Pour One Out for Another Wagon: BMW Will Not Renew the Stretched 3 Series
Has the crossover craze taken another victim? Or is it just simply a case of a rare body style not drawing sales?
It’s not like wagons (with some exceptions — ahem, Subaru) were selling like gangbusters before the current crossover trend took off.
Still, the BMW 3 Series wagon has garnered attention from enthusiasts in search of utility. But, alas, it appears that the next-generation 3 Series won’t be sold with a wagon variant, at least not in these United States.
A BMW spokesperson had this to say to Autoblog about the possibility of a wagon variant of the upcoming G20 3 Series: “There are no current plans to bring a Sports Wagon version of the new BMW 3 Series to the U.S.”
That does leave the door open if the company changes its mind. After all, Volvo still offers premium wagons, and Jaguar launched its XF Sportbrake just last year. So there may be a market for premium wagons – but BMW probably figures its brand intenders will be just as happy with an X2 or X3.
We’re not counting the Regal TourX here – while Buick is an entry-luxury brand, the TourX might not be cross-shopped against the 3 that much. Still, Buick’s decision to launch that car not too long ago suggests that OEMs at least think there is still a wagon market. OEMs except for BMW, apparently.
That said, automakers rarely sell a car that’s not helping the bottom line, and it’s possible that 3 Series wagon sales were too low to justify the cost of selling it here, crossover fever or not. BMW doesn’t break out the sales numbers separately.
The 3 Series wagon will remain on sale through the 2019 model year, with one version available. That will be the all-wheel-drive, turbocharged four-cylinder 330i xDrive.
Wagon now, or forever drive a crossover, apparently.
[Image: BMW]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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I have already owned the greatest BMW wagon anyway...Euro Spec LHD E30 chassis wagon. Nothing to improve on. I drove a current gen one. Was a nice car, but not worth the price of admission.
I made 2 purchases in 2005. My first house and a new Mazda 6 Sport Wagon. It had one option, a body color grill. V6, 5-spd, it was the perfect choice for the first time homeowner. I didn’t have a job when I bought it and paid 19k for it. We had just moved to another state and I was still job hunting. It was a fun car for the time. It was bare bones and I wanted something a bit more luxurious once I found gainful employment. I traded it for a new 2007 XC90 V8 as we were planning on starting a family and I didn’t want to drive them around in that tin can. We had twins in 2010 and my wife still drives the XC, now pushing 110k on the clock. Since then, I’ve purchased 5 new cars since 2012, all sedans. Every time I shop I look at the wagon offerings and decline. I would have loved a 3er wagon but not with a 4cyl. I shopped the E400 wagon when I was buying this summer but it was about 10k more than I wanted to spend with the options I wanted. I guess I’ll just drive sedans from now on. Oh wait.
EBFlex is a peter puffer