• Upgrade in useable boot space
• Some clever and unusual features
• Plenty of space for passengers, too

How much space is there?

The 3 Series is spacious for most typically-sized families – legroom for rear-seat passengers in particular is generous, with a six footer being able to get behind a similarly-sized person up front in reasonable comfort. There’s also enough headroom for all but the tallest of passengers. Up front, there’s lots of adjustment, an agreeable driving position with good forward visibility, and oodles of legroom.

That’s not bad considering the BMW 3 Series Touring isn’t the biggest estate car around – it offers almost exactly the same amount of passenger space as the Audi A4 Avant and Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate, while less prestigious alternatives such as the Volkswagen Passat and Skoda Octavia have far larger boots. However, BMW has ensured the space available is very intelligently deployed.

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Boot space and storage 

With the seats up the total boot area is 500 litres. But the most easily accessible space – the part you see upon opening the tailgate – rather than including all the various tucked-away cubbyholes and so forth, actually adds 32 litres.

Think about 32 litres in terms of bottles of water, and you’ll get an idea of how much more room that is. With the rear seats folded, maximum boot space is now 1,510 litres – 10 more than before. A pop-out rear window, activated by the keyfob or a button on the windscreen-wiper base, makes it easy to drop in bags when there’s limited space to open the whole bootlid.

The bootlid is power-operated as standard, with optional hands-free operation, and the load cover and passenger-protecting mesh barrier now fit in a compartment under the boot floor when not needed.

Is it easy to park?

The BMW 3 Series Touring doesn’t feel that big when out on the road. Forward visibility is good, although the chunky rear pillars are more than capable of obscuring a pedestrian or lamp post. Front and rear parking sensors are standard on all versions, while a rear-view camera is standard on most.

The 3 Series Touring can also be specified with automatic parking technology. This allows the vehicle to scan for a space and theoretically park itself with minimal input from the driver.

View dimensions in the BMW 3 Series Touring specs pages

Towing capacity

This varies with model. The 320i and 330i can tow 1,600kg with a braked trailer, while the 320d, M340d and M340i can tow 1,800kg braked. BMW UK reports that towbars are a very popular option on right-hand drive cars, telling you plenty about the intended use many owners have for their estate cars.

Safety

• BMW Active Guard comes as standard
• More safety kit can be added optionally
• Five-star Euro NCAP safety rating

The 3 Series (in saloon form) scored the full five-star rating when tested by Euro NCAP, with a near-perfect score of 97% for adult occupant protection – a really impressive result. Scores of 87% in both child and pedestrian safety are also very strong showings, as is a 76% score for Safety Assist.

As standard, the 3 Series Touring comes with Active Guard Plus which consists of front collision warning with brake intervention and pedestrian detection, lane-departure warning and speed limit assist, while airbags throughout boost the safety kit count. As an optional extra, buyers can add the Driving Assistant Professional pack, which bundles together a long list of driver assistance and safety equipment:

• Adaptive cruise control
• Automatic speed limit assist
• Front cross-traffic alert
• Crossroads warning and city braking function
• Evasion aid
• Lane-keeping assistant with active side collision protection
• Steering and lane control assistant
• Wrong-way warning

Like most modern cars, the Touring is available with vast amounts of active safety technology, intended to take up the slack when the driver messes things up. What’s worth noting here, however, is that in our experience so far, BMW’s implementation of this technology is close to sublime.

Take the self-steering system, for example, which although active for short periods only before demanding you put your hands back on the wheel, does a super smooth job of maintaining lane positioning.