Road Test
BMW 325i SE Touring
Test date 15 November 2005
Price as tested £27,345
Previous BMW 3-series Tourings have typically been estate cars with a focus more on dynamics than load-lugging. Though successive models grew progressively larger, this compact estate remained just that: compact.
But now it seems the Touring has matured a little. It’s as if BMW has realised that driver appeal may not be enough, and is making more of an effort to create a proper estate car, though it retains the admirable dynamics of the latest 3-series saloon. We’re testing the Touring in petrol form, opting for the smallest six-cylinder variant, the 2.5-litre 325i.
In the short time it has been on sale, the new 3-series’ shape has become familiar, if not universally loved. It is less radical than other Bangle-designed BMWs, but the new Three’s overall form, and rear-end treatment in particular, lacks the clean-cut lines of previous
generations. The Touring design works better, though. The reprofiled rump is better resolved and the rear lights sit more easily against the bigger canvas of the Touring’s tail.
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