The M3 Touring wagon is a unicorn for BMW enthusiasts. Only one has been seen, and that was way back in the era of the early 2000s E46 chassis. However, it was just a one-off prototype that came into existence as BMW considered pursuing development. At the 30th anniversary of the car, BMW wheeled it out and the BMW M Division head of vehicle prototype building explained: "This prototype allowed us to show that, from a purely technical standpoint at least, it was possible to integrate an M3 Touring into the ongoing production of the standard BMW 3 Series Touring with very little difficulty."

Every new iteration of the M3 brings rumors of a wagon variant, and each time hopes are scuppered. And now, for the foreseeable future, BMW's new CEO Markus Flasch has dashed any remaining hopes. Talking to Car Magazine in the UK, he said: "Touring estates are not part of our M plan. If I asked customers in Austria, Switzerland or Germany they would probably give it the thumbs-up, but we are a global company and we have so many things to deal with on the powertrain side that we don't go into products like this. This is what the SUVs are for."

It's a curious thing to say considering the growth rate of the M car as a business. There seems to be nothing BMW won't beef up and slap on an M badge at this point. At the beginning of the piece, Car Magazine even asks the rhetorical question: "Is there no sacred cow that M won't slay in the name of growth?

The real answer is yes, but M versions of bulky crossovers don't seem to be a problem. So, at least while Flasch is in charge, we'll have to make do with dreams in the form of renders like the ones above and the creativity and money people are prepared to put into building their own M3 wagons like in the pictures below. Or we can now finally get a seriously fast Audi wagon instead.