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Don't Believe Rumors about a BMW M3 Touring Reveal at Frankfurt

A Slovenian magazine is claiming that one of their sources told them that BMW is going to unveil a Touring version of the current M3 at this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show. It’s news enthusiasts have been waiting for quite some time, but I think there’s no need to get your hopes up just yet.
As a matter of fact, this kind of news is just downright hurtful. There are thousands of people out there that prefer the practical side of a Touring model. They also appreciate the performance of an M car and would buy such a model if BMW would build it. That’s why launching such unfounded rumors is just mean.

While it all sounds great in theory, I don’t think such a model will see the light of day anytime soon. It's important to notice how I didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of a Touring M3 but I just don’t think it will happen this year.

That’s because the time frame would be too short. Harald Kruger just took over the reigns at BMW and that is bound to bring some changes around but even so, the M division would need at least 6 months of proper chassis testing for this model alone, a time frame that is just too narrow to consider launching the car at this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show.

On top of that, if BMW was indeed working on the car, we would’ve seen it out testing already, especially on their famous proving ground, the Green Hell or Nurburgring as the Germans like to call it.

Going further off into Imaginationland, I could picture how this sort of car would turn out. With the longer and heavier body (as I’m also assuming the CFRP roof might be a bit of an issue to use in this instance) the performance would go down a little, probably close to what the Convertible M4 is capable of.

That would make the Touring M3 a car able to accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standstill in 4.2-4.3 seconds, depending on the type of gearbox used. It would also make it a worthy opponent for the C63 AMG T-Modell that is currently unchallenged in its niche.

A dream come true

The dream of driving an M3 Touring has been talked about in BMW communities for years. Back in the 90s, when the E36 M3 came out there were mentions of such a model since the E34 M5 was already a thing, and then BMW built some test versions for the E9x range but none of them were released. Heck, they even made a pick-up version just for fun but never went the extra mile to offer what customers were actually asking for.

That shows that there was interest in delivering a Touring M3 model, but various factors put a brake on bringing them out for sale. As a matter of fact, the E61 M5 Touring was the second M car of its kind back in the early 2000s, another attempt to make such a proposition viable after the E34 M5 was sold in just nearly 900 units. The same thing happened though and turned it into a rare bird, with only a bit over 1,000 units made in the three years of its production.

That’s also probably why BMW isn’t jumping at the chance of releasing such an alternative for the current M3. However, recent behavior from the company shows that they are not afraid to enter new niches, and since we’re not getting an M4 Gran Coupe, maybe we’ll get an M3 Touring. What we know for sure is that it won’t happen this year.
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