MUNICH, Germany - There’s a certain all-in-one magic offered by high-performance wagons such as the Audi RS4 Avant, but BMW has never sought a slice of that action, instead focusing its wagon fury on the larger M5.
But that’s set to change in about two years from now when BMW unleashes its first-ever M3 Touring. The company has confirmed that the wagon is in its early stages of development, but for now we are getting a small taste of it thanks to the official teaser image that you see above.
BMW is not disclosing any power or performance figures for now, even stating that speculation on that matter is quite welcome, however the Bavarian carmaker has already spilled the beans on the upcoming M3 Sedan and M4 Coupe models and we can’t imagine that the M3 Touring will be any different in what it offers, power-wise.
For the record, the next M3 and M4 will come with an upgraded 3-litre, straight-six M TwinPower turbo engine that produces 375kW and 650Nm in the Competition versions, while regular variants will make do with 353kW, albeit with the same peak torque.
Interestingly, both variants will be rear-wheel driven, but BMW has confirmed that the Competition models will, at a later stage, be offered with the long-rumoured M xDrive all-wheel-drive option. Dare we suggest that the Touring, given that it’s only due in two years, will be an AWD affair, albeit hopefully with the M5’s drift mode.
Whether the M3 Touring ever reaches South Africa remains to be seen, but given this market’s distaste for wagons, we wouldn’t bet any money on it coming.
“Five doors and a highly variable luggage compartment are precisely what have been long awaited by fans of this model,” BMW said of the upcoming M3 Touring.
Incidentally this is not the first time that the company has toyed with the idea of an M3 load lugger - in fact it went as far as building a prototype 20 years ago, based on the E46 generation, but ultimately that model never saw the light of day.
Better late than never, we’d say.