BMW 3 Series wagon 2002 Review

The term station wagon has always had a bit of an image problem, conjuring thoughts of cardigan wearing suburban types with the standard issue 2.3 kids, a dog and a healthy mortgage. So these days, if it's a five door practical family car a maker is about to launch, it's more likely to be described as a lifestyle vehicle, or if it comes out of Europe, a sports wagon.

BMW is the latest to enter the fray in the latter category with the new 3 Series Touring, which although neither particularly sporty, nor especially wagon-like in the true sense of the words, is still a welcome addition. The company has had a small wagon variant in its 3 Series lineup in Europe for a long time, but this is the first time it has added the car to its Australian sales list.

Like its German rivals, the 320i Touring is only offered with one engine and goes up against Audi's new 2.0-litre A4 Avant and Mercedes-Benz's supercharged 2.0-litre C200K Estate.

Where you used to be able to determine a Bimmer's engine size by its moniker, that is no longer strictly true and under the bonnet of the 320i Touring, and its sedan and coupe siblings, is a 2.2-litre straight six engine that generates a maximum power of 125kW at 6100rpm and peak torque of 210Nm at 3500rpm. This makes it the most powerful among its rivals - although the torque figure is shy of the Benz's 230Nm - but on the road it still doesn't make for a sports car by any stretch of the imagination.

Weighing in at 1527kg as a five-speed auto - 72kg more than the four-door 320i - the Touring feels a bit sluggish off the line and needs a very firm right foot to get going. Once on the move, however, the throttle response feels more enthusiastic, especially if you keep the revs over 3500rpm through judicious use of the sequential manual Steptronic shift. This allows you to shift the gears when you want to, tapping the shift lever backwards to upshift and forwards to downshift. Like most of these systems, it is a little slow to react and the idiot override is rather quick to take matters into its own hands, but the quality of the shift is smooth and it's easy to use.

Given its sports tag, the suspension is biased towards handling and here the car excels with little indication from the driver's seat that this is in fact a wagon, albeit a small one. The car corners flat, has plenty of grip and the sharp steering offers lots of feedback. Although firm, the ride is still very comfortable making the car eminently suitable for long tours.

And this is probably what most customers will be looking for with the added versatility of the back end. The touring is just 7mm longer than the sedan so it is greater flexibility rather than capacious luggage space that you are getting with the wagon. In fact with the rear seats up, the actual load volume of the touring (435 litres) is slightly less than the sedan but this is expandable through the split folding rear seat back to 1345 litres.

The boot space is very well finished and comes complete with a standard luggage cover and cargo safety net that locks into two positions in the roof, depending on whether the rear seat is up or down. The rear glass can also be opened separately to the hatch, giving easy access to the luggage space in confined parking spaces.

Accommodation for people is reasonable with plenty of room in the front and although adults in the back benefit from a slight increase in headroom over the sedan, the legroom is very tight. A large centre armrest hides a ski-port and incorporates a storage compartment and a couple of cupholders, bound to be appreciated by the kids on a long haul journey.