BMW M5 Touring Review 2025

For the first time in 15 years, you can buy a BMW M5 Touring. Following hot on the heels of the fabulous M3 Competition Touring, BMW's M Division is back with another extremely potent wagon, this time featuring a hybridised V8 punting out a monstrous 727PS. There's more to a good performance car than outright pace, though, so does this fast estate car have what it takes to fight the soon-to-be-discontinued Audi RS6 Avant? Find out in our full BMW M5 Touring review.

We should have been celebrating, really. A few years ago, the idea of a brand-new M5 Touring would have seemed incredibly far-fetched. We haven't had one since the wonderful (but temperamental) V10-powered E61-generation M5 Touring, which is the only one ever built in right-hand drive. The older E34 BMW M5 Touring was only made with a steering wheel on the left in very limited numbers — and wasn't officially sold in the UK.

From the moment this latest seemingly improbable super-wagon was announced, much attention was focused on its weight — the BMW M5 Touring tips the scales at 2550kg. The reason for the bulk? An 18.6kWh high voltage battery pack. 

Yep, the big-booted M5 is a plug-in hybrid which is why it weighs more than many upmarket SUVs. So, have we waited all this time for an Ikea shopping trip-friendly M5 only to be given something that sullies the name? Absolutely not. 

Drive the M5 Touring and you'll soon realise it doesn't feel anything like as bulky as it actually is. The hybrid part of the equation elevates the driving experience rather than taking anything away from it, making the 4.4-litre V8 providing most of the thrust extremely responsive and massively potent. 

How potent? We're talking 727PS and 1000Nm of torque, making for a 0-62mph time of 3.6 seconds. Plus there's up to 41.6 miles of electric-only running according to the official WLTP Combined cycle figure which could potentially slash your fuel bills if you can restrain yourself from waking up the V8 too often. The biggest savings are to be made by company car drivers, with the M5 Touring subject to the 8% Benefit in Kind (BiK) taxation band.

You should note that due to packaging restrictions the M5 Touring's boot isn't quite as big as you might expect but we're willing to gloss over that, especially as its space is more flexible and adaptable than its four-door sibling's. Given the premium of £2000 over the BMW M5 Saloon isn't that significant when considering a car costing over £113,000, choosing the additonal practicality benefits of Touring is a no-brainer. 

Despite the BMW M5 Touring's extra weight it's more exciting to drive than the similarly priced Audi RS6 Avant. In any case the Audi will soon be discontinued and replaced with — funnily enough — a plug-in hybrid. If the electrical elements are a bit of a turn-off, perhaps the most logical alternative is another BMW — the M3 Competition Touring. Yes it's smaller and is a couple of cylinders and over 200PS down on the M5 Touring, but it's just as fast from 0-62mph and actually has the same amount of boot space when the rear seats are in use. 

Most of all, we're just pleased it's possible to be making such a choice in this day and age.

Before you drive anywhere quickly in the BMW M5 Touring you should spend time familiarising yourself with the many drive mode settings. 

Along with Road, Sport and Track modes, there are further options to adjust the parameters of specific functions including the drivetrain, electrical energy recovery, gearbox, adaptive suspension, steering, braking, M sound and the stability control system. We opted to turn most things up to their angriest settings, with the exception of the steering and the suspension, also putting the stability control into the more relaxed M Dynamic Mode (MDM) which switches the all-wheel drive system to its 4WD Sport setting. 

That last bit is particularly important as it changes the M5 Touring's attitude from being fairly neutral to a more playful setting, with a rear end that moves around a bit as you power out of corners but not enough to feel intimidatingly wayward. There's also a rear-wheel drive mode but it involves turning the stability control off entirely — you'll need quick reflexes for that, and plenty of money to replace worn-out rear tyres. 

Also vital is the avoidance of the Sport Plus suspension mode which is too firm for all but the smoothest roads, causing the car to uncomfortably pogo its way down the asphalt. Even Sport is a bit much, so most of the time, we went for Comfort. 

Set like that, the M5 Touring does a much better job of flowing with the road surface and it still barely leans in the corners. It feels stable and confidence-inspiring at all times and whatever the weather, the all-wheel drive system provides bags of traction. Even in its slackest setting, though, there are times when the M5's suspension can get a bit overwhelmed with particularly choppy bits of road surface.

Another element that doesn't always work so well is the brakes. There are two settings but neither feels quite right. The Sport mode feels too sharp, making them tricky to modulate, while in Comfort there's a lot of pedal travel before much happens. 

Only one engine is available in the BMW M5 Touring and it's a good one — a 4.4-litre V8 with what's known as a hot vee arrangement, with its two turbochargers nestling snugly between the cylinder banks. That might sound rather similar to the old M5's engine but this one is entirely new and now assisted by a plug-in hybrid system.

Unlike some all-wheel drive PHEVs which involve one end of the car predominantly powered by the engine and the other end powered by electricity, the M5 Touring has its electric motor integrated within the eight-speed automatic gearbox.  

The engine on its own is good for 585PS, and when combined with the electric motor, the total power figure is 727PS and 1000Nm of torque — both are a lot more than the old M5 Competition managed. 

Unfortunately, the M5 Touring also has to cart around a few extra hundred kilos compared with its saloon-only predecessor, so the 0-62mph time of 3.6 seconds is a tenth of a second shy of the previous-generation four-door's time. That figure is also the same as the cheaper, less powerful BMW M3 Competition Touring. 

Top speed without the optional M Driver's Pack is electronically governed at 155mph while in EV-only mode a maximum of 87mph is possible.

The numbers don't tell the whole M5 Touring story, though. With that electrical assistance available instantly, it becomes wickedly responsive no matter what speed you're doing and where the revs are at. The issue with that is the rapid building of speed, never more than a quick prod of the throttle away, can almost catch you unaware. It takes incredible restraint to stick to speed limits given how swiftly the M5 Touring can reach them. 

All the while, there's a wonderful, rumbly V8 soundtrack to go with it. So long, that is, that you've listened to our earlier advice and turned off the M Sound function, which adds artificial noise reminiscent of what you'd hear from an old video game. We'd rather stick with the natural sound of the engine, even if it is quite muted thanks to modern noise regulations and the amount of soundproofing stuffed into this BMW. 

Although BMW did fit automatic clutch gearboxes to its M cars previously, the M5 Touring gets a more conventional torque converter-operated transmission. This didn't leave us yearning for the previous gearbox at any point. The shifts feel more than fast enough and in the raciest driving mode of the three available, nicely aggressive. 

The electric-only mode is relaxing, although it defaults to playing the BMW Active Sound Design, rumbling away in the background through the speakers, which detracts from the experience. You can turn this off. 

The transition between electric power and combustion can be abrupt and clumsy feeling when you put your foot down but many plug-in hybrids struggle in this regard, so we won't really single out the M5 Touring for specific criticism. 

We're not expecting Euro NCAP to ever specifically test a BMW M5 Touring but the 5 Series Saloon's five-star rating can be used as a reference point, particularly as it was one of the heavier plug-in hybrids used for the job. It managed 89% in the adult occupant category, 85% for child occupants, 86% for vulnerable road users and 78% for its safety assist systems.

On the latter front, speed limit recognition, lane-departure warning, blind-spot detection and autonomous emergency braking are included as standard. Some more advanced systems, including evasion assistance, lane-change assistance and a wrong-way warning that picks up on no entry signs, are bundled in the £2100 Driving Assistant Professional package.

Believe it or not, you can haul loads with the BMW M5 Touring if you specify the £1200 electrically retractable tow bar. Its towing capacity is excellent at 2000kg of braked trailer weight.

Don't expect to see loads of M5 Tourings turning up at campsites with big touring caravans in tow but it's nice to know you could.

The BMW M5 Touring's boot capacity of 500 litres is disappointing. It's 70 litres down on all other versions of the 5 Series Touring, plug-in hybrids included, due to the packaging constraints of fitting its clever electronic differential in with a hybrid battery. 

This means with the rear seats up, the M5 Touring has no more boot space than the smaller BMW M3 Touring, although it does have a sizeable advantage once the rear bench is folded. This opens up a 1630-litre load space compared with 1510 litres in the M3. The Audi RS6 Avant comparitively manages 565 litres with the rear seats up and 1680 litres with them stowed. 

The M5 Touring's load cover can be easily rolled up or removed entirely if necessary, while the rear seats are split in a 40/20/40 fashion, with the folding process made hassle-free by using release levers in the boot.

In terms of storage elswhere in the cabin there's a decently sized lidded compartment under the central armrest and a little further forward of that you'll find a pair of cupholders. The door bins are on the small side. 

The cabin feels reasonably roomy in the front but given the M5 Touring's roofline slopes towards the back of the car, taller rear-seat passengers won't have masses of headroom.

In recent years it's felt like BMW has edged ahead of Audi and Mercedes with regards to material quality and the M5 Touring's interior is no exception. There's a feeling of solidity to everything in the cabin and almost all the materials feel as expensive as they should in a car costing six figures. Everything is put together very well.

The only thing that's not so good is the presence of shiny black plastic trim that premium manufacturers have been obsessed with in recent years. In our test car, which had only covered 1700 miles, some of the surfaces where it was applied were already looking scratched.

The BMW M5 Touring gets a 14.9-inch infotainment system, housed in the same widescreen panel as the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. The former is a touchscreen but it can still be controlled using the rotary iDrive knob.

Although this element has been ditched from a lot of BMW's smaller cars, it's still present and correct in the 5 Series range and the M5 Touring is all the better for it. It's easier to use on the move than the touchscreen and keeps the surface free from smudgy fingerprints. There's also something weirdly satisfying about using it. You just know there's an engineer somewhere in Munich who's put in a lot of time to make sure the control feels just right with every turn and click.

Its menu system takes a bit of getting used to being not quite as intuitive as other iDrive setups of recent years. Should you be using the touchscreen it responds promptly to touch and switching between different menus occurs with little lag.

We'd rather not have to use it for the climate controls, though. You do at least get the temperature controls permanently displayed along the bottom of the screen but for most other functions you'll need to go into the dedicated climate menu. Even the direction of the airflow needs to be done here, with BMW ditching physical vent controls. All of this is fiddly and distracting to use on the move.

Clawing back some points, the integrated navigation system is decent and one of the few we'd actually consider using instead of our usual default of Google Maps through a smartphone connection. If that's your preference, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity is included as standard on the M5 Touring. 

Neatly the head-up display is able to show directional instructions from Google Maps, so you aren't penalised for shirking the native navigation system. 

The BMW M5 Touring starts at £113,515, which is bang on £2000 more than the M5 Saloon. That might sound like a lot but inflation-adjust the £69,930 price of the last M5 Touring in 2010 and you arrive at near enough the same figure as the latest one. It's also around £6500 less than the cheapest Audi RS6 Avant. 

Less positively it should be noted that £113k doesn't get you a want-for-nothing level of specification. There are myriad ways to inflate the M5 Touring's price further, including a whopping £2200 just to raise the top speed limiter to 190mph as part of the M Driver's Pack. BMW does at least throw in a driving experience voucher with this. 

Alternatively you could bundle most of the options, including that M Driver's Pack, as well as front and rear heated seats, a panoramic glass roof and carbon ceramic brakes into the Ultimate Pack for £18,900, giving a total on-the-road price of £132,415.

Like most plug-in hybrids the BMW M5 Touring has a ridiculous official WLTP Combined cycle fuel efficiency figure. It promises 141.2-166.2mpg because it spends much of the test using only electric power. You'll only replicate this by doing the same.

For more mixed use driving, BMW quotes 25.9-27.2mpg when driving the M5 Touring with an empty battery.

The first year of vehicle tax is only £110, although as this is included in the on-the-road costs of all new cars, you won't notice that saving. After that, it's the same £195 a year as any other car, with the government binning the token £10 yearly saving for Alternative Fuel Vehicles, such as PHEVs, from April 2025 onwards. 

With a new price that's well beyond the £40,000 threshold for the Expensive Car Supplement, also known as the premium car tax, you'll also need to cough up an extra £425 annually from years two to six of ownership. 

One thing you couldn't realistically do with the last M5 Touring was run it as a company car. Because it's a plug-in hybrid, the new M5 Touring has a Benefit in Kind (BiK) tax rate of only 8% for 2025/26, going up to 9% for 2026/27. For context the Audi RS6 Avant is in the 37% which will likely result in coughing up a four-figure sum every month.

Given that this is a valuable, powerful car, you can expect to pay a hefty insurance premium for the M5 Touring. The tyres are massive which will also be financially painful when it's time to replace them, something that'll arrive sooner if you're tempted to use the rear-wheel drive mode setting frequently. 

BMW M5 Touring: Range and charging

Of course, it's possible to drive the BMW M5 Touring without using any petrol at all. With a 37.9-41.6-mile electric-only range, depending on the length of your commute and the availability of charging facilities at either end, you could keep that V8 shut off during the week, only to wake it up again and spend some of what you've saved on burning unleaded during a weekend drive.

Recharging the M5 Touring's 18.6kWh battery can be done at a maximum energy flow rate of 11kW using an AC connection, such as a domestic wallbox. For such a set-up, BMW quotes a flat-to-full recharge time of 2 hours 15 minutes, although consider that most UK residences have a maximum wallbox energy flow of 7.4kW, meaning somewhere between three and four hours is more likely.

The BMW M5 Touring is offered as a single trim level with the following fitted as part of its standard equipment:

• 20-inch front/21-inch rear alloy wheels
• Adaptive LED headlights
• Automatic tailgate
• Ambient interior lighting
• Four-zone climate control
• Head-up display
• Electrically adjustable driver's seat
• Bowers & Wilkins sound system
• Leather steering wheel
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• Adaptive suspension
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera