Did you know?
In the United States, BMW no longer offers a station wagon. You’ll have to thank the crossover/SUV boom -nobody really wants an old-fashioned longroof over a new high-riding machine. The truth is that there are not enough people who want a wagon to make it a viable business case. Sorry, America . There are still markets where wagons sell well, and the majority of these are in Europe. BMW offers two family haulers with two boxes: the 3 Series Touring, and the 5 Series Touring.
These cars share a clever function that has been a hallmark of almost all Bavarian wagons for many years. This separate rear window opening allows you to place small items in the boot without needing to open the tailgate. You can also load longer items at the back, but we don’t recommend it. They can hang from the rear window. BMW engineers had to fight for this feature to be retained in the new 3 Series Touring because not many customers knew about it. Autocar‘s product manager Stefan Horn admitted that not enough people are aware of the opening tailgate window for BMW wagons. He even asked the British publication to mention it in its reviews so that people would know about it. It will be gone with the next generation of wagons from Bavaria. It’s not obvious. Horn stated to Autocar that we argued it should be kept – but customers need to know about it or it will die.”
The new 2020 3Series Touring was the latest model to receive the opening tailgate window feature. With the rear seats down, the longroof version is 53.3 cubic feet (1,000 liters). It is available in Europe with 4 and 2 6-cylinder engines.