BMW M3 Competition Touring review

But before the smiles, we should vent. You have to wonder what the hell took BMW so long to make this car real and what the justifications were. It’s not as if the notion never occurred to M. In the early 2000s, it went so far as to engineer a fully functional M3 Touring on the platform of the E46, yet the thing never reached production, and BMW was so cagey about this one-off that its mere existence wasn’t publicised until 2016. Guilty conscience, much? It would have sold well.

Instead, the Audi RS4 Avant and Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate became the go-to options for anybody craving the usability and specialness of the great super-saloons but needing even more practicality and, perhaps, a touch of the exotic and unexpected. (And let’s be clear: any estate-bodied car with 503bhp, carbonfibre bucket seats and quad-exhaust tips that look as if borrowed from Lamborghini is both exotic and very unexpected.)

Some might also claim that Alpina had BMW's back covered in the fast-estate department, but that would have depended on two things: the Alpina B3 being an M3 substitute in dynamic terms and most people having even heard of Alpina in the first place. The first of those isn’t true and the second is debatable.

So there’s no acceptable excuse for the long-standing absence of an M3 Touring, although at least reparations are now being made with interest. From anywhere but dead on, the new car looks superb, doesn’t it? Perhaps Touring-bespoke rear doors that properly flowed into the bulging rear wheel arches would have made the M3 Touring even more arresting at the kerbside, but even so, I’m not sure anything else in the sub-£100,000 camp looks so purposeful. There’s an understated, pregnant aggression going on here that suits the concept of an ultra-quick, four-wheel-drive estate to perfection.

Our test car additionally wears the carbonfibre exterior pack, the most detailed forged wheels BMW offers (20in at the back and 19in up front) and carbon-ceramic brakes, among other quite serious optional extras.

The total damage is £100,150, including the £300 you pay for the M-anniversary roundels on the car’s nose and tail. Note also that underneath the bodywork the M3 Touring is xDrive-only and available solely in ramped-up Competition guise.  

Throw that kind of money at an estate and you want something that balances a sense of occasion with unambiguous utility not just well but sensationally so. On the whole, the M3 Touring manages to do just that. In practical terms, it has all the capability of the regular 3 Series estate, down to the independently opening rear windscreen hatch and rubber strips in the boot floor that rise up when you're on the move to prevent anything sliding around the substantial load bay. The second-row seats fold flat, and so arranged the car amounts to three parts: monstrous turbo engine, bucket seats and an endless boot in your rear-view mirror. For those wanting to live out their wildest Rickard Rydell fantasies, look no further. 

It also feels well sorted. At 1865kg, the M3 Touring is 85kg heavier than the M3 saloon, the extra weight coming in the form of extra metal at the back and some additional bracing to keep the body rigid, but it contains this mass. By raising the rear spring rates and tweaking the damping rates all round, BMW has aimed to replicate the handling characteristics of the saloon and, except for what seems like ever-so-slightly sharper breakaway when the car reaches the limits of grip and traction, it has done just that. In a back-to-back test, you might detect just a touch of lethargy compared with the saloon, but honestly it would be an academic degree. Fact is, the most practical car in the M3 lineup is one that still devours cross-country driving, remaining amazingly assured and precise on ducking, weaving, wet B-roads.

The M3 Touring also allows you to have some real fun with the chassis in a manner alien to the RS4 Avant – which, just for the record, it outclasses with ease. Select M Dynamic Mode for the stability control and you can throw this 174mph wagon around freely, and even with all the systems off, it’s benign and predictable. (On a near-freezing day and with summer tyres, we didn't explore the car’s RWD driveline setting, but past experience suggests that it will give proceedings another dimension of entertainment value). Okay, the brake pedal remains oddly soft and refinement is perhaps a touch worse than in the saloon (because the rear bulkhead is missing), but these are small blemishes.