Yo, Yankee: Is There a BMW M3 Wagon In Your Future?
BMW exec hints that if you come, BMW will build it.
Fast wagons have long held a fascination for American car fans. We lust after the high-horsepower estates sold in Europe, but we don’t get many of ‘em here, and for good reason: The bulk of Americans prefer SUVs, and that’s what the bulk of automakers would rather sell us. Even so, a few of these European super-wagons do trickle in, most notably the Mercedes-AMG E63 wagon, Audi RS6 Touring and, soon, BMW’s M5 Touring.
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Good news, wago-maniacs: If the tidbit the folks at Carbuzz caught at Monterey Auto Week is correct, BMW could be considering a second wagon for the U.S., and it’s the family friendly version of an old favorite: The BMW M3.
Carbuzz caught up with Andreas Meyer, BMW’s VP of Product Management for the New World, and he said that if the 2025 M5 Touring does well in the U.S., the next-gen M3 Touring could come here as well.
Understand that bringing a vehicle from other markets to the U.S. is not a simple affair. America has strict crash and emissions standards, and if a car isn’t designed for the U.S. market from the get-go, Federalizing it is often prohibitively expensive. The M3 sedan is sold in the U.S., but the wagon would have a different rear structure which would require its own certification. And a new body style usually means emissions and fuel economy must be re-certified as well. Given that any car must hit a certain price point, certification costs come out of profits.
And then there’s the oft-overlooked issue of manufacturing capacity. Any automaker can only build so many copies of a given model. If other markets can snap up all the M3 Tourings BMW can make, then there’s no good business reason to sell it in the U.S.
While the current-gen M3 is, from what Meyer told Carbuzz, too far along in its product cycle for U.S. certification, the next-gen M3 is reportedly going to be an all-electric vehicle. That sure would make it easy to hit emissions requirements, since there’s no tailpipe.
We’ve reached out to BMW for further comment and, as of this writing, have not heard back. (We expect the boilerplate answer: “We do not comment on future product.”) However, we will hold out hope that the CarBuzz scoop is correct, because, dammit, we want an M3 wagon! So, do your part, readers. Go out and buy a BMW M5 Touring and create a demand that will require a supply.
After a two-decade career as a freelance writer, Aaron Gold joined MotorTrend’s sister publication Automobile in 2018 before moving to the MT staff in 2021. Aaron is a native New Yorker who now lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, too many pets, and a cantankerous 1983 GMC Suburban.
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