You have to wonder: what took them so long? While Mercedes-AMG and Audi have, for many years, offered estate versions of the C63 and RS4, BMW chose not to adapt its M3 to wagon format.

That all changed last week when it announced the Touring version of its iconic medium-sized performance model — the first of its sort. Well, the first of its sort in series production anyway. Some might remember that the automaker toyed with the idea many moons ago, using the E46 M3 as the basis.

A development study took place in 2000, seeing the creation of a prototype. “The vehicle allowed us to show that, from a purely technical standpoint at least, it was possible to integrate an M3 Touring into the ongoing production of the standard BMW 3 Series Touring with very little difficulty,” the company said. Perhaps we will never know the official reason behind their decision not to follow through...