2025 BMW M5 Touring: Fun Times With the Cooler M5
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Munich, Germany—If you dig the new 2025 BMW M5, surely you’ve read our first-drive review of the sedan a couple of weeks ago. Today, we’ll focus on the M5 Touring, which we also got to drive on its home soil. Remember, the wagon will be sold in Canada for the very first time, with units arriving in Canadian dealerships in January starting at $138,000, or just $3,000 more than the four-door variant.
The M5 is entering its seventh generation (G90) for 2025, with no interruptions between them, while the M5 Touring is just beginning its third. The first one (E34) was built from 1992-1995, while the second (E60) came in 2007-2010. The latest (G91) took 15 years to hit the market.
- Also: 2025 BMW M5: What It’s Like to Drive a 2,400kg Rocket
- Also: 2025 BMW M5 Gets 717 Hybrid Horsepower, Yet is Slower Than Before
G90 vs. G91
The M5 Touring is one heck of a car, featuring a long-roof body style that’s so much cooler and more versatile than the sedan. Both feature a new plug-in hybrid powertrain that is shared with the XM crossover, and that’s because the company had to comply with increasingly stringent emission standards and carbon taxes in several European countries.
The twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 revs up to 7,200 rpm and is joined by an electric motor housed within the eight-speed automatic transmission. There’s also an ultra-thin 14.8kWh battery mounted under the floor. While output and torque are identical to the sedan at 717 hp and 737 lb-ft, the heavier M5 Touring is three tenths of a second slower from 0-100 km/h with a time of 3.8 seconds.
As you can imagine, a number of chassis revisions were made when developing the wagon. For instance, the rear end features specific underfloor struts, including a crossbar, stiffening plate and other bracing elements in the cargo area. Meanwhile, the double-wishbone front axle and five-link rear axle feature unique kinematics and elastokinematics. The M-specific tuning, the individually selectable settings and the ability to adjust the dampers at each wheel individually optimize the body’s connection to the road.
Furthermore, the Integral Active Steering system, M xDrive all-wheel drive system and Active M Differential are all tuned precisely for the weight and size of the M5 Touring, which tips the scales at 2,475 kg—an excess of 40 kg over the sedan—and also happens to be a little less rigid.
Firm Ride With Dynamic Handling
BMW M engineers opted for conventional springs and continuously adjustable dampers rather than an adaptive air suspension because that’s the way a pure sports car should be. Similar to the sedan, the wagon’s ride is firm, even in Comfort mode, and handling is as sporty as it gets. Managing the extra weight, a host of agility-enhancing solutions and technologies were called upon, including the aforementioned Integral Active Steering, M Compound brakes, wider tracks and staggered wheels—all of them standard on the M5 Touring.
The result is a car with excellent grip and remarkable poise, with weight only being felt when entering corners or braking. As mentioned up top, we’ve had the opportunity to test drive both the sedan and the wagon, and they handle quite similarly. Sure, the M5 Touring is heavy, but the rear-biased all-wheel drive system and all the components we talked about still make it a very dynamic performer.
Just like the previous M5, this one allows drivers to operate in pure RWD mode. In order to do so, however, electronic stability control must first be turned off, which might not be a wise move given the phenomenal power and torque generated by the plug-in hybrid system.
Less Capacious Than Audi’s RS 6 Avant
The new M5 Touring is more pleasant and more versatile than the sedan, that’s for sure, but it fails to match the Audi RS 6 Avant in terms of cargo space, whether the rear seats are folded down or not. In typical M fashion, the interior features heavily bolstered M sport seats, large paddle shifters and M sport steering wheel with M buttons allowing drivers to call up two different vehicle configurations they have previously programmed via the centre screen.
Speaking of which, the BMW Curved Display stands out with M-specific graphics and outstanding resolution. Once again, we have one complaint to make: accessing the various menus of the infotainment system isn’t really intuitive.
Let’s face it, the high-performance wagon segment is just a two-car race, with the new BMW M5 Touring on one hand and the more expensive Audi RS 6 Avant Performance on the other hand. We have a really hard time choosing between the two. While the M5 Touring boasts a more technologically advanced powertrain and can operate in pure electric mode for approximately 50 km, it carries much more weight than the Audi.
The two wagons deliver top-level performance, and honestly you can’t go wrong with either one. It’s all about what you’re looking for and what is accessible to you. The fact that Canadians now have a choice is simply fantastic.
