BMW M3 Touring Review 2026

Having flirted with the idea of an M3 Touring as long ago as the E46 generation of the car, BMW has finally made one you can actually buy, and subsequently given it a mid-life refresh. Has this model been worth the wait? Find out in our BMW M3 Touring review.

Despite having its biggest SUV range ever, BMW has suddenly gotten very interested in making very fast estate cars. The BMW M3 Competition Touring came along a few years ago at a time when the popularity of high-riders made such a thing seem impossible, quickly followed by an M5 Touring.

Now, BMW has doubled down, bringing out a facelifted version of the M3 Touring and making a more focused M3 CS Touring while at it. All the while, the landscape has shifted in terms of the M3 wagon's obvious rivals. The Mercedes-AMG C63 has transformed from a V8 monster to an unpopular four-cylinder hybrid, while the Audi RS4 Avant has been discontinued, and it's not clear if there'll be another.

The Porsche Panemera Sport Turismo is no longer a thing, either, with the closest thing from the brand has to an alternative being the electric Taycan Sport Turismo.

The M3 Touring, then, could get away with being a lot less good than it actually is. As it stands, though, it's an astonishing bit of kit, mixing a powerful six-cylinder engine with an extremely capable chassis and decent amount of practicality. 

Yes, it's about as far from a 'sleeper' as you can possibly get, with wide arches, a chunky front splitter and gigantic kidney grilles leaving you under no illusions about the car's intentions, but the final version of the Audi RS4 wasn't exactly a shrinking violet either. And although those big nostrils proved quite divisive when we first saw them, the current M3 has been around long enough for us to get used to the look, surely. 

They're still very much present on the facelifted version, with the visual changes restricted to new headlights with vertical DRL elements to replace the more rounded look of the old units. There are some interior trim and tech tweaks plus a new flat-bottomed steering wheel, while under the bonnet, the power output has risen by 20PS to 530PS. Not that the M3 Touring has ever been lacking in this regard. 

Shortly after the facelifted version appeared, BMW upped the ante with the M3 CS Touring, following the same recipe as the earlier M3 CS saloon. It features yet more power, carbon fibre body panels, revised suspension geometry and extra visual aggression. Oh, and an even higher price tag. 

The M3 Touring is just as practical as any other 3 Series Touring, offering 500 litres of boot space with the rear seats in place. Fun fact – that's identical to what you get in the bigger M5 Touring, which is compromised due to the packaging of its plug-in hybrid battery and fancy rear differential. 

So, any downsides other than the price, and looks, depending on your tastes? Well, it's enormously complicated, offering myriad settings for various facets of the driving experience, right the way down to how the brake pedal feels. We reckon you'd work out your preferred setup reasonably quickly, though, and save it to one of the two customisable modes. 

For the most part, though, the M3 Touring absolutely nails the brief. In these SUV-obsessed times, it's a breath of fresh air. 

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.

The CS is noticeably more focused, to the point that the low-speed ride becomes a bit choppy. It settles well with speed, though, letting you get on with the task of devouring corners. There's more feedback through the steering wheel in the CS, and even more grip from the front end than in the already sticky standard car. 

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 now delivers a healthy 530PS at 6250rpm, an increase of 20PS compared to pre-facelift models. The peak torque figure of 650Mn is unchanged at 650Nm, but it's available over a slightly wider spread, from 2750rpm to 5750rpm. 

The changes are enough to trim the 0-62mph time by a tenth of a second to just 3.5 seconds. The top speed is limited to 155mph, but one of the perks of opting for the M Driver’s Pack is a hike to 174mph. The M3 CS manages the 0-62mph sprint in 3.4 seconds owing to its 550PS output, and it also gets a higher top speed of 188mph. 

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 specifically by Euro NCAP, but the regular 3 Series scored five-out-of-five in 2019, a rating which has since expired.

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.

The M3 CS is slightly less practical thanks to the use of a more minimalistic centre control, which deletes the central armrest in a bid to save weight. This feels a bit pointless when the starting point is a car weighing about 1.9 tonnes. 

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 starts at £93,585, which is a lot of money, particularly considering there are plenty of opportunities to inflate that price further, including £4385 'Frozen' exterior paint options and a £2,175 'M Driver's package' to raise the top speed limiter. Then there's the M3 C3, which is £126,275, and again, you can send that price soaring if you get carried away in the configurator. 

Then again, the M3 T's only obvious competition is the Mercedes-AMG C63 E Performance, which costs £102,685 and has two fewer cylinders. No wonder so few of those are being sold – it makes the M3 Touring seem like an absolute no-brainer. 

If you fancy an all-electric alternative, there's the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo to consider, but you'll need to spend the best part of £100,000 on a 4S to get comparable performance to the M3 Touring. 

The M3 Touring has been around long enough for depreciation to kick in nicely, with the earliest, leggiest examples starting from around £65,000. 

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 are two versions on offer – the BMW M3 Competition M xDrive Touring and the BMW M3 CS Touring. In the CS, you're mostly paying for various chassis improvements and carbon fibre body panels, but there are a few equipment upgrades as well.

The BMW M3 Competition M xDrive Touring comes with the following equipment fitted as standard:

• 19-inch front/20-inch rear alloy wheels
• 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
• 14.9-inch infotainment system
• LED headlights
• Harman Kardon sound system
• Audo dimming electric door mirrors
• Heated and electrically adjustable sports seats
• Three-zone climate control

The BMW M3 CS Touring adds:

• M Carbon bucket seats
• 19-inch front/20-inch rear forged wheels
• M Drive Professional Pack