An M3 wagon is elusive. Some have built their own, but the vast majority of us are left dreaming of what it might be like. In the case of the upcoming M3 wagon, which will be the first that is actually built and sold by BMW, North American enthusiasts will once again be left pining over something they can’t have. The same day BMW announced that it was developing an M3 wagon for series production, Road & Track reached out to a spokesperson for BMW NA, a conversation which revealed that BMW has no plans to sell the M3 touring in the U.S.—ouch.
The news is not particularly unexpected. As we noted when the announcement broke, BMW stopped selling the 3 Series Sport Wagon in the U.S. when the F30 (and F31) 3 Series was succeeded by the G20. Perhaps even more convincing is the business model which supports the growing market shift to SAVs and SACs, which are produced at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina. It’s these two key factors—low wagon sales in the U.S., and a massive incentive to sell what the market has demonstrated proven demand for (X3, X5, X7)—that have effectively sealed the fate of any future BMW wagon being sold in the U.S. But even with the circumstances clearly laid out before us, the disappointment still stings.
Perhaps that’s because it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Audi and Mercedes have both been able to make the case for selling high-performance midsize wagons to American drivers, and we can’t leave Volvo’s V60 Polestar out, either. Nevertheless, BMW is sticking with SAVs and SACs. They’re not bad by any means (in fact, they’re all better than ever), but dyed-in-the-wool BMW enthusiasts understand something as powerful and impressive as an X3 M Competition can never fill the void of an M3 in wagon form.—Alex Tock
[Photos courtesy BMW AG.]
