32 years on from the debut of the first ever BMW 3-Series Touring, the latest generation of the sporty estate is poised on the start line. This new edition of the five-door 3-Series - beloved of customers in Europe in particular - brings a compelling and seamless blend of driving pleasure and functional appeal to the premium midsize class. Latestgeneration engines and new chassis technology provide a noticeable increase in sporting prowess, while intelligent equipment features optimise versatility both in everyday use and on trips away. The advances made in these core disciplines join with the BMW 3-Series Touring's dynamic take on the new BMW design language, the extensively refined premium ambience of its interior and the latest innovations in control/operation and connectivity to define the character of the new car.

The progressive nature of the latest BMW 3-Series Touring builds on historical precedent. Indeed, the concept behind the new car has its roots in the company's erstwhile quest to bring the pleasure of sporty driving espoused by the BMW 3-Series to new customers - by means of an additional body variant. The original BMW 3-Series Touring presented in 1987 fulfilled this brief in spectacular style, its extended roofline, large tailgate and resultant increase in interior space adding significantly greater functionality to the agile handling familiar from its sedan sibling. BMW now had a new breed of car on its hands, the BMW 3-Series Touring blazing a trail for versatile yet handsome five-door models in the premium midsize class and continuing to set the benchmark for sporty driving characteristics (in what soon became a hotly contested market segment) to the present day. More than 1.7 million examples of the 3-Series Touring have since hit the roads, with the new car's immediate predecessor alone accounting for over 500,000 of these.