The head of product management for the new BMW M3 and M4 says the upcoming M3 Touring will be “like a present” to appreciative customers.
Hagen Franke made the comments during an online roundtable event attended by CARmag.co.za.
“We’re a little bit crazy and love to build amazing cars over here at the Garching facilities. Many of us were very fond of the idea to create a Touring again and so for this generation we just thought we had to go this route,” he said.
“It’s going to be an amazing car. You’ll just have to wait a couple of months until we’ve accomplished our mission. It’s basically like a present to ourselves and to those customers appreciating the first-ever M3 Touring,” Franke said.
In August 2020, the Munich-based firm confirmed it planned to offer an M3 Touring for the first time in its history.
Expected to debut towards the end of 2022 (with sales in initial markets likely starting early in 2023), the wagon-shaped M3 will feature five doors and what BMW describes as a “highly variable luggage compartment”. As with its sedan and coupé siblings, expect power to come from the German company’s twin-turbo 3,0-litre straight-six engine.
Of course, whether the M3 Touring ever makes it to South African shores is another question altogether, considering the general lack of local interest in estate-shaped vehicles and the fact the standard 3 Series Touring isn’t marketed here…
