’s driver’s instrument display is awful, with the now almost residual ‘dials’ shaped to ape the outer edges of the kidney grille.

There’s also the relentlessly untactile first point of contact; a steering wheel with a hippo-fat rim and bingo wings on the inner circumference at exactly the point where those taught to hold the helm at ten to two cannot now do so with any comfort.

Thankfully, the driving position is otherwise first class, although you may have trouble escaping from an optional, carbon-backed bucket seat that not only boasts a carbon cod-piece at the front of the base, but also wings that would pass muster on a manta ray.

Sitting on the side bolster is the only option when getting out, and it’ll try to cut your backside in half.

Rear seat accommodation is just about spacious enough, although reclining three adults against the 40:20:40 split/folding seatback challenges comfort somewhat.

The loadspace, however, gives no cause for complaint, its volume increasing from 500 to 1510 litres with the rear seats collapsed.

If you can’t be bothered to wait for the automatic tailgate to haul itself open, the rear window opens separately, which is useful.

Options include rubberised anti-slip rails that rise from the loadspace floor once the tailgate has been shut to prevent luggage sliding about too much when cornering, and wall-mounted buttons to automatically fold the rear seats from the boot.

Both of these features are available as part of the optional Comfort Pack. Indeed, there aren’t many options on offer that aren’t part of one Pack or another, and they’re expensive.

The M Pro Pack, for instance, requires an outlay of £7995 for carbon ceramic brakes with gold callipers. And if you want the carbon bucket seats fitted to the car we drove, they’re part of the £11,250 Ultimate Pack. 

Happily, the standard equipment list is more than comprehensive, because – nearly £3000 worth of grey metallic paint aside – the addition of those two packs alone pushes the BMW M3 Touring’s price tag from £80,550 to £103,135.

Then again, if this really is all the car you’ll ever need, you won’t mind having spent the price of a tidy second car on options.

Under the bonnet lurks the glorious three-litre, twin-turbo straight-six already doing sterling service in the BMW M2, BMW M3 and BMW M4. In this installation, it delivers a healthy 510PS and 650Nm of torque, and a 0-62mph dash in just 3.6 seconds.

Even more impressively, 50 to 75mph in fifth gear takes fractionally less time. Top speed is limited to 155mph, but one of the perks of opting for the M Driver’s Pack is a hike to 174mph.

An eight-speed automatic transmission with flappy paddles drives all four wheels through BMW’s Active M Differential, but the emphasis is always on a rear-biased power split.

BMW’s M xDrive has three modes – 4WD, 4WD Sport and 2WD, each step shunting more power to the rear until 2WD switches off the DSC system altogether and lets you control rear wheel traction through then ten stages of M Traction Control.

All of this deft, beautifully judged engineering hangs on 19-inch front and 20-inch rear tyres, and adaptive dampers fitted as standard.

As with other M-cars, you can mix and match modes for the dampers, steering, engine response, brake pressure and traction control. Happily, you can store your favourite settings and then access them via the M1 and M2 tabs on the steering wheel to avoid rummaging through the menus again. It’s a shame there is no Lane Keeping Assist off tab, though...

Despite the fact that it weighs in at a hefty 1865kg, the BMW M3 Touring is devastatingly fast. More impressively, it’s incredibly sure-footed and composed, no matter what the weather and Britain’s pockmarked roads throw at it. 

It’s also extraordinarily agile; the steering is nicely weighted and feels super-precise, active damping allows the suspension to offer a delightful meld of superior body control and supple ride which, though firm, never induces misery.

There’s stacks of grip, and the brakes are immense. We can think of little else that can carry such prodigious pace across country with such consummate ease. 

So, why buy an SUV? You no longer have the height advantage to look over other cars because everyone else is in something just as tall; you’re not going to be heading off-road; and the dynamics are handicapped by a high centre of gravity. 

Combining scintillating performance with superb dynamics, the BMW M3 Touring, meanwhile, isn’t even remotely hampered by the fact that, underneath it all, it’s a perfectly practical everyday estate car.

Purists will point out that this estate is 85kg heavier than the BMW M3 saloon, that it needs 25kg of extra bracing to maintain appropriate body stiffness, and that the extra glass and the absence of the saloon’s carbon fibre roof has raised the centre of gravity.

All true, but you’d never know it from behind the wheel. The company’s engineers have gone out of their way to ensure that the BMW M3 Touring delivers all the pace, agility, belligerence and dynamic bravado you’d expect from an M car, despite the presence of the extra box on the back.

Indeed, you have to keep peering in the rear view mirror to remind yourself it’s an estate car.

Body control and ride quality, courtesy of adaptive damping, are first class. BMW had to beef up the rear suspension support just in case anyone does actually shove a wardrobe in the back, but without any detriment to the firm, yet supple, ride.

There are three suspension settings to choose from: Comfort, which is still taut enough to read the road like a book; Sport, which is best reserved for smooth roads; and Sport Plus, which is track-only tough. 

Despite the jury still being out on the over-fat wheel rim, the steering is marvellous; not light and quick as is increasingly popular, but meaty, deliberate and ruthlessly accurate. And the brakes are prodigious, both in cost and effect.

We drove a car equipped with the £7,995 carbon ceramic brakes, the relentless stopping power of which was simply astonishing.

BMW’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system is the perfect stablemate for a fast estate, especially so in this M car, because it’s a heavily rear-biased set-up that only sends a maximum of 50% of power to the front axle in the most extreme circumstances.

Usually, you get the balance and feeling of a rear-wheel-drive car with the bonus of improved traction, most beneficially in foul weather.

You can, of course, select 2WD and remove the front driveshafts from the equation altogether. But, though clever, rear-drive only with ten stages of stability control to choose from is a party trick best left for track days.

As with other M-cars, you can mix and match modes for the dampers, steering, engine response, brake pressure and traction control. Happily, you can store your favourite settings and then access them via the M1 and M2 tabs on the steering wheel to avoid rummaging through the menus again.

There is just one engine; the fabulous 2993cc, twin-turbocharged straight-six petrol unit from the BMW M2, BMW M3 and BMW M4.

Building to a delicious snarl, it delivers a healthy 510PS at 6250rpm and 650Nm of torque from 2750-5500rpm. 

As you would expect, the BMW M3 Touring is exceptionally quick; the 0-62mph dash takes just 3.6 seconds. Even more impressively, and far more significant from the open-road perspective, 50 to 75mph in fifth gear takes fractionally less time, while the same acceleration in fourth gear is despatched in only 2.7 seconds.

Top speed is limited to 155mph, but one of the perks of opting for the M Driver’s Pack is a hike to 174mph.

This is an engine that even sounds good at a slightly brisk, seamlessly smooth idle. The straight six has a fabulous breadth of operating range and wonderful linearity of power delivery.

It is, happiest, though, pulling from over 3000rpm, by which time any sense of turbo lag has vanished and it will spin on to over 7000rpm building a wonderful, intoxicating, addictive snarl quite unlike anything you’ll hear from any other unit.

An eight-speed automatic gearbox replaces the old seven-speed DCT, and you can dial the shift speed and abruptness up and down through three settings.

Though perhaps not quite up there with a twin-clutch gearbox from Porsche or AMG, you’d really have to be very picky to find much fault with it. And it does have the advantage of being supremely easy to live with around town.

The BMW M3 Touring has not been crash tested by Euro NCAP, but the saloon version scored five-out-of-five with a huge 97% rating for adult occupants.

Its 87% score for both child occupant protection and vulnerable road users is also impressive.

As standard, the BMW M3 Touring is equipped with a parking assistant with a rear-view camera and sensors front and rear, a speed limiter and cruise control with brake function, front collision warning with brake intervention, lane departure warning including lane return with steering assistance, and an Attentiveness Assistant.

Also standard is Driving Assistant, which adds lane change warning, rear cross traffic warning and rear collision prevention functions. Driving Assistant Professional, meanwhile, features active cruise control with stop and go function, automatic speed limit assist and steering and lane control assistant.

There are no towing figures quoted for the BMW M3 Touring.

The front of the cabin can hardly be faulted. However, although the electrically adjustable carbon fibre buckets gracing the car we drove allow you to sit snug and low behind the wheel, getting in and out of them is an awkward, undignified exercise. 

Furthermore, the centre-line of the seat is occupied by an ungainly, ridged carbon fibre cod-piece which is not remotely comfortable to the underside of the thigh.

At the rear, you'll find what are claimed to be three “full size seats with the backrest able to be split 40:20:40”. In reality, only the two outer offerings are comfortable enough, with adequate legroom and headroom.

The loadspace is sensible and practical. Its 500-litre volume increases to 1510 litres with the split-folding rear seat backs collapsed.

If you can’t be bothered to wait for the automatic tailgate to haul itself open, the rear window opens separately, which is very handy.

Options include rubberised anti-slip rails that rise from the loadspace floor once the tailgate has been shut to prevent luggage slithering about too much when cornering, and wall-mounted buttons to automatically fold the rear seats from the boot.

Both features are also available as part of the Option Pack.

We can’t fault the cabin for build quality, and it looks like a fully rigged M car in every key way, including the secondary control concept – M1 and M2 selector tabs on the steering wheel, digital instrumentation, satin chrome and carbon fibre trim and three-colour M Power graphics everywhere.

However, clearly ‘inspired’ by the U.S.S. Enterprise’s bridge, the M Power-coloured digital driver’s instruments shaped in homage to the brand’s kidney grille are, frankly, ugly, and no pleasure to look at or read.

For many, one of the pleasures of driving a performance car is watching analogue needles race around round, analogue dials in svelte synchronisation with your right foot.

There’s no doubting the cabin’s quality, but its shouty nature is a turn-off.

BMW’s Curved Display infotainment system dominates the dashboard. It’s made up of a 12.3-inch digital driver’s instrument screen and a 14.9-inch central control display. 

The 14.9-inch screen benefits from the latest BMW software tech, which equates to super-fast responses, pin-sharp graphics and one of the better voice control systems around.

Top-level navigability is good, with customisable widget-style menus and user-set shortcuts as part of a quick reference menu for fast access to driver assistance functions and such.

And navigation routing and mapping is excellent. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are also fitted as standard, as well as wireless charging. 

Happily, the BMW M3 Touring sports a rotary input multimedia system controller on the transmission tunnel to avoid the need for finger stabbing and greater distraction on the move.

Unfortunately, though, all heating and ventilation controls are now part of the touchscreen. And you’ll need to access sub menus with two or three prods of the screen for a whole raft of everyday needs such as seat heating and fan speed, where once a single push of a button had the job done. 

The BMW M3 Touring is only available in Competition M xDrive guise, and costs £80,550. You can acquire an Audi RS4 Avant for a little as £72,890, but if you want one that’ll sprint to 62mph as rapidly as the BMW M3 Touring, that’ll set you back over £115,000.

It’s the same story with the Mercedes AMG C63 Estate; the variant reaching 62mph in 3.4 seconds costs just a whisker short of £100,000.

As for the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo, you’ll need to fork out some £96,700 for a version which will deliver a sub-four-second dash to 62mph. 

As is obvious from the car we drove, adding options to the BMW M3 Touring is a pricey business, especially as so many of those options are bundled into Packs.

The M Pro Pack, which affords you carbon ceramic brakes and gauche gold callipers, will set you back a thumping £7995. And the Driver’s Pack, which raises the top speed to 174mph and includes a respectable raft of goodies such as those carbon bucket seats, comes in at an eye-watering £11,250.

With grey metallic paint costing a further £2985 and even the BMW M 50 Years anniversary badging setting you back £300, it’s quite surprising to find full merino leather upholstery fitted as standard.

Then again, it’s not unusual for Audi RS4 and Mercedes AMG C63 buyers to lavish the price of a respectable second car on options either; they’re every bit as expensive as those offered by BMW.

And it is worth pointing out that the BMW M3 Touring’s standard equipment specification is now creditably comprehensive, no longer leaving you with, for instance, manual seat adjustment, as might once have been the case.

BMW quotes fuel consumption of between 27.2 and 27.8mpg on the WLTP cycle, and WLTP CO2 emissions of  229-235g/km of CO2.

This spread falls into the 37% Benefit-in-Kind band, but just how many BMW M3 Touring company cars there are likely to be is questionable.

Making BMW M3 Touring ownership straightforward is the company’s Service Inclusive package. You pay a lump sum up front and BMW will provide all of the required servicing up to your car’s fifth year or 62,000 miles, whichever comes first. 

Otherwise, the BMW M3 Touring comes with a conventional three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty.

If you plan on keeping it, though, we recommend opting for an extended warranty. This is high-end engineering and any complicated problems could prove expensive to fix, so warranty extensions are well worth investing in.

There’s only one version on the UK market – the BMW M3 Competition M xDrive Touring.

Standard equipment is extensive, as you’d hope given the cost of this estate, with factory-fit features including 19-inch front and 20-inch rear alloys, acoustic glass, adaptive suspension, a Harman/Kardon surround-sound audio system, auto-dimming door mirrors and heated electric front sports seats.

There is also three-zone air conditioning, a widescreen infotainment system and driver’s display, adaptive LED headlights and an active M Sport differential.

There aren’t many options on offer that aren’t part of one Pack or another, and they’re expensive.

The BMW M3 Touring M Pro Pack, for instance, requires an outlay of £7995 for carbon ceramic brakes with gold callipers and includes the M Driver’s Pack which raises the governed top speed from 155 to 174mph.

And if you want the carbon bucket seats fitted to the car we drove, they’re part of the £11,250 BMW M3 Touring Ultimate Pack.

The BMW M3 Touring M Drive Professional Pack lobs M Laptimer and M Drift Analyser into the equation to enrich your track day experience. M Laptimer offers a control display readout that keeps the driver informed of the time margin compared to their fastest recorded lap.

M Drift Analyser, meanwhile, is billed as an aid to going sideways, making a note of the duration, distance and angle of the driver’s latest drift. The on-screen analysis also includes a score from one to five stars, and a comparison with the driver’s best drift to date.