Does any new car come with more baggage than the latest BMW M5? The name carries with it the weight of huge expectations, and in case you hadn’t heard, the new M5 simply carries a huge weight—5,390 pounds for the sedan and 5,530 pounds for the Touring wagon. A lot of people have made up their minds about this car, and they’re not fans.
So, it’s impossible to go into this car without expectations. The least I can do is approach the M5 Touring with an open mind and judge it on its merits. I’ll cut to the chase: The M5 Touring is brilliant. And compromised.
| Quick Specs | 2025 BMW M5 Touring |
| Engine | 4.4-Liter Twin-Turbo V-8 Plus Electric Motor |
| Output | 717 Horsepower / 738 Pound-Feet |
| 0-60 MPH | 3.2 Seconds |
| Base Price / As Tested | $125,275 / $140,775 |
As a quick refresher, the new M5 takes the previous car’s formula—twin-turbo V-8, eight-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel drive—and adds hybridity to it. A 14.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack built into the floor powers a 194-horsepower electric motor sandwiched between the engine and transmission. Total output is 717 hp and 738 pound-feet of torque, while the all-electric driving range is 25 miles.
The M5 drives like a big M3. BMW’s latest generation of M cars have a super sharp front end and wonderfully neutral handling balance. I figured, given its weight and size, the M5 would feel pretty different, but I was astonished at how similar this thing felt. It’s agile in a way it has no right to be, and even at reasonable road speeds, it’s very throttle-adjustable. I kind of couldn’t believe it.
On narrow country lanes, it still feels big, of course, but get the M5 out on faster, flowing roads and it comes into its own. The grip is immense, and you get a good sense of what the car is doing through the seat of your pants. Even the steering is good, with a very natural weight buildup off-center that communicates what the huge front Pirellis are feeling. Braking is excellent, too, on these $8,500 carbon-ceramics, and the brake pedal is well-tuned to the point that you don’t even know it’s blending friction and regenerative braking.
Pros: Astonishing Handling, Powerful, Well-Integrated Hybrid, Wagon Practicality / Cool-Factor
Then there’s the speed. The electric torque helps with transient response, and the engine loves to rev in typical BMW fashion. The twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 even sounds pretty tuneful with the eight-speed gearbox cracking off shifts with absolute smoothness and precision. At no point does the M5 feel like it’ll stop accelerating either. Triple-digit speeds are all too easy here.
But with the M5 Touring, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. The ride is firm, unbearably so at times. BMW doesn’t use any fancy suspension tech here—no adjustable anti-roll bars, air springs, or a fully active system like Porsche’s—just steel springs and adaptive dampers.
The damping is well judged, but there’s so much spring and anti-roll bar here to control the weight and make the M5 turn like anything worth a damn. Even expansion joints can send a jolt through the cabin, and on New York City’s crumbling streets, the M5 is plain uncomfortable.
On some level, I can understand why BMW tuned the M5 like this. The handling is astonishing for a vehicle of this type, and you’re never in any doubt that you’re in an M car. But at the same time, shouldn’t an M5, of all things, offer a blend of ride and handling? It’s a luxury car that, in the case of the Touring, costs $127,675. And in truth, the lighter M3 rides better.
That’s about it for major faults, though. The only other criticism I have is that there are a lot of drive modes to manage when you add in the five settings for the hybrid system on top of the typical customizations for steering, suspension, transmission, etc. Oh, and the driver’s seat in this tester was creaky after just 9,000 miles of use.
The hybrid system can benefit efficiency, too, despite this surely being one of the only hybrids on the market subject to a Gas Guzzler tax. At least in the kind of driving I do, mixing Metro New York highways and city streets, with a full battery and the lower average speeds typical of the area, you can exceed 30 miles per gallon.
Even with a dead battery, I managed 28 mpg on a drive from Westchester back into Brooklyn. It’s no Prius, and if you’re driving super hard, using the engine to charge the battery, it will drink fuel prodigiously, but it’s way more efficient than I was expecting.
Cons: Incredibly Firm Ride, Too Many Drive Modes, Need To Keep Battery Charged For Decent MPG
With time, I grew fonder of the M5 Touring. I think it being a wagon helped, not just because of the added practicality, but because of the incongruity of the thing. What a strange world we live in, where we’ve arrived at an enormous, 700-plus-hp BMW station wagon with bulging fender flares, a gaping maw, and a bright orange interior.
It’s bizarre, and undeniably cool. In this shade of Isle of Man Green, the M5 Touring has serious presence, even making E63 Wagons and RS6 Avants look understated. It gets tons of positive attention, since it isn’t like anything else on the road. So much of the hate this car gets online just doesn’t translate to the real world, where people aren’t so fussed about spec sheets. There’s a magnetism here—every time I get out of it, I look back at it.
The ride quality is a big drawback here. It’s livable on nicer roads, but if you live where the roads are tough, it’s too much. But I find myself falling in love with the M5 in spite of it.
Nothing else is quite so impressive from an engineering standpoint, while also being downright goofy. An M5 that turns like an M3, a Gas-Guzzling hybrid, a practical station wagon that accelerates like a supercar, a performance car that weighs as much as a full-size pickup. It is ridiculous and sublime.
Competitors
Gallery: 2025 BMW M5 Touring Review
2025 BMW M5 Touring
