The BMW M3 Touring LCI, BMW’s Best Daily Driver?
After decades of enthusiasts begging BMW to release an estate version of the beloved M3, it is hard to believe it's already time for the LCI of the M3 Touring. Enough reason to test the BMW M3 Competition Touring again…
Photos by: @thibo.photography & @vpt.shots
At first glance, the M3 Touring LCI resembles the pre-updated one. After all, it remains a G81 signature with its controversial kidney grill and wide rear with quad exhausts. However, some key differences, especially in the interior, give it that extra edge.
When we look at the outside, the most apparent feature of the LCI is the headlights. They’ve made it a lot smoother and, in my opinion, better looking. Besides the lights, the LCI also features blacked-out trim with kidney grills, black mirror caps, and gloss black exhaust tips. The one tested was finished in Tanzanite Blue with an incredible Tartufo Individual BMW interior.
Interior
The interior hides the biggest changes for the LCI; the biggest upgrade here has to be the new steering wheel. The steering wheel is now flat on the bottom, features a lot of carbon fiber, and has a way better grip while driving compared to the pre-facelift. When you put the “old” one next to this, it gives the pre-LCI car a very outdated vibe.
Since it’s a Touring, the M3 is still very spacious and, honestly, perfect for daily use. You get 500 litres of boot space, and foldable rear seats give upwards of 1.510 litres. More than you will ever realistically need in a car. Also, very big and comfortable front seats with a low seating position are present. And there's a surprising amount of rear space, too.
The finishing in the Touring is also great, as mentioned earlier, the car featured an individual Tartufo leather which was very high quality. There is a lot more carbon fiber added, with it now also being on the center console, the steering wheel, and the dashboard, and we still got M3 logos in the seats to let everyone know this isn’t a normal 3 series. Speaking of the seats, BMW also offers carbon bucket seats for this car, giving it an even more aggressive sporty look. It does come at the cost of comfort, though, which remains quite essential if you plan to drive this car.
Tech
The BMW M3 Touring LCI features the iDrive 8.5 system. It has a digital display showing the speedometer, revs, etc, and a heads-up display showing you your speed when driving. Cool feature, the display can also now show Waze instead of the standard BMW maps, which is a game changer.
On the center console, we find a big touchscreen display where you can browse through the menus and change your car settings. I like the fact that BMW kept the buttons, making it possible to navigate through it, without having to touch the screen each time, and kept shortcuts like Navigation, Media, etc. Despite it being very user-friendly, it has a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT of different menus. Half of the modes, where things I never really use, and stuff like “the weather outside” don’t seem like a useful feature to have when you can simply look outside. The menu to change modes is very good, though it’s a little hard to deactivate the X-drive through it. But everything in iDrive works smoothly, and you can set up your car the way you like it best.
The M3 Touring also features a smart adaptive cruise control system, when opted for, that automatically detects cars and obstacles in front of you and can steer automatically. It also has extra safety features that limit the maximum speed in certain situations, like heavy traffic. I’ve found the cruise control to be very useful on longer drives and especially to limit fuel consumption, which is on the higher side for sure. What I didn’t like too much was the audio system. BMW always falls a bit behind compared to its rivals, but the Harman Kardon speakers in my Mini Cooper s convertible, which is less than half the price of this one, are better than the ones in the M3, weird.
Performance
If there is one aspect where the M3 Touring truly outshines its competitors, it has to be its performance. The M3 Touring Competition has a 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine producing a total of 530 horsepower and 650Nm of torque. This is a 20 horsepower increase from the pre-LCI model, making it even faster than before. Besides the engine upgrade, not much has changed internally, but trust me… It’s certainly fast enough. The X-drive system BMW introduced with the release of the G80 also gives it a lot of extra stability and traction, you wouldn’t find in the F80… and if you want to drift, you can easily turn the car into an RWD, simply by deactivating the DSC.
And with the M xDrive system in place, it is insanely fast. When we look at its rivals: the RS4 and the C 63 S, the M3 Touring falls in the middle when it comes to power, with the RS4 having 450 horsepower and the C 63 having 670. The same, being in the center, goes for the 0-100 km/h time. Since the C 63 is hybrid and heavy, though, you do have to give BMW the throne for being the best-performing in its category, in my opinion.
Price
The M3 Touring LCI is available starting from 109.900 euros (BE). Considering the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S is 20.000 euros more and the Audi RS4 is only slightly cheaper, I do think you get a pretty good bang for your buck here. Be prepared for depreciation to hit you in the face, but overall, compared to the market, we definitely can’t complain.
Verdict
There is a lot of hype about the M3 Touring, and the big question always is: does it live up to it? Short answer: it still does. The M3 Touring is an incredibly versatile, sporty, and super-fast daily driver. It is a great cruiser in comfort mode, a nervous beast in sport plus mode, and a genuine drift car when everything is turned off (or partly). What I especially liked as well is that the car doesn’t feel that heavy, hmm hmm M5, and still has that desirable nervous character you don’t often get anymore.
