This is the brand-new BMW 3-Series Touring. It looks…decent, doesn’t it? Still a little fussy—as we maintained with the sedan—but overall not a bad-looking thing at all.
Estates are cooler, in any case. BMW tells us some 1.7 million 3-Series Tourings have been sold ever since that first E30 paved the way back in 1987, so this one’s gotta do the numbers.
Speaking of numbers, it’s bigger than its predecessor, because of course it is. So there’s a bit more length, a smidge more width (truly, a smidge—16mm), and a smidge’s smidge worth of additional height (8mm more than before).
Up front, it’s business as usual, and—as we’ve said before—there’s a lot of business to take in. Kidney grilles (in moderate proportions, at least), those full LED headlights as standard with that weird little kink on the bottom, and a fair chunk of crease along the front bumper.
Run along the side and you’ll spot that line that kicks up toward the trunk and a small spoiler lip, with LED rear lights featuring darker upper sections. The trunk gets automatic opening as standard, and thanks to a slightly lower loading sill, ingress and egress for your pooch should be a little less cumbersome.
The actual load compartment itself is a tad wider and holds 500 liters’ worth of stuff. Drop the back seats, and that rises to 1,510 liters. That’s more than a C-Class onwag, and though smaller than a new Volvo V60 seats up, it’s bigger seats down. In any case, it’s a capacious storage space. So many pooches.
There’ll be a variety of engines on offer: the M340i xDrive (3.0-liter, straight-six, 370hp, 0-100kph in 4.5sec), the 330i (2.0-liter four-cylinder, 255hp, 0-100kph in 5.9sec), and later on this year, a base 320i (2.0-liter straight-four, 180hp, 0-100kph in 7.6sec).
Diesels? There are a few of those, too. A 2.0-liter four-pot diesel spans the 318d (147hp), the 320d (187hp, 0-100kph in 7.1sec with the eight-speed auto), and the 320d xDrive. A 3.0-liter straight-six comes in the form of the 330d xDrive (260hp, 0-100kph in 5.4sec).
As ever, it’s stiffer than the old 3Series Touring, lighter by up to 10kg, gets continuously variable lift-related dampers as standard or the option of adaptive M dampers, optional M Sport brakes (bigger, err, stoppier, blue-er), and a wealth of assistance systems.
It arrives 32 years after the original BMW estate car. What do you lot make of this sixth-gen Touring?
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
