BMW M3 Touring Review & Prices

The BMW M3 Touring is a car almost perfectly designed for petrolheads. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s an estate car, and it’s not really all that practical for day to day life. It’s kind of like trying to do the weekly shop by driving a go-kart around the aisles of your local Tesco — fun at first, but you soon start to realise it’s not all that sensible.

There are some other options in the hot estate class, too, such as the now-sadly-departed Audi RS4 Avant and the Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate and the much smaller, but still rapid CLA AMG 45 Shooting Brake. There’s also some internal competition from the BMW M340i Touring, which is slower, but rather more affordable and useable without sacrificing too much fun.

Look at the M3 Touring from the square-on at the front, and you won’t see any difference compared to the M3 saloon. There are the same massive nostril grilles (which were once incredibly ugly but which now seem to be mellowing a bit) and the same deep front bumper and air intakes.

A 2024 update brought with it some minor tweaks under the skin, but the only discernible changes are the narrower LED running lights, flat-bottom steering wheel and the latest generation iDrive infotainment system - complete with its curved screen setup.

Watch: BMW M3 Touring v Audi RS6 drag race

Down the sides, while the estate bodywork is clearly lifted from the standard BMW 3 Series Touring, the M3 Touring has clearly been hitting the gym to bulk up those wheel arches, and there’s a massive rear diffuser with four exhaust tips around the back. You can slather lots of the outside with carbon fibre if your chequebook runs deep enough.

The Touring shares all of its mechanical bits with the M3 Competition saloon, so there’s the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six petrol engine, which has recently been upgraded to 530hp as standard (up from 510hp before), with standard xDrive all-wheel drive.

If you’re feeling a bit fruitier, you could go for the M3 Touring CS, introduced after the 2024 update. It gets another 20hp, bringing it to 550hp, along with tweaked suspension, gold alloy wheels and those iconic CS yellow LED headlight details - as well as a very flash carbon fibre bonnet.

As with the saloon, four-wheel drive is now standard, with the old rear-wheel drive model having been dropped. The four-wheel drive system does have a sneaky cheat switch though, which allows you to lock it into rear-drive mode for tyre-shredding skids, but maybe leave that setting for when you’re on a race track, eh? Either way, you can’t do that with an Audi RS4.

The M3 Touring’s suspension comes with adaptive suspension dampers, so when you set those to the softest setting, it’s actually fairly comfortable in day to day driving, with just a bit more stiffness over bumps than a standard 3 Series. The view out, especially over the shoulder, is good and there are plenty of parking sensors and cameras to make in-town manoeuvres that bit easier.

Inside, the M3 Touring is basically the same as the saloon, so you get the same big sweep of digital dashboard with its massive screens, and the same very high quality construction. There’s lashings and lashings of carbon fibre, and you can have the same carbon-backed bucket seats as you can get in the saloon. These clamp you in place like a racing seat, but they’re not quite as comfy on a long drive as the standard chairs.

The big curved screen has impressive software, but BMW has been steadily stripping out physical buttons from the 3 Series’ interior, so there are no longer any proper air conditioning switches, and that makes things more annoying to use than they should be. A Mercedes C-Class has a cabin and screen that’s easier to get used to.

Space in the back seats is good, and basically the same as that of the saloon model, just with a little bit more light coming in through the extra window. The reason for buying the Touring over the M3 saloon is, of course, the boot space which is 500 litres, 20 litres more than you get in the saloon, and five litres more than in the old Audi RS4 Avant. The M3 Touring also keeps the classic separate opening tailgate glass, sadly dropped by the new M5 Touring, which is really handy.

You can check out the latest deals on a new BMW M3 Touring now, or have a look at used M3 Tourings – or other used BMW stock – from our network of trusted dealers. And don't forget you can sell you car online through Carwow too.

The M3 Touring is actually kinda reasonably priced, if a car that costs slightly more than £90,000 can be described as such. With the sad demise of the Audi RS4 Avant (and no sign of a new RS5 Avant on the horizon just yet) the only real competition that the M3 Touring faces is from Mercedes.

The comparable C63 S estate has way more power than the M3 (680hp) but it costs almost £10,000 more too, and it actually has only a four-cylinder engine with the rest of the power and torque coming from a plug-in hybrid system.

That compromises the C63 in terms of sound, but also in terms of boot space. A better bet might actually be the outgoing CLA 45 AMG Shooting brake, which is a smaller car, but still has a big boot, is searingly fast, and yet much more affordable than the M3 Touring. You could also, of course, consider a nearly-new Audi RS4 Avant, but at this price level, a lightly-used V8-engine RS6 Avant also comes into play… Just also remember that the M3 Touring’s starting price is just that — there’s a long and ruinous options list to go through too.

The stiffer suspension is surprisingly comfortable around town, but tyre noise at 70mph could become annoying over long distances

In town

With a practical performance car, you want it to be relatively easy to live with in day-to-day driving to make the most of what it offers. What’s the point in a fast estate if the ride is so bone-shakingly stiff you can’t bear to take it to the local IKEA?

Fortunately, the M3 Touring does a good job of smoothing out bumps in the road. Sure, it’s not as comfortable as the regular model, but nor does it skip across the surface like a stone on water. There are different suspension modes, and we’d recommend sticking to comfort, otherwise every speed bump and pothole will make you wince. Just remember that the CS model is even stiffer again, but actually its ride comfort hasn’t suffered all that much.

You can raise the seat high, even with the figure-hugging carbon bucket seat, so visibility is good looking forward. It’s pretty clear out the back, too, even if the rear window looks like it’s in a different postcode.

The M3 Touring’s wide body kit makes it a little more intimidating to drive in narrow spaces, and those 20-inch rear, 19-inch front, alloy wheels are a constant source of kerb-strike anxiety. However, the suite of sensors will warn you if you’re getting too close, making busy streets easier to navigate.

On the motorway

It's on the motorway where the M3 Touring loses a few marks. Tyre noise is pretty intrusive in the M3 saloon, but it’s worse still in the Touring. Perhaps it’s because there’s more space for it to echo around?

Both the Audi RS4 and RS6 are a much better option for those who will do a lot of long distance driving as they’re a bit more comfort-focused. If you’re committed to a fast BMW estate, the aforementioned M340i Touring will also appeal thanks to its increased refinement.

That being said, the M3 Touring’s seats are very comfortable. Even the optional carbon bucket seats we tested should keep you free of back pain and a numb backside, even if their primary purpose is gripping your sides in corners. The standard seats have a little more ‘give’ for the huskier driver…

On a twisty road

Despite being a heavy old beast – at 1,825kg much lighter than the hefty new M5 hybrid, but still weighty by any standards – the M3 Touring is at home on a twisty road. It hides its heft incredibly well, with the direct steering making it easy to place in a turn. It genuinely feels like a sports car. Just one you could move house in.

Don’t be tempted to switch to the Sport/Sport+ suspension settings here, though. Comfort mode is firm enough to offer that sports car feel on UK roads while also having enough slack to deal with bumps in the road. The Tarmac needs to be race track smooth to take advantage of the stiffer settings.

If you can stump up for the carbon pack – a £7,000 extra, see what we mean about options driving the price up? – then those bucket seats are a boon when in maximum attack mode. You can adjust the side bolsters until they give you a metaphorical bear hug during hard cornering, so you have confidence to make the most of the M3 Touring’s performance.

The rear seats are more spacious than those in the saloon, but the boot doesn’t have the jump in capacity you might hope for

There’s plenty of adjustability for the driver, with the seats and steering wheel offering lots of movement so you can find a great driving position. The steering wheel gets two M mode switches that allow you to load two different setups, for example one for fast road driving and another for the track.

As standard you get carbon fibre lashed all over the place to give off a proper race car feel, while M logos are dotted around to remind you you’re in something a bit special, just in case all that carbon hadn’t caught your eye.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats are comfortable to sit in and there’s loads of room for adults. There’s more headroom than the saloon, so if you regularly carry passengers that could be another tick in the Touring’s box.

Legroom is also decent, but if you get the carbon bucket seats it’s even more spacious, which is a good head-over-heart excuse to go for that option. They’re also lovely to look at, making long journeys in the back a bit more bearable.

Boot space

The key selling point for the M3 Touring is its extra load-lugging ability. Truth be told, the 500-litre boot capacity is maybe not as much of a jump as you might expect from the saloon’s 480 litres, but the opening is much more square, making it easier to load large items.

The rear seats can be dropped using handy electric switches, opening the boot to reveal 1,510 litres of space – so much better than the paltry 320 litres (seats up) and 1,335 litres (seats down) offered by the hybrid Mercedes C63.

With the seats folded down there’s no lip, so if you’re loading flat pack furniture in the back it’s easy to push it through to the front seats. Careful if you’ve got the carbon buckets, though, as they could be easy to damage if heavy items bang up against them while you’re driving around.

The large, curved screens look fantastic, but the system isn’t as easy to use as that in the old car

If you're sat in the front, the M3 Touring is no different to the saloon. That means you get the huge, curving infotainment and instrument displays with their extra M-specific screens and settings.

These screens are made up of a 14.9-inch infotainment screen and a 12.3-inch driver’s display. The screens are crystal clear and the menu design is ultra-modern, but they’re not quite as intuitive to use as the old system especially now that there are no physical climate control buttons. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included as standard, so they’re your best bet for audio and navigation.

The M Drive Professional apps are a neat addition. They allow you to record lap times and compare them with previous efforts. There’s also a drift analyser that scores your sideways efforts out of five stars.

The 3.0-litre petrol engine has an official fuel economy figure of 27.4mpg, which is actually pretty respectable for a big, heavy car with 530hp. During testing we saw about 21mpg, which isn’t quite as good, but then it is hard to resist being heavy with the throttle pedal in a car that goes this well. CO2 emissions sit at up to 235g/km. The M3 Touring CS is slightly worse off, with fuel economy of 26.9mpg (officially) and CO2 emissions of 238g/km, but neither will make much of a difference to your overall costs.

The M3 Touring falls into one of the higher first-year Vehicle Excise Duty bands because of its high emissions — £4,680 — while its purchase price means it also faces the over-£40,000 premium between years two and six after registration — and extra £425.

If you’re a company car buyer, you’re looking at BIK costs of around £540 a month for the M3 Touring, and up to £750 a month for the M3 Touring CS.

There’s the usual suite of driver assistance systems present and correct here, such as lane departure warning, lane change warning and rear collision prevention, which use cameras around the car to spot trouble and avoid or mitigate any incidents.

Disappointingly, although this is an £90-odd-thousand car to start with, you only get regular cruise control as standard. Adaptive cruise is an optional extra that comes as part of the Technology Plus Pack, which also brings a dashcam and parking assistant.

The M3 Touring nor regular 3 Series Touring have 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.

There are no common reliability issues with the BMW M3, with most owners noting that recurring problems with the previous generation’s engine appear to have largely been addressed for the latest model.

However, it’s worth noting that although it’s based on a popular, more affordable model, the M3 Touring is a performance car, so if anything goes wrong it will likely cost a good chunk more to replace than your average 3 Series.

The M3 Touring comes with a three-year, unlimited mileage new car warranty that includes roadside assistance. For an extra £1,620 you can get BMW Service Inclusive, which covers your servicing for the first four years. This uses BMW technicians and genuine parts that are (mostly) covered for two years. BMW will also cover the cost of any MOT failures during the term of the agreement.

The BMW 3 Series range, as a whole, finished in 18th position in the most recent Driver Power survey, but its rating for quality and reliability was only middling. BMW came 14th out of 32 brands, with 21.4% of owners reporting problems with their cars.