The highlight of BMW’s booth at this year’s Geneva Motor Show is the new 3 Series Gran Turismo, a sport estate version of the F30 sedan. Knowing that this car may cause a bit of controversy, BMW dispatched its head designer Karim Habib to Geneva to try and explain what they were thinking when designing this car.

So without further ado let’s hand over to Mr. Habib and see if he can make sense of the 3er GT:

Regardless of the design, the 3 Series Gran Turismo is a good, versatile family car. It is spacious, well-equipped, and comes with a range of great powertrains. The range-topping six-cylinder petrol engine under the bonnet of the BMW 335i Gran Turismo is joined by the state-of-the-art four-cylinder petrol units in the BMW 328i Gran Turismo and BMW 320i Gran Turismo.

The two 2.0-litre diesel engines powering the BMW 320d Gran Turismo and BMW 318d Gran Turismo round off the line-up at launch. The power is sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, although BMW also offers an eight-speed automatic as an option for all engine variants. Both gearboxes link up with the fuel-saving Auto Start-Stop function.