BMW M5 Touring (G99) 2025 review – super estate returns to battle the Audi RS6

It is the car the internet has been waiting for, and now we’ve finally driven the BMW M5 Touring 14 years after BMW M first shoehorned a 5-litre V10 between the front wheels of an E61 5-series Touring and affixed an M5 badge to its tailgate. Following its reveal at Monterey Car Week earlier this year, and a prototype drive on some familiar Welsh roads in the summer, we’ve now experienced every last drop of its 717bhp electrified V8 powertrain on the road in undisguised and ready-for-customer trim. Customers who will pay just £2000 more over an M5 saloon for the practicality of an estate car. Although that additional cost is added to the substantial £111,405 BMW M charges for the M5 saloon. Is it worth it? Yes. With some hesitation.

With a 40kg weight increase over the saloon, taking the total mass to 2475kg and a mere two per cent increase in total all at the rear, the 4.4-litre twin-turbo hybrid powertrain feels every bit as potent as it does in the saloon. Even in its mildest mode it has the performance to match expectations of a car with a headline power figure of 717bhp. Although that mass is never far from your thoughts, especially so when you do the numbers and realise its 294bhp/ton power-to-weight figure is on a par with the 503bhp G80 BMW M3 Competition. 

> BMW M5 saloon 2024 review – more power, more weight, same old M5 desirability?

At the heart of the M5’s performance is its V8 that revs with impunity and has an endless supply of energy to call upon thanks to the battery pack and electric motors; as with the saloon the 197bhp and 206lb ft fills the gaps in the hot-vee turbocharged V8’s power and torque delivery, and provides that instant shove in the guts when you give it everything, which includes the 738lb ft of torque that’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. At 3.6sec, the Touring is a tenth slower to 62mph than the saloon, two-tenths slower to 124mph, at 11.1sec. Restricted, it stops at 155mph, climbing to 190mph ‘unrestricted’, but we suspect BMW M has restricted this top speed too, down to the capability of the tyres running at that speed and with this much weight. 

On the road the Touring feels big, like its saloon counterpart, but thanks to the chassis technology and systems BMW M has slaved over to perfect, it’s an easy car to place and, cliche alert, it shrinks around you when you start to push on, with no seismic difference on the road in how the Touring reacts compared to the saloon.

Its steering is calm, bright and responsive allowing for good road positioning but it takes some adjustment as your eyes and mind calibrate to the swiftness and precision the Touring can be placed on the road with. It takes quite a few turns for you to reduce your margin of error. Like the saloon, the Touring’s rear-axle steering - 1.5 degrees of counter steer up to 43mph and the same angle but in the same direction as the fronts above that speed - is key to this, resulting in a keener than expected agility allowing you to feel what the front is doing and trust the rear to follow suit. And it takes some heavy right foot to induce any degree of push from the front. It’s no M2 but despite its near Mercedes S-class proportions, it’s far from a fish out of water either. Its near 50:50 weight distribution plays a crucial role here, too.

Wider front and rear tracks (75mm front, 48mm rear) over a regular 5-series provide a packed wheelhouse for the 20 and 21-inch front and rear wheels that are fitted with a Hankook tyre as standard and Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 and Pirelli’s P Zero Corsa as options. Our test car was fitted with the Michelin, providing consistent grip across the board and a level of detail unexpected in this sector. BMW M put this down to running the pressures as low as possible to allow the tyre to work to its optimum and for you to feel it doing so.

Dynamically the M5 Touring follows its saloon counterpart with a myriad of drive modes and damper settings. Comfort, where we suspect many drivers will leave their M5 Touring’s dampers, provides a strong baseline and dynamics that feel unshakable. On Germany’s glass smooth surfaces Sport mode barely causes a flinch but encounter a section of broken tarmac or a sharp ridge and you’ll know about it, and we suspect the UK will only amplify this firmness. Sport settings for the steering up the weight but reduce its linearity, however the braking performance (carbon-ceramics on our test car) improves further still. In Sport they build on the great feel, mid-travel modulation and an initial response that inspires confidence from the off. 

Through the M modes you can continue to adjust the xDrive four-wheel drive system, slackening off the electronic controls or going all out two-wheel drive, all systems off hero mode. Even with more drive being sent to the rear axle the M5 Touring can be encouraged to move around in the dry, and snap back at you in the wet or if you are clumsy. With all that power and torque requires even greater control when you decide to take the control away from the driver aids. Two-wheel drive in the wet and on your own? You’ll probably do it once and record the moment for Instagram. Unless you fire yourself into the scenery, of course. 

Like the M5 saloon there is a great deal to admire about the M5 Touring. Its bandwidth in terms of dynamics, performance and comfort is unlike any M5 that has gone before. It doesn’t get near to the mighty M5 CS in terms of engagement or dynamic performance but that doesn’t take away from what the M team has created: a car with both great agility and composure when required, refinement and comfort when needed. How it defies its mass, is so precise when pushed and engages regardless of the setting you are in is even more impressive. However, like the saloon, the M5 Touring lacks the desirability of its forebears, rather it is a car to be admired and one that you should walk past every performance SUV to get to.

Price and rival

BMW is the first of the old school to enter the new era with its hybrid powered M5 Touring. At £113,405 it’s three thousand pounds cheaper than the less powerful 621bhp Audi RS6 Performance. Old foe Mercedes-AMG lags some way behind the pair, with its six-cylinder hybrid £93,110 E53 hybrid models giving away two-cylinders and 18bhp to the RS6 and 114bhp to the M5 Touring. Beyond this pair you’re stepping into the performance SUV market with offerings from everyone including Aston Martin and Lamborghini, carrying price tags far above that of the M5.

BMW M5 Touring (G99) specs