BMW 5 Series Touring Review & Prices

The BMW 5 Series Touring is the estate car version of the popular - and very good - 5 Series Saloon. It takes everything that we like about that car and makes it just a little better with the addition of a stylish wagon body. The extra practicality makes the 5 Series Touring one of the best all-rounders you can buy, though the lack of a diesel engine option and the somewhat divisive exterior and interior styling do hurt its chances a little.

It’s a bit like a Burberry backpack - it’s posh and practical in equal measure, though the style may not be to everybody’s tastes.

Even though SUVs are the flavour of the month - of the last several years, actually - the 5 Series Touring is one of a few estate car options that make really compelling alternatives if you’re not fussed about rugged styling and a high driving position. There’s the Audi A6 Avant if you want something high-tech, the Mercedes E-Class Estate as a classier choice, the Volvo V90 for Scandi style, or even the Volkswagen Passat if you’d like to save a few quid.

The 5 Series Touring sadly doesn’t get off to the best first impression. Where previous generations were long, low and lithe, the latest model shares its underpinnings with the all-electric i5 Touring - and this means it needs to be quite boxy and blocky to account for that car’s underfloor battery pack. Add that to some odd, not-too-cohesive cuts and slashes in the bodywork, piggy little headlights and a big, brash grille, and you’d be hard-pressed to call the 5 Series Touring a beautiful car.

Things improve on the inside - if you’re a technophile, that is. There are two massive screens for infotainment and driver information, and in place of the chrome trim you might have found on older models you get translucent panels with ambient lighting behind them. It’s not for everyone, but it looks pretty cool at night and the infotainment system is one of the better ones we’ve used, albeit some functions like the climate controls would be easier with a few physical switches.

It’s just as spacious as its saloon counterpart up front, and those in the back actually get a little extra headroom thanks to the higher roof line. Storage for smaller items is good too, but if you’re looking for the ultimate carrying capacity then the 570-litre boot is beaten soundly by the E-Class Estate and VW Passat.

Fans of the old BMW 520d and 530d diesels - and that includes the entire Carwow reviews team - bad news. The new 5 Series Touring is available as a mild hybrid petrol, or there’s a choice of two plug-in hybrids. That’s your lot - and while the new engines are excellent, and the two PHEVs are company car tax-friendly, they lack the long-distance cushiness that a diesel provides. The A6 and E-Class both still have the option of topping up at the black pump.

It’s especially a pity because the 5 Series Touring makes such a brilliant motorway cruiser. The suspension strikes the perfect balance, absorbing bumps without making you feel too disconnected from the road. While previous 5 Series models were more fun to drive, the latest car is still better on a twisty road than the heavy E-Class Estate.

The 5 Series Touring is pricey, but it’s a fantastic all-rounder and it’d be our pick of the posh estate cars out there. If you’re interested, check out our latest BMW 5 Series Touring deals, or get a great price when leasing a BMW 5 Series Touring through Carwow. You can save even more by checking out a used 5 Series Touring, and remember you can even sell your old car through Carwow’s network of trusted dealers, too.

The 5 Series Touring range kicks off at just over £55,000, making it a little pricier than the Audi A6 Avant at just over £54,000, but significantly less than the near-£60,000 Mercedes E-Class Estate.

That changes if you opt for the plug-in hybrid models of each, though, because the £61,000 530e Touring becomes a lot cheaper than the £64,000+ A6 Avant e-Hybrid or the nearly £68,000 Mercedes E300 e Estate.

The base M Sport trim gets a sporty body kit, 19-inch alloy wheels, Alcantara and vegan leather upholstery, and plenty of interior kit. Step up to M Sport Pro for a few extra grand and things get even more striking thanks to the illuminated grille, gloss black exterior trim and red brake calipers. You also get a posh Harman Kardon stereo.

The 5 Series Touring strikes a great balance between comfort and driving enjoyment, though it’s no longer the slam-dunk it used to be among posh estates

In town

The slab-sided 5 Series does feel a bit of a behemoth when driving through town - almost like a compact SUV rather than the low-slung estate car you might have been hoping for. The high window line and big alloy wheels make manoeuvring through tight car parks or width restrictions a bit squeaky.

On the plus side, the steering is light, the suspension deals well with bumpy city streets, and there’s a full suite of parking sensors and cameras to support you. Plus, you can option BMW’s clever Parking Assistant Plus, which can reverse the last manoeuvres you made if you’re not the strongest at backing up, and can even remember a complex parking sequence if you regularly go into the same tight gap.

On the motorway

The 5 Series excels on the motorway. Its suspension is perfectly judged here - you can feel poor road surfaces or bumps, but they’re never obtrusive. Wind and road noise is well contained too, and the engines are extremely quiet.

BMW’s assisted driving tech is some of the best around, keeping you steadily in your lane and maintaining a set distance to the car in front with reassuring ease. The only real annoyance is that if you want to adjust your following distance, you have to do that within the touchscreen - there isn’t a quick button on the steering wheel to do it. Adaptive cruise control is also an optional extra rather than standard-fit, which feels stingy.

On a twisty road

The 5 Series has always had an enviable reputation as the most enjoyable large executive car to drive, but the latest model isn’t quite as good as the ones that came before. For starters, the steering is a bit numb, so you don’t feel particularly connected to the road and there’s not much feedback about how much grip the front tyres have.

It’s still composed - the body doesn’t lean too much in bends, and the plug-in hybrids particularly have lots of power out of the corners - but it won’t put a smile on your face. You’ll have to go for the mega-powerful M5 Touring if you want that. Funnily enough, the usually-staid Audi is the better car to drive here - the A6 Avant feels more responsive and agile than the 5 Series Touring.

The 5 Series Touring has a smaller boot than some alternatives, but you don’t lose any space opting for the plug-in hybrid option

The 5 Series’ front seats are really comfy, and there’s loads of adjustment so that even the tallest drivers can find a suitable seating position.

There’s a reasonable amount of storage up front too. The door bins can fit a big bottle, so can the glovebox - plus, you’ll find wireless chargers for two phones. The under-armrest storage is split to make it easier to access, but what’s missing is a place to sling wallets or keys - the everyday detritus from your pockets. An E-Class Estate has more cubbyholes.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats are pretty roomy for two adults - there’s lots of legroom, and headroom is even better than in the saloon version thanks to the higher roofline. There’s even a little space under the front seats for occupants to slide their feet.

It’s not the best for sitting three across as the rear-wheel drive chassis necessitates a big transmission tunnel, leading to a central hump in the floor. That’s a problem shared with the Audi A6 Avant and Mercedes E-Class, though, and at least the 5 Series Touring’s central passenger gets a comfortable seat.

Rear passengers get a pair of cupholders in the flip-down centre armrest, door bins big enough to take a small bottle of water, and a USB-C port in the back of each front seat. You can option phone or tablet mounts to slot in here too.

Boot space

The 5 Series Touring has a 570-litre boot. That sits pretty neatly between the 503-litre Audi A6 Avant and the cavernous 615-litre Mercedes E-Class Estate. However, there’s a clear winner between the plug-in hybrid versions of those cars - while the A6 Avant e-Hybrid only has 404 litres and the E300e has 460 litres, the 5 Series Touring doesn’t lose any capacity whatsoever to battery storage.

You also get a useful 40:20:40 split rear seat, ideal for carrying long, thin items between two rear passengers, as well as some underfloor storage ideal for keeping your charging cables. Fold the seats down and you get a totally flat area of 1,700 litres capacity. It’s a shame that BMW has dropped the useful opening rear window of the previous 5 Series Touring, though - it was great if you wanted to load the boot to the gunwhales, or access the rear storage without letting a beloved dog out, for example.

The BMW 5 Series Touring gets loads of tech and a responsive infotainment system - the Mercedes E-Class Estate feels posher, though

The dashboard of the 5 Series Touring is dominated by a pair of huge screens - a 12.3-inch driver display sits alongside a 14.9-inch one for infotainment, both under the same piece of curved glass giving the illusion of a seamless display.

The driver’s display is particularly good - while you can’t get anything approaching a traditional twin-dial dashboard, the options available are clear and much more configurable than the Virtual Cockpit in an Audi A6 Avant. You also get a head-up display as part of the optional Technology pack.

The infotainment screen is also pretty easy to use, though it has so many functions that you occasionally find yourself scrolling through seemingly endless menus. Helping this is the presence of a physical scroll wheel in the centre console - it means that you don’t have to keep reaching out to touch the screen, which can be tricky on the move. Some climate control buttons would be nice, though, and little things like the air vents are needlessly fiddly because you can’t actually see which way they’re pointing.

Most of the materials feel quite nice, but this generation of the BMW 5 Series doesn’t quite feel as rock-solid in terms of build quality as its predecessor. That’s a complaint you can actually level at the A6 Avant and E-Class Estate, too - all three cars feature a few too many cheap plastics and suspiciously creaky bits of trim considering their £50k+ price tags. The Volvo V90 is the gold standard in this regard.

There are three engines available in the standard BMW 5 Series Touring range - one mild hybrid petrol and two plug-in hybrids. The ballistically powerful M5 Touring and the all-electric i5 Touring should be considered separately.

The 520i is the entry-level car, and it’s a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder with 208hp. Officially it’ll return 45.6mpg, and when we did long motorway runs with the cruise control set we genuinely saw around 45mpg. That figure drops below 40mpg if you’re doing lots of schlepping through town, though, as it’s not a lot of engine to get quite a heavy car up to speed, so it works hard.

The plug-in hybrids start with the 530e, which has 299hp and up to 60 miles of electric range. In official tests it’ll return over 400mpg - in reality, it depends on how you drive it and how often you plug in. With the battery depleted, it’ll do about 36mpg.

The final option is the 550e xDrive, which has all-wheel drive and a massive 489hp. It still has 55 miles of all-electric range, but will be notably less efficient when the battery’s depleted. You might think that’s worth it for the 4.4-second 0-62mph time, though…

Of these three, the 520i is the one to get if you can’t plug in at home, and as a private buyer it makes a lot of sense as it’s not much slower than the 530e and feels lighter. The 530e is definitely the company car of choice, though, thanks to its super-low CO2 figure leading to much cheaper Benefit-in-Kind rates.

When Euro NCAP tested the BMW 5 Series back in 2023, it scored the range as a whole five stars with good results across all four categories. All models come with the standard-fit ‘Driving Assistant’ pack, which has autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert - but you’ll need the pricey Technology Pack Plus if you want adaptive cruise control. BMW does at least provide a nice quick shortcut to turn off the ever-irritating speed limit alerts - just hold down the cruise control ‘SET’ button.

BMW was ranked as the eighth-best manufacturer in the 2026 Driver Power survey, scoring in the top 10 for safety, practicality, interior and infotainment. It was well ahead of Audi, but Mercedes finished in second place.

There isn’t much data on the latest 5 Series’ reliability, but BMW backs it up with a three-year warranty with unlimited mileage. That’s the same as you get with an E-Class Estate but well ahead of the puny 60,000 mile limit on an Audi A6’s warranty.