I’m going to say something that’ll upset a few people: the BMW M3 Touring is not pretty. Something has always been a bit off about it for me, and it’s just not as nice-looking as the Audi RS4/5. Awkward proportions, that enormous grille wearing aggression like a bloke who’s on the juice at the gym. It’s a fast wagon that looks uncomfortable with itself.
But then there’s this.
A BMW Alpina B3 GT Touring sitting on the floor of BMW Melbourne, Alpina Blue over cognac leather, build plaque reading Touring 601. Hand on heart, it might be the best-looking wagon I’ve laid eyes on in years.
The colour combination alone should be studied in design schools. Deep, almost navy blue against saddle brown leather with diamond stitching and gold GT embroidery on the headrests. The 20-spoke Alpina alloys in Oro Tecnico peeking out from behind blue calipers.
The digital cluster doing its own thing entirely, maxing at 340 km/h with the Alpina crest sitting where a BMW roundel has no business being. Every detail considered. Nothing is screaming at you.
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This is what Alpina always did better than M. Where M Division chases lap records, Alpina chased something harder to engineer: the feeling that a car was built by people with genuine taste. The Bovensiepen family started this in 1965, tuning carburettors on a BMW 1500 in Buchloe, Bavaria. Sixty years of that philosophy doesn’t disappear overnight.
BMW acquiring Alpina fully into the group from January 2026 is either the smartest or most dangerous thing they’ve done in years, depending on how much you trust Munich to leave well enough alone. For now, while cars like this B3 GT Touring still carry that Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH & Co. KG plate on the centre console, the soul is intact.
Under the bonnet, the twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six makes 389kW and 730Nm, covering 0-100 in 3.5 seconds. Enough to embarrass most things on the road, delivered through an eight-speed auto that’s been remapped specifically for this GT variant.
It also has four-way adaptive dampers with an Alpina-specific Comfort+ mode, which is the whole point. This isn’t a car you buy because you want to be fastest around a circuit. You buy it because you want to cross the country in March and arrive feeling like a human being.
The wagon market at this price point is genuinely strong right now. Audi’s RS5 Avant is arguably the sharpest thing on the road in this category and would be my second pick. Mercedes has the E53 Estate doing its electrified six thing, competent but not what you’d call characterful. Volvo’s V90 T8 is for people who care more about the school run than the drive itself.
And then BMW’s own M3 Touring sits here like the embarrassing cousin who showed up to the wedding in a novelty tie.
The B3 GT Touring is $184,900 before on-roads. That’s real money. But for a handbuilt, individually numbered grand touring wagon with one of the most considered interiors in the segment, it’s not absurd money. The RS5 Avant will run you similarly, and it won’t have a build plate with your number on the centre console.
If you’re genuinely in the market and you walk past this car at BMW Melbourne without stopping, I can’t help you. Nobody can.
