BMW M5 Touring Review & Prices

The combination of ‘M5’ and ‘Touring’ is legendary in performance car circles, because BMW has only applied the estate car treatment to three generations of the M5 super-saloon since it was launched in 1984. And yes, that includes the latest G90 model M5.

The new G99 generation M5 Touring manages to be both a sledgehammer and a scalpel. It appears unwieldy, with its immense size and power, yet it’s shockingly precise and easy to use - though it can still get you into trouble if you’re not careful.

While it has lost its supercar-style, high-revving, naturally aspirated engine over the years, the latest M5 features a frankly absurd 727hp, twin-turbocharged, 4.4-litre V8 hybrid engine under the bonnet. 0-62mph is dispatched in just 3.6 seconds, 0.1 seconds slower than the M5 saloon, but considering the Touring weighs more than an X5 M Competition SUV…or a small moon…that’s still some going.

On the subject of super-SUVs, it’s not just the likes of the Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-AMG E53 Estate that you might cross-shop the M5 Touring with; there’s a huge variety of high-performance, high-practicality alternatives on sale. The Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Taycan Sport Turismo and the Range Rover Sport SV all offer a combination of rapid pace and dog-friendly boot space, for example.

Watch: BMW M5 Touring v Audi RS6 Avant v Mercedes-AMG E63 S drag race

The M5 Touring is an enormous car, the same size as a 7 Series was not too long ago, with some outlandish styling features such as the oversized, light-up grille and bulging wheel arches. The LED headlights look almost too small and the rear diffuser too big, but there’s no denying that the M5 is aggressive through and through - and the Touring’s design is far more coherent than the saloon’s.

Inside is much like a standard 5 Series though, with only the small flash of M-ness to remind you of what you’re driving. There’s a strip of red at the top of the steering wheel and red accents on the shift paddles and start button, and a pair of delightful M5-specific seats at the front, but aside from that you may as well be sitting in a 520i. That’s no bad thing considering BMW’s swish curved touchscreen setup and high material quality, but the infotainment is a bit of a faff to navigate with all of its menus, sub-menus and a lack of physical buttons.

There’s plenty of room inside for all passengers, and a pair of wireless phone charging pads under the touchscreen are useful, but with your phone in situ there’s not that much storage space in the M5’s cabin. The door pockets are a decent size, but the centre console cubby is rather shallow, and it’s frustrating having to use the cupholders to store odds and sods in.

Boot space is down when compared to every other 5 Series Touring on sale - including the electric i5 model - at only 500 litres. Something has to give when squeezing a hybrid battery and electronic differential into a family car, and in this case it’s the depth of the cargo area. There’s an optional electronically retractable tow bar and a 2000kg towing weight, should you be inclined to tow your classic E30 M3 race car about, for example.

The M5 has lost none of its performance prowess in the name of practicality. Never mind the 0-62mph time, it’s the way in which the M5 hides its weight on a country road which amazes. With a slew of adaptive drive settings for the engine, gearbox, suspension and even brakes, you can set the M5 up to suit your driving style and have a whale of a time when the going gets twisty.

Motorways are serene as it glides at high speeds in its softest settings, but it does feel stiff over broken city roads. The M5 avoids feeling crashy through potholes, but you can tell it’s a performance car by the way it’s shaken about in dips and over bumps.

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The M5 Touring’s price tag starts at over £110,000, which is a huge amount of money until you realise that the M5’s closest alternative in the Audi RS6, which is less technologically advanced, also starts at around the same price - without the ability to drive around town on electric power alone.

While it does come with a good amount of standard kit, as it should considering its price, it’s easy to push the M5 Touring’s price up substantially by ticking just a few option boxes. The Ultimate Pack, for example, costs around the same as a small hatchback. It’s easy to spec a car up to the nines when spending this much money, but considering the BMW M3 Touring offers much of the same performance and comfort for tens of thousands of pounds less, you’ve got to really want an M5 to get behind the wheel.

Comfortable in town and rapid on the lanes, but there’s no escaping the M5’s enormous size

In town

BMW has managed to make the M5 Touring no more difficult to drive around town than a run-of-the mill 5 Series, which is a mighty impressive feat. The driving position is fantastic and the M5-specific seats are hugely supportive with plenty of adjustability, and in its softest setting the M5’s suspension does a remarkable job of ironing out battered roads at low speeds.

That’s not to say it’s perfectly smooth, as bumpy roads can shake the M5 around a little. No matter how good the suspension is, there’s no hiding the fact that it’s a car set up for performance with stiffer springs than on a regular 5 Series. It’s noticeable on the Touring as there’s less isolation from the rear suspension, but large potholes do cause an audible suspension thud which you can hear from the back of the car.

The biggest benefit of the hybrid drive system is that it has a useable real-world range of around 30 miles if you’re gentle, and under electric power the M5 Touring is a very relaxing car to drive.

On the motorway

Motorways are a delight in the M5, as its prodigious power output makes getting up to speed a piece of cake. You can get up to cruising speed on electric power alone at a decent rate without having to use the engine, but when you do decide to overtake then the M5 will oblige with no hesitation.

In its softest settings the M5 Touring is no harder to drive than a 5 Series with its engine barely ticking along to keep you going. It’s a shame for adaptive cruise control to be an optional extra on a car this expensive, especially as it’s a great system which will comfortably keep distance and change lanes for you.

The estate body shape of the M5 Touring means there’s a little more road noise than in the saloon, with its enormous rear tyres humming into the cabin. It’s not intrusive, but the tyre roar is a little noticeable if you’re not listening to loud music.

On a twisty road

A powerful engine and practical cabin wouldn’t be enough for the Touring to live up to the M5 badge, but fortunately the latest model can handle itself on a B-road blast. When we tested the saloon with professional measuring equipment, it produced a monstrous 774hp - little wonder that the M5 pins you back into your seat with a 0-62mph time of 3.6 seconds.

You wouldn’t believe that you’re piloting a two-and-a-half tonne battleship, as the geniuses at BMW M have fettled the suspension and programmed the M5’s computers to hide the big estate car’s weight. It corners flat with almost no body roll, and you’ll even feel the car rotate around you with the right settings ticked, but the M5’s cornering ability is more impressive than it is immersive.

On our narrow country lanes, you can’t help shake the feeling that you’ve got no breathing room in the almost two-metre wide BMW; if someone comes around a blind corner a little in your lane then the hedgerow to your left will feel as though it’s in the passenger seat.

In its softest suspension mode the M5 can bottom out on a rutted road at speed, or in its stiffest settings it gets shaken about aggressively, and the M5 Touring just isn’t as fun as some of its more fleet-footed alternatives.

And you shouldn’t need a menu shortcut to navigate the iDrive and choose from an overwhelming selection of settings to tailor the M5 to your driving style. Yes, there’s a programmable ‘M’ button on the steering wheel you can save your settings to, but it’s all a bit…much, even if it is a devastatingly fast car to drive.

The Touring is definitely the most practical M5 variant, but its boot isn’t that much bigger than in the saloon

Up front, the M5’s cabin is great for long distance drives. The standard-fit sports seats are figure hugging and supportive without being too constrictive for those with a larger build, but the shoulder bolsters do crease very easily. We found marks in the leather on a car with just 1500 miles on the clock, which were especially noticeable in the ‘Sakhir Orange’ leather finish.

You can’t sit low down in the M5 as a result of the underfloor battery packs, meaning the seating position is never quite as sporty as you’d hope for in a super-saloon. Even in the lowest position possible you’ll find yourself at eye-level with small SUV drivers - and your elbows will bash up against the chunky centre console and arm rest on the door.

Big door bins, a small centre console cubby, a pair of cupholders and two wireless charging pads add a little convenience to the M5’s expanse of interior space making it an easy car to live with.

Space in the back seats

The Mercedes-AMG E53 Estate and Audi RS6 Avant have the big BMW beat for leg room, but that doesn’t mean the M5 is anything less than capacious in the back. The cabin feels airy, even with the front sports seats’ wide shoulder bolsters, especially with the glass roof option ticked.

There’s enough shoulder room for three adults to sit in the back comfortably on shorter drives, or if you’re four-up on a long journey then a pair of USB-C chargers and a flip-down armrest with cupholders will keep your rear occupants comfortable and entertained. The door bins are large enough for a couple of water bottles per passenger too.

Boot space

With a 500-litre boot capacity, the BMW M5 Touring sits firmly in the middle between its two closest alternatives: the Audi RS6 Avant at 545 litres and the Mercedes E53 Estate at 460 litres. The regular 5-Series has a slightly larger 520-litre boot - you lose 20 litres to fit the M5’s larger differential in - and while it’s a usefully square shape the M5 has two bulges in the boot floor which intrude when loading wider objects.

Though if you don’t need as much space up front, the BMW M3 Touring offers just as much boot space, and almost as much performance, in a smaller and cheaper package.

Solid build quality and clever tech aplenty, but previous M5s have felt more special inside

There’s not a great deal separating the M5 Touring from any other 5 Series, but the changes are very much driver-focused. Again, the excellent sports seats are the biggest difference, but smaller details such as a new flat-bottom steering wheel and some small red flashes around the cabin mark out the M5 as the top-of-the-range model.

The steering wheel buttons and paddle-shifters on the steering wheel aren’t as ‘clicky’ to use as you’d hope for, but on the flipside the configurable ‘M’ buttons on the wheel do add some extra sportiness.

While the enormous wide-screen displays are pretty to look at with razor-sharp graphics and a nifty digital M5 that mimics your lights and steering input on screen, there’s just too many menus, sub-menus and settings to choose from for the infotainment to be intuitive to use.

Fortunately BMW has retained the rotary controller for the infotainment system, but once again you still need to battle through a myriad of menus which can be distracting on the move. You can program in shortcuts on a swipe-down menu on the main display, but the screen is so wide that it takes real concentration to select options on the side furthest away from you.

The big light-up trims around the cabin are a bit tacky, especially when selected in the BMW M colour-scheme which floods the interior with red and blue light. Less lounge bar, more kebab shop…or police car.

The BMW M5’s split-personality extends beyond its driving manners to its fuel efficiency, and depending on how you drive the M5 Touring can be very economical or very, very thirsty.

Drivers with a lead foot and a propensity to carve through corners won’t see more than 10mpg and frequent trips to the petrol station. If you do most of your miles in town or on a gentle commute and have access to a charger, then the M5 Touring’s electric range means that you might barely see a petrol station.

The biggest advantage of the M5 is that it produces low CO2 emissions, avoiding the worst first-year tax hit and falling into the 8% benefit-in-kind company car tax bracket. If you’re a CEO or company director looking for a high-performance family car, the M5 touring will cost you less than most of its alternatives.

The M5 Touring takes its crash safety rating from the regular 5 Series saloon, with which its body is near-identical under the skin. The 5 Series earned a full five-star rating in Euro NCAP crash testing, with an 89% score for adult occupant safety and 85% for child occupants - great news for families with children. Equally impressive is its 86% score for vulnerable road user (pedestrian) safety.

A comprehensive camera and sensor array around the M5 Touring helps when parking and makes for reliable lane-keep assist, but it’s a shame that some of the safety features BMW has developed are optional - especially the active cruise control.

With an enormously powerful engine and hi-tech electronic systems, the M5 is bound to be less reliable than a typical car with a small petrol engine. Being such a niche model, BMW doesn’t sell enough M5s to get a broad idea of the real world reliability data, but in theory it should be as reliable as any other 5 Series.

BMW ranked 14th out of 32 manufacturers in the 2024 Driver Power survey, placing it just about in the top half. While that may not sound that impressive, it was far ahead of Mercedes and Audi in 25th and 27th places respectively, so the M5 Touring should offer more peace of mind than its German alternatives.

BMW offers a three-year, unlimited-mile warranty which is more competitive than its closest alternatives. Just make sure you don’t miss a service interval, especially the crucial first service, and it’s likely worth opting for the extended warranty for additional peace of mind.