Sunday Drive: BMW M340i Touring

Sunday, 27 September 2020

• BMW M340I TOURING

• Base price: $129,300

• Powertrain and economy: 3.0-litre turbo-petrol inline-six, 285kW/500Nm, 8-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 8.0 L/100km, CO2 184g/km (source: RightCar).

• Vital statistics: 4713mm long, 1827mm wide, 1440mm high, 2851mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 500 litres, 19-inch alloy wheels.

• We like: Plenty fast, looks great, wagon body means practicality

• We don't like: Brakes need some refining, rides hard even in Comfort, auto fast but without theatrics

BMW is gearing up to release its latest M3 and M4 high-performance twins and, for the first time ever, the M3 will be joined by a Touring variant. It won’t be here until next year or even early 2022, so until then, fans of Bavarian high-performance wagons will have to be content with this, the M340i Touring.

It’s the wagon version of the M340i Sedan, as you may have already deduced, with the same 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six sending power to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. The engine punches out 285kW and 500Nm of torque with a healthy 7000rpm redline and it doesn’t feel like there’s a point in the rev range where the engine isn’t pulling like a mule on steroids.

From standstill, the Touring will hit 100kmh in a claimed 4.5 seconds (although it’s probably faster in reality), versus the Sedan’s 4.4 seconds. It keeps going too, onwards to licence-losing speeds with startling ease. Pitch it into a corner and, despite the kerb weight of 1770kg, the Touring just won’t get ruffled. The front wheels haul the nose around and the rear-bias in the xDrive all-wheel drive system shunts the rest of the car out of the corner and into the next. Helping things is an electronically locking differential which works brilliantly.

Click it into Sports Plus and everything is tightened up, from the suspension to the throttle response. Under normal circumstances this makes for a hard, lurchy ride but when your right foot is closer to the carpet than it really should be, the M340i Touring will devour any back roads you care to throw at it.

Hot tip: pressing the traction control button once engages “dynamic traction control” which allows the tiniest bit of slippage at the rear to make you feel like a hero before subtly bringing everything back in line.

This is a driver’s car, first and foremost. The steering is heavy in Sports Plus and direct; you can feel exactly what the wheels are doing without needing a few gym sessions to muscle the car around first.

The chassis is nicely refined and gives you heaps of confidence to push the tyres to their limits. I have no doubt that this would give other sedans and coupes a run for their money, especially on a racetrack where you don’t need to worry about speeding cameras.

The brakes, specified to M levels in this example, do need a bit of tweaking though. They have plenty of stopping power but the pedal has a sponginess to it that dulls immediate feedback. The system is also quite touchy, a result of a bit too much boosting, which makes slowing the car comfortably something of an art. It’s easy to give the pedal a millimetre too much pressure coming up to a red light and watch your occupants heads bounce against the headrest.

Additionally, while the ride is far from uncomfortable, it could be easier on the glutes in Comfort mode. Ideally I’d like one more notch of softness in the suspension but, as I say, this would still make a fantastic tourer. Don’t forget about BMW’s brilliant active safety gubbins like active cruise and lane keep assist.

The interior is nicely premium with plenty of leather and soft-touch materials, a brilliant Harmon Kardon stereo and the latest iDrive infotainment system.

This wagon is, in my opinion, exactly what a performance wagon should be. It’s fast but not ridiculously so. It can whip around corners but it’s also happy cruising to the beach on a sunny weekend. And it’s not stupidly expensive. It’s easy on the fuel tank too – the average fuel use sat at around the 9.0L/100km mark until I took it out for a spirited drive and ruined the consumption rating. Even then the figure only moved to 11.0L/100km.

If I had to nitpick, aside from what I've already nitpicked above, I would say the boot could be bigger but 500 litres is hardly small. The automatic is quick but it doesn’t evoke the same naughtiness as Mercedes-AMG’s crackling dual-clutcher in its six-cylinder cars.

Same with the exhaust note, actually. The M340i sounds great but it’s just too quiet and the burbles off-throttle don’t get into the cabin like they do in something like a C 43 Estate. A shame, because the straight-six howl will always be superior to a V6 soundtrack. That’s one thing I’m hoping the M3 Touring will rectify. I don’t need more power and a harsher ride, just give me volume!

You might notice I’m avoiding the other German fast wagon and that’s simply because I haven’t driven an Audi S4 Avant in too long to provide an honest comparison. On paper, it looks like BMW has the faster wagon but I know Audi’s current interior is a lovely place to be and I can’t judge ride quality from a computer screen. Stay tuned though, this is a niche I want to explore further.