BMW M3 Touring Review 2023

In many ways, the BMW M3 Touring is quite a difficult car to justify. Most buyers will find a BMW M340i Touring (or the BMW M340d) to be more useable day-to-day, with enough excitement and less of a concern about losing your licence every time you flex your right foot. As we touched on above, SUV alternatives will be more practical, too.

But there's something truly special about the BMW M3 Touring. Every drive feels like an occasion, while it turns heads everywhere it goes. And while it's seriously expensive (our test car was more than £100,000), it'll only be sold in limited numbers which will help used values. If you 'get' the BMW M3 Touring, it could be a seriously brilliant purchase.

Once you've decided on a BMW M3 Touring, there isn't much else to decide - apart from what colour you want and which options are worth forking out for. The M3 Touring is well equipped as standard (as you'd hope for this money) and most of the option packs are a little extravagant, so there's nothing wrong with a billy basic one in our opinion. If you're looking for a used BMW M3 Touring, the Ultimate Pack is a pretty desirable extra - if only because it cost nearly £12,000 when new and adds things like the M carbon bucket seats, heated steering wheel, laser lights and Driving Assistant Professional.

The BMW M3 Touring's direct competitors include the Audi RS4 Avant and Mercedes-AMG C63 S. We'll wait until we've driven the latter before delivering our full verdict, although its four-cylinder engine and plug-in hybrid power means many traditional petrolheads will prefer the gnarly six-cylinder BMW.

If you're in the market for a versatile performance car, you should also look at sporty SUVs like the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Jaguar F-Pace SVR and BMW X3 M Competition. And, with the BMW M3 Touring's hefty price tag, you might even want to consider a Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo...

Just like the regular 3 Series, there's little to criticise about the BMW M3 Touring's interior finish. Even for its hefty price tag, the M3 Touring feels sufficiently special, with some neat touches adding a touch of sportiness to the cabin - the red interior highlights, for example, and some carbonfibre trim.

The BMW M3 Touring gets the same excellent Curved Display as the latest 3 Series, consisting of a central 14.9-inch infotainment screen joined by a sharp 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. 

It's one of our favourite systems on the market thanks to its fast responses and intuitive menu layouts, while you can navigate it via a click wheel positioned between the front seats. Doing so is much easier than having to lean forward and use the touchscreen, especially on the move, although it's a shame the climate control functions are now lumped into the media system. 

All BMW M3 Touring models come with a head-up display as standard, as well as wireless phone charging and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. You get a premium Harman Kardon surround system, too, for those occasions when you'd rather listen to your favourite playlist rather than the theatrical sound of the M3's twin-turbo motor.

We suspect most people will be tempted by the BMW M3 Touring just for the novelty factor rather than because they want to actually carry things. But it certainly has the edge over the saloon (or M4 Coupe) in terms of practicality.

It can carry up to 500 litres of luggage, which doesn't sound a huge amount more than the 480 litres the M3 saloon can swallow. But it's the access that makes it so much more versatile - you get a large opening with a low lip, while the rear window can be opened on its own (great for loading shopping without having to open the entire boot). Should you need more space, the rear seats split 40:20:40 and there's up to 1510 litres of luggage space with them all dropped.

In terms of dimensions, the BMW M3 Touring measures 4794mm in length, 1903mm in width and 1436mm in height.

Power comes from the same 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine as the BMW M4 GT3 race car, which means it ought to be both quick and dependable. And it's certainly the former - with 510PS and 650Nm of torque, it'll sprint to 62mph in just 3.6 seconds. Top speed is limited to 155mph, unless you opt for the M Driver's Package (which increases the top speed to 174mph).

Figures don't really do the BMW M3 Touring justice, though. A squeeze of the accelerator pedal will thump you forward at an alarming rate, no matter which gear you're in or where in the rev range the engine currently is. It's quite satisfying to drive a car that'll build pace towards the limiter, yet can't be caught out at low revs.

Part of this is down to the excellent eight-speed automatic transmission which is fitted as standard. It changes gears ultra quickly, while nudging the gear selector allows you to use the paddles behind the steering wheel and take control yourself. It's pretty satisfying to do so, especially as the gearbox doesn't try to take over and change gear itself in auto mode - allowing you to hit the rev limiter should you wish.

While most cars these days come with a selection of drive modes, the BMW M3 Touring offers a huge amount of adjustment via the M Setup menu. You can set up the M3 Touring's suspension to be nice and soft (or relatively so, anyway), while keeping the engine response on maximum attack. And there's no fewer than 10 stages of traction control available.

Even with the BMW M3 Touring in its softest settings, it's impossible to hide the fact that you're driving quite a focused car. There's quite a lot of drone from the tyres, for example, while the engine is willing to noisily bark into life at the slightest squeeze of the throttle.

We're not entirely convinced we like the sound of the BMW M3 Touring, either. Sure, you expect a car like this to be loud - but it all sounds a bit phoney and certainly not as tuneful as the engine used by Alfa Romeo in Quadrifoglio models.

If it's refinement you're looking for, we think the BMW M340i strikes a better compromise between comfort and performance.

As you'd hope for a family car with as much power as the BMW M3 Touring, there's quite a lengthy list of standard safety features. You get parking sensors front and rear, a front collision warning system (with brake intervention) and a lane departure warning system. There's even a useful attentiveness assistant that monitors the driver's behaviour and flags up when it's time to take a break.

The Driving Assistant pack is standard, adding lane change warning, rear crossing traffic warning and rear collision prevention functions. The optional Driving Assistant Professional, meanwhile, features active cruise control with stop&go, automatic speed limit assist and a steering and lane control assistant.

Although the BMW M3 Touring hasn't been crash tested by Euro NCAP, the regular 3 Series was awarded a maximum five stars for safety.

We'd expect very few reliability issues with the BMW M3 Touring. The brand generally performs well for reliability (it ranked 12th in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index) and it has good form for making performance cars. The BMW M3 is now in its sixth generation and, although running costs will be higher than a regular BMW 3 Series, older BMW M3s are generally pretty dependable.

A company called Thatcham Research places all cars into an insurance group from one to 50 - cars in insurance group one are generally the cheapest to insure; those in group 50 are the most expensive. Unsurprisingly, considering its price and performance, the BMW M3 Touring could cost quite a lot to insure - officially, it's in insurance group 43 alongside cars like the Ford Mustang and Mercedes-AMG C43.

We'd always recommend searching around for insurance quotes before buying a new car - especially something a bit different from the norm like the BMW M3 Touring. Its high performance (and high desirability with car thieves) might make it very expensive to insure, especially if you live in an area with high crime rates or if you have a less-than-perfect driving record.

The BMW M3 Touring's relatively high CO2 emissions means the first owner will pay a hefty £2015 to the treasury in the form of the first year's VED (road tax). That forms part of the on-the-road price, though, so won't come as too much of a shock - and if you buy secondhand (or even pre-registered), that'll already have been paid.

From years two to six, BMW M3 Touring owners will pay £165 a year in tax, plus an additional £355 a year in premium car tax. That applies to all cars with a list price of more than £40,000 (apart from electric vehicles... for now). After six years, you'll pay a flat rate of £165 a year.

Standard equipment on the BMW M3 Competition Touring includes staggered 19-/20-inch Jet Black alloy wheels, metallic paintwork and high-gloss black exterior highlights (including the rear spoiler, roof rails and mirror caps).

Inside, the BMW M3 Competition Touring features acoustic glass, ambient lighting and carbonfibre interior trim. Black Merino leather M sport seats are standard, heated in the front with adjustable lumbar support. An M leather steering wheel is included, as well as three-zone automatic air conditioning, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, sun protection glass and 40:20:40 folding rear seats.

Automatic windscreen wipers and headlights are standard, as well as cruise control, high-beam assist and LED rear lights. The BMW M3 Competition Touring also comes with M adaptive suspension as standard, as well as M brakes (with red calipers), M Dive Professional, an M Sport differential and the M steptronic sport transmission. You also get the Parking Assistant and Driving Assistant as standard.

Standard technology includes BMW ConnectedDrive Online Services, Bluetooth and connectivity, DAB radio and BMW's ConnectedPackage Pro (with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay). A Harman Kardon surround sound system is standard, as well as BMW's Live Cockpit Professional (with a 14.9-inch instrument display and 12.3-inch control display).