This Swiss M3 Touring Drove Across America and Got Stopped Every Day
Article Summary
- A Swiss owner drove his forbidden-fruit G81 M3 Touring 31,000 km across 40 US states and three Canadian provinces.
- US rules let non-residents bring in a foreign-registered car for up to one year, as long as it isn’t sold and leaves on time.
- BMW’s next-gen G88 M3 Touring is reportedly due around late 2028 to early 2029, with a US launch on the table.
After 17 countries and the North Cape, Instagram’s @konkavius shipped his forbidden-fruit wagon to North America and put more than 31,000 km on it. If you own an M3 Touring in America, you get asked one question more than any other. “How did you get it here?” The Swiss owner behind the @konkavius account heard it every day. Drivers rolled down their windows at highway speed to ask. Strangers stopped him in parking lots. Plenty of others settled for a thumbs up, which on an interstate is about the most anyone can manage.
“People freaked out everywhere,” he told us. “I got stopped on a daily basis, asking how the car can be here.” The answer is less exciting than a smuggling story, but it’s a useful one for any European thinking of doing the same trip.
How A Swiss-Plated M3 Touring Is Legal In The US
BMW never federalized the G81 M3 Touring, so it can’t be sold or registered here as a new car. There is a loophole, though, and it’s aimed at tourists. According to NHTSA, a vehicle registered outside the US can be brought in for personal use by a non-resident for up to one year, but it can’t be sold while it’s here and has to leave within a year of entry, with no extensions. CBP’s rules are just as strict: once that year is up the car goes back out, and there are no exceptions.
Owners need the DOT HS-7 declaration and EPA’s sign-off, and EPA requires written approval before the car is imported. The exemption also comes with limits on use, and it can’t be used if the car’s main purpose is business or if someone other than the importer or their spouse is the primary driver. So the car was never going to stay. It just visited, legally, for the kind of road trip most Americans never take.
17 Countries, 40 States, And The North Cape
This isn’t a garage queen that got a plane ticket. Before North America, the wagon had covered 15 European countries, including a run to the North Cape in Norway, the northernmost point of mainland Europe. In the US and Canada, it added 40 states and three Canadian provinces. “The M3 Touring is much more than just a car to me,” he said. “For me, cars are meant to be driven and experienced, not just admired. Every trip adds another chapter to the story we share.”
Crossing America had been a long-running dream, and he wanted to do it from behind the wheel. Over 31,000 km (roughly 19,000 miles), the M3 went through deserts, mountain ranges, forests, coastlines, and the Great Plains. It drove on beaches, climbed above 14,000 feet, and saw everything from snowfall to 117 degrees Fahrenheit. He also reached all four corners of the continental US.
The car suited the job. The G81 M3 Touring comes only with xDrive, but a button puts it in rear-wheel drive. “AWD when you need it, RWD at the push of a button, performance, comfort, and, of course, plenty of space,” is how he sums it up. It’s the case enthusiasts have been making to BMW of North America for years, in one sentence.
Colorado Over The Alps? Sort Of
Coming from Switzerland, he knows good mountain roads. What surprised him in America was the size of it. “You can drive for hours through deserts, forests, mountains, or endless prairie without seeing another town,” he said. “That feeling of space and freedom is something I had never experienced before.”
His favorite state was Colorado, for how often the scenery changed: mountain roads, alpine lakes, forests, and colored rock, sometimes all in one day. His favorite single road was the Tail of the Dragon on the Tennessee and North Carolina border, which is about as enthusiast-approved as American roads get. He also drove on an Atlantic beach and then a Pacific beach a few weeks later, and called it an unreal feeling.
He also found Americans welcoming and curious, especially once they spotted Swiss plates on what he says is “quite possibly the only M3 Touring in the country.” We can’t confirm that. Given the reactions he got, he may not be far off.
The Forbidden Fruit Might Not Stay Forbidden
The reactions he got say something BMW is apparently hearing too. The M3 Touring has been the car American BMW fans want most and can’t buy, and that could change with the next generation. We reported in August that the next M3 Touring carries the G88 code, with a launch expected between late 2028 and early 2029 and, this time, a US business case of its own. Strong US sales of the M5 Touring are a big reason for that, and the wagon is expected to use an updated S58 inline-six with mild-hybrid assistance, making around 550 hp.
None of this is official yet. A US-market M3 Touring would still need its own crash and emissions certification, and BMW has walked away from American wagons before. But if Munich needs proof of demand, it could do worse than look at a 31,000-km trip where Americans pulled over just to see a wagon. Until then, the only way to see one on US roads is to find a European tourist with a year to spare.
[Photos: @shazamshots / @carmi.png]
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