By Ross Ballot
The 2025 BMW M5 Touring is a punching bag for those looking to dunk on the bloat and complexity inherent to modernization and hybridization. Those woes are not unfounded, but they undermine the exciting, practical, and blisteringly fast wagon that is finally available in the ‘States for our consumption. Its availability alone deserves our praise, even if some aspects of M5 Touring work better in theory than in application.
The internet, or at least It’s too heavy, too complicated, too screen-reliant, too stiff, too expensive, and too focused on being hyper-modern. Or at least that’s what the internet wants you to think. All of those concerns are valid, and not inaccurate. And do you know what? I don’t freakin’ care, and you shouldn’t either.
The public sure didn’t. More people approached me to talk about this car than any other that I’ve had in recent memory, the last being the Ford Bronco Raptor. From commenting on the color to just admiring and complimenting it, it’s a hit with the general public. Kudos to the Isle of Man Green.
An M5 For the Modern Era
Inside, it’s equally psuedo-modern and doing a desperate plea to be both long-haul Autobahn-comfortable and envelope-pushing BMW-esque. Woes? The screens can be a bit overwhelming, the trim has a tendency to reflect sunlight directly into your eyes, and it all feels like it won’t age particularly well. There’s no timelessness or subtlety to be found here, just a setup intent on bringing the maximum modern tech to your senses. It’s great fun now before the novelty has worn off, though we doubt after a few years of ownership that we’d feel similarly, or at least once the seemingly infinite lighting choices are fully explored. Hopefully it can all be turned off.
That said, the Orange/Black Merino Leather interior is simply gorgeous and contrasts with the green exterior in a way only a German car can. The panoramic sunroof makes things feel open and airy despite a relatively high beltline, and the cabin is just an easy, cozy place to fall into and spend time. We’d be content in there whether it was on a track or a cross-country drive.
Hybrid-electric mastery
But the interior isn’t what sells an M5. The star of the show is the performance, and with a hybridized powertrain for the first time ever, this M5 Touring better impress. And impress it does, albeit with caveats.
Power has always been an M5 strong suit, and that’s no different here. The 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 is paired with a 22.1 kWh battery, the combination of which makes 717 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. Electrification exists for efficiency and performance, and the latter is the purpose for which it exists here. You can charge the M5 Touring from 0-100% in roughly two hours, and it allegedly gets 54 MPGe, but you’re looking at a paltry 13 MPG when running in gas only, and worse when you put the hammer down.
With the traction control on, the M5 is a bona fide missile. The gas-electric combo makes for a genuinely rapid machine 0-60, which BMW claims to be 3.5 seconds, and as we know BMW is always quite conservative with this number. Other outlets are showing roughly ~11 second quarter mile times, which is insanely quick for a wagon. It will also do 190 MPH, not that anyone ever will.
The thing is, those numbers aren’t any better than the outgoing car, which would routinely post sub-3 second 0-60 MPH times and ¼ mile runs of the same times. Which means that it’s time to address the elephant in the room: The M5 Touring’s weight. It comes in at a hefty 5,530 pounds, or an American passenger more than my Lexus GX460 weighed before I started slapping off-road parts on it. Yeah, it’s got a lot of mass to shove around.
Numbers only matter so much
Take the comparative point out of the equation though, and the M5 Touring is just a good, surprisingly rowdy time.
Turn off traction control? You’re in for a shitshow. Put it into RWD with traction and stability off? There’s not a chance in hell that you’re getting traction. For low-speed shenanigans, it’s great fun, almost reminiscent of what you could do with an M5 before they threw xDrive at it in a plea for impressive acceleration times. If you want to hoon, you can certainly do so in the newest M5.
And we like that. Actually– we love that. It gives the M5 character and excitement that otherwise is restrained and contained; with the nannies on and the car running in electric, it feels indiscernible from any other EV from behind the wheel. In Comfort or Eco mode, there’s no joy, no emotion, just a good, well-done car.
That’s not what we want from an M5 though. We want something that is a backbone to adventures, not a silent partner. Something that is Jekyll-and-Hyde, Two Face, and Angel-Meets-Devil. Calm when you need, and a beast when you desire.
It’s a huge relief to say that BMW achieved that, albeit in a different way from what we have come to know of the M5 and its long history. This G90 M5 is a discernible side-step from the lineage that precedes it, and undoubtedly there will be those who have woes with its way of getting there. In 2025, a “fully rounded” car can do the electrification thing too, and BMW had to bake that in while also juggling the effortless, comfortable performance that the M5 name has become synonymous with.
They nailed it from a drivetrain perspective, even if it’s not the loyalist or traditionalist’s way of getting there. The M5 has perpetually been the well-rounded, do-it-all single car solution; it’s the car you buy to have everyday comfort and something to light your hair on fire when the opportunity presents. Mission accomplished.
And there’s no escaping it: To do it all, you have to pay. The 2025 M5 Touring starts at $121,500 and with the options our test vehicle had– ceramic brakes ($8,500), the M Drivers package ($2,600), plus gas guzzler tax and destination– the final tally was $140,775.
For reference, the last M5 we tested rang in at $139,145. But it wasn’t a wagon, and it wasn’t competing against cars like the Audi RS6 and Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo. Look for a direct competitor today and you only find the Audi RS6. It stickers around $135k, might somehow be more analog feeling even if slightly less involving overall, and is gas-only. There’s no AMG wagon on sale today, and the Panamera Sport Turismo is dead. The M5 Touring finally fills a gap we have long lusted it fill, and suddenly it’s in a lonely market.
Not a perfect car, but a damn good M5
The 2025 BMW M5 Touring is inherently troubled, especially when compared to the glory of the outgoing M5, and yet its sheer existence and well-roundedness make for an extremely appealing proposition. The car isn’t without faults, and those don’t permeate how it might act or stand as a reliability proposition down the line, but for a new car you can buy today, it’s a hoot, and a car you would be happy to daily, happier to run on a track or back road, and happiest to road trip.
And that’s the mark of a great M5: A car that can suitably do it all, from mundane to madness, from boring to blasting, from needless commuting to driving chaos. It’s far from perfect, but with its ability to carry two personalities and excel on both fronts, it’s the best M5 yet.
Yay
- Beautifully mated electrification and internal combustion
- Demonically fast
- Wagon practicality
- A great thing to live with every day, especially when running electric only
- Popular among onlookers and passerbys
Nay
- Too heavy
- Too complicated
- Too screen-reliant
- Some questionable design choices inside and out
- Interior trim blinds you with sun’s reflection
The Takeaway
Show stopper, people pleaser, and king of automotive enthusiast controversy, the the M5 wagon finally hits North American shores, and though it perhaps prioritizes technological prominence over its namesake’s relaxed point-to-point driving missile mantra, it’s as good as it gets for an enthusiast-forward single do-it-all vehicle.
Jeff Glucker