BMW M3 CS Touring xDrive



Right, we're going to try and do a quick history lesson of BMW's 'CS' badge, hopefully without boring you to tears in the process. These two letters first appeared on a Neue Klasse coupe back in the '60s, which was the 2000 CS. At that time, they simply mean 'Coupe Sport' and they would then be used on the glorious E9 follow-up to the Neue Klasse, although the ultimate derivation of that was the heralded 'Coupe Sport Lightweight', or CSL, which formed the mighty Batmobile of the 1970s.

And from thereon in, the CS emblem remained largely dormant, save for a brief outing on a non-fuel-injected variant of the majestic E24 in the late Seventies, the 630 CS. It wasn't used on any of the first three generations of the 3 Series, the M3 models included. It didn't make it to the E31 8 Series, either. In fact, the next time it was seen after 1979 was more than a quarter of a century later, when the Mk4 3 Series (known as the E46) gave us the delectable M3 CS; a model with more focus than the regular M3s of the time, taking a few parts from the headline-grabbing CSL of 2003 - the CS had the quicker 14.5:1 steering rack of the CSL, it had that car's larger brakes and its more lenient M Track mode for the DSC, and it also had some 19-inch wheels which aped the look of the rims on the CSL (albeit the CS' alloys were not forged like the CSL's, nor were they wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup semi-treaded rubber either).

And quite a brilliant thing the E46 M3 CS was too, especially as you could have it with a manual 'box, something denied to the SMG-only CSL. Yet it didn't look like the idea of the CS stuck with the powers that be in Munich, because the following V8 'E9x' era of M3s never had such a thing. But the derivative was revived, again, for the F82 M4, although we always felt that CS was a little confused - it was way more expensive than the M4 Competition of the time, and it didn't seem to bring enough added dynamic sharpness for the extra money, and yet it was nowhere near as special as that generation's flagship, the astounding M4 GTS.

At this point, the CS model's past was patchy, to say the least, but this was about the point that BMW got serious with this lineage - and it was also the point that these letters clearly ceased to mean 'Coupe Sport' and had to become 'Competition Sport', mainly because they were used on one sublime four-door vehicle: the CS variant of the F90 M5, one of the cars in the running for the hallowed (and entirely made-up) title of 'Best BMW M Car Of All Time'. Although challenging the M5 CS was the utterly magnificent F87 M2 CS, so good that a CS development of the G87 M2 successor is now hitting the streets.

However, with the weighty CSL badge still lingering in the ether, can BMW keep the CS legend of recent years going with a more hardcore version of the exceptional M3 Touring? We spent one week with an M3 CS wagon to find out.

Test Car Specifications

Model: 2026 BMW M3 CS Touring xDrive
Price: 3 Series Touring range from £48,985, M3 Touring xDrive from £93,585, CS as tested was from £120,600 (see main review)
Engine: 3.0-litre straight-six twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: eight-speed M Steptronic automatic, M xDrive all-wheel drive
Power: 550hp at 6,250rpm
Torque: 650Nm at 2,750-5,950rpm
Emissions: 238g/km
Economy: 26.9mpg
0-62mph: 3.5 seconds
Top speed: 186mph
Boot space: 500-1,510 litres
Kerb weight: 1,925kg

Styling

OK, we're going to keep this brief after that protracted school session above. Given that the M3 Touring is such a handsome thing in the first place, those gopping front grilles aside (nope, still not grown accustomed to them after all this time...), it's impressive to note that the CS treatment does ramp up the anticipation factor of this Beemer to off-the-chart levels. It's all the carbon fibre, see? The lightweight material is deployed for all of the bonnet, the motorsport-esque front splitter, the air intakes, the rear diffuser and the mirror caps. With just four body colours offered for the CS, our test car was in Laguna Seca Blue with matte-black and forged 19-inch front, 20-inch rear alloys and it looked most splendid, but the British Racing Green with the signature Gold Bronze matte rims car in these pictures is pretty much spec perfection, in our opinion. Save, of course, for the kidney grilles. Sigh.

Interior

The usual M3 Touring cabin is enlivened with a few 'CS' emblems, namely on the seats, the central armrest pad and the door sills, as well as a red-and-black theme epitomised by an M Alcantara steering wheel with a 12 o'clock marker. The big thing, though, is the standard inclusion of the M Carbon bucket seats. These things, no doubt about it, look ridiculously good, but they have those... weird... trays in the squab, that we're still not entirely sure what they're for (please, people, keep it clean). And the problem is that those front chairs are not the most comfortable pews in the world; not just in the wider scene of automotive seating, but in terms of sculpted buckets in performance machines specifically. On longer journeys, they're a bit of a pain, in all honesty. Shame, because they look so damned fine.

Practicality

The CS sacrifices nothing from the 'regular' BMW M3 Touring, so there's still more than enough room for four adult occupants to get comfortable within, while a decent 500-litre boot with all seats in use rises to 1,510 litres if the second row is folded away. Few things capable of the sheer speed and glittering handling the M3 CS Touring summons up are as practical as this, then.

Performance

The S58 3.0-litre biturbo has been worked on again by BMW M's magicians, taking its output up from the 530hp of the standard M3 Touring (which initially had 510hp when it launched) to 550hp here, with 650Nm of torque to back that up. Again, 20hp is a seemingly small increase, but nothing prepares you for the savagery with which the CS hits. It is so, so quick all around the dial, exploding into rabid acceleration even in its most docile drive modes if you're anything like a touch too heavy-footed with the throttle. And when you dial up the settings on the M3 CS Touring, it is deliciously vicious - with everything it does overlaid with a serrated, snarling straight-six roar that's a sumptuous treat to the ears. So ferocious is this car that it's hard to remember that, ultimately, underneath it all, you're driving nothing more than an amped-up 3 Series Touring.

And fuel economy? OK, we managed to coax it to a peak of 26mpg on a 145-mile mainly motorway run, with 466 miles across a week of testing at least culminating in a return the right side of 20mpg, at 21.9mpg overall. But boil it right down and on more interesting roads, driving the M3 CS Touring in the manner god (or at least some chassis engineers in Garching, which is much the same thing) intended, you'll be looking at mid-teens. Our first 171 miles in the CS Touring were conducted at just 17.5mpg, which probably tells you all you need to know.

Ride & Handling

With its focus on weight-saving carbon, the forged alloys trimming unsprung mass at the corners, and the suspension and chassis getting its own heightened state of CS-specific tune, this 550hp model of the M3 Touring takes the base car's majestic dynamics and just polishes them to an exalted plane of being. This CS is that bit keener to get turned into a corner, that little more playful at the tail when you're powering out of curves, that bit better blessed in the department of steering feel and nuance, that you can't help but marvel at what M has done to the ultimate Touring. For roadholding and feedback, the estate M3 CS is hard to beat.

It is, naturally, quite a firm thing when it comes to ride comfort, while there's a fair helping of tyre noise generated when the CS is running at higher speeds on poorer surfaces. Yet the damping is of such an exquisite and high-spec standard that you could never call the M3 actively uncomfortable. In fact, it's quite glossily smooth when it's running along the motorway, and even when it encounters some truly craven, cratered tarmac (are the UK's roads in the worst state they've ever been in at the tail end of 2026? We'd have to say that yes, they probably are; it's like driving in a warzone at times, having to weave your way along streets crumbling back to the standards of top-layer finishing from the Dark Ages) then you'd be surprised at the dignified way the M3 CS Touring traverses such sections. The reduced unsprung mass of the forged wheels will be a big help here, so really the biggest impediment to the car's overall ride and refinement levels is those daft front seats, rather than its unforgiving suspension set-up.

Value

When you're talking about a car which costs approximately 28.9 per cent more than its source material, for what look like ostensibly marginal on-paper performance gains, the question regarding the M3 CS Touring is whether it can justify its £120,600 outlay. Well, we say, for the sheer dynamic and thrill-a-minute brilliance it brings to the already-talented M3 Touring package, yes, it emphatically does justify the premium. But this discussion is academic anyway, because the limited-run CS Touring has already all sold out. So you can't buy one, even if you wanted to (and you would want to, you really, really would). Plus, with only a rumoured 2,000 units produced worldwide, and the immense credibility the BMW CS badging is building up in the 2020s, it's highly likely that anyone who forked out 121k on one of these things is not going to lose money on it. Not in the longer-term, at any rate.

Verdict

As we explained up top, the CS badge has had a strange legacy over the decades, flitting into and out of service, and eventually coming to mean something different to what it did originally. But there's no doubting that since the middle of last decade, the emblem has found its own niche and developed into something genuinely special in the interim. And the BMW M3 CS Touring is probably one of the finest of the breed; an astounding all-rounder with some of the best road-car kinematics you could hope to experience. Expensive, yes, hard to get hold of, yes, and maybe a little overblown in the looks department for some, also yes - yet it's undeniably one of the greatest single BMW M cars of all time. A thoroughly scintillating thing that, happily for diehard BMW fans (this correspondent included), proves there's plenty of life left in the old Munich dogs yet.