By Jeff Glucker
I’m well aware that the jokes could write themselves on this one. There’s been plenty of talk about the latest BMW M5 Touring arriving as an incredibly hefty machine. That’s certainly true. Take a gander at the posted curb weight figure, and you’ll find the numbers 5,481 staring back at you.
Still, we have a vehicle with tremendous power, a comfortable interior, and body panels formed into the perfect vehicular shape: the wagon. I recently spent a long weekend with a particularly peanut buttery BMW fast wagon on a family trip to the Pacific Northwest. Our goal? Find Orcas. The car? Absolutely perfect for our planned adventure.
After a day spent exploring Seattle, my family and I settled in for an hour-long drive north of the city. We needed to catch a ferry in Anacortes, Washington, which would shuttle us to San Juan Island. Escaping an urban space like Seattle is exactly what you want to do when you have access to a luxury longroof.
There’s a plugin-hybrid powertrain hiding beneath the polarizing Sepia Brown paintwork. That color, by the way, is a $5,000 option, and I don’t believe it’s even available for the 2027 model year (the tester here is a 2025). You can easily outrun the opinions of those who dislike the hue thanks to a combined output of 717 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. Forward thrust arrives thanks to a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine paired with an electric motor.
On its own, the gas-swilling mill generates 577 hp and 553 lb-ft, while the AC motor can dole out 194 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque. An eight-speed automatic sends power out to all four wheels, but you can get rowdy if you want and run the car in a rear-wheel-drive-only mode. With my wife and daughter in the car, the weather lightly sprinkling, and highway ground to cover, I opted to keep all four wheels putting power to the ground.
Once in Anacortes, we were lined up to load onto the ferry. Depending on which lane you’re sent down, the corners can be a bit tight. Since the M5 Touring arrives with rear-wheel steering as standard kit, this proved to be a non-issue for the 200.6-inch long wagon.
Arriving in Friday Harbor and exploring the island’s roads, I expected to find that I was piloting the only BMW wagon within a few hundred miles. I was wrong when I pulled up to a local Oyster house and parked next to an M-swapped F80 wagon, complete with a manual gearbox.
After seeing as much as we could from land, it was time to park the M5 for a bit and head into the ocean. If you want to get close to the Orcas, you need a proper vessel. The NAIAD rigid hull inflatable is described as the 4WD of the sea, and it allowed us to get up close and personal with a family of Orcas. It’s always fascinating to see truly glorious animals in their natural habitat. More people should find ways to get closer to nature like this, and perhaps opinions about how we’re treating the world around us could change. I certainly felt the same after a trip to Africa in 2025.
What won’t help change the world is a car like the BMW M5 Touring. However, I do think a plugin-hybrid can serve as a great bridge vehicle. Not just the M5 Touring, since it’s so niche, but the PHEV in general. Owners can get used to operating electric vehicles while retaining the ability to fuel up anywhere and cover long distances with minimal worry. Additionally, when used in performance applications, a hybrid powertrain can deliver tremendous power.
The other side of the discussion, of course, is that they have to deliver that much power since they now weigh so much more. But in a vehicle like the M5 Touring, I do believe the powertrain is well applied. I’ve heard reports of mixed feelings regarding the driving dynamics, but on this trip, I wasn’t pushing the vehicle hard. The ride was comfortable, pleasant, and even slightly entertaining when my family finally fell asleep on our drive back to the airport in Seattle.
The weather, once again, began to drizzle. But I managed to work my way through growing traffic as we moved closer to the city, all while my family slept comfortably in the M5 Touring. As a road trip car, this thing is fantastic. And it should be, considering it starts north of $120k. As tested, this particular brown BMW rings in at $145,475. That’s a fantastic amount of cash, but it’s also a truly fantastic amount of power for a fast wagon in a small competitive segment.
Even at that price, BMW shows no issues selling every one it makes. In fact, the wagon is selling as well as, if not better than, the sedan version. This has led BMW brass to now consider bringing over the new M3 Touring. Audi is considering offering its new RS5 Avant here in the US. And even Genesis has a wicked concept wagon in the G90 Wingback.
Perhaps the wagon revival is just around the corner. And then all of us longroof fans are in for a whale of a good time…