We’re having a serious case of envy when it comes to BMW’s latest product. While we’re lined up to receive the traditional 5 Series sedan and sport-ute-cum-weird-crossover Gran Turismo, but we never suspected that we’d be mourning the loss of the Touring, or at least in North America. Because that’s what’s happening with the latest 2011 model. While other automakers, like Ford, are increasing their ‘global’ product offerings, BMW is segmenting and regionalizing like crazy...

So we won’t get to enjoy the thoroughly redesigned 5 Touring, which sports all of the improvements that the Sedan and GT already revealed, including the optional Driving Dynamic Control suspension and powerful six-cylinder engines. The Touring previews the first application of BMW’s new four-cylinder turbodiesel, which produces 184 hp and a big slug of torque. The company’s Auto Start Stop function comes standard and hits “an average fuel consumption of 5.2 litres/100km (54.3 mpg) and a CO2 emission level of 137 g/km in an EU test cycle,” which is the best in its segment.
The Touring features a traditional wagon shape that hides a 560L cargo area, which can expand to 1,670L with the rear seats folded. And the rear window can open separately from the tailgate itself to stow small items easily.
If you have any desire to own one, you’ll have to put pressure on your local BMW dealer to put pressure on BMW Canada to start looking at adding it to the offerings here. Otherwise, they’ll have plenty of X5s that they can put you into...

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