2025 BMW M5 Touring Lands Stateside to Hunt Audi RS6, Mercedes-AMG E63 Wagons
And it gets the same 717-hp plug-in hybrid powertrain as the G91 M5 sedan.
The M5 Wagon! Sure, the car’s official title is the 2025 BMW M5 Touring, but car dorks like us are going to call it the M5 Wagon. And yeah, for the first time ever, Americans will have the chance to purchase a long-roof M5. The rest of the world has been able to get its hands on two previous M5 wagons; the E34 M5 Touring was on sale from 1992 to 1998, and the E61 M5 Touring (with a V-10!) was on sale from 2007 until 2010. Why is BMW bothering to give U.S. wagon enthusiasts what they want? Who cares—they are, so leave it at that! But if you must know, it probably has lots to do with the relative sales success of the big-money Audi RS6, not to mention Mercedes-AMG's longtime commitment to selling similarly hotted-up E-Class station wagons to an ultra-wealthy, highly loyal buyer pool here, too. Like those exotic wagons, the M5 Touring will be similarly expensive, with a starting price of $122,675.
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For that big price tag you get a 717-hp, 738-lb-ft plug-in hybrid powertrain anchored by an electrified twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8. The e-motor fits inside the eight-speed “Steptronic” transmission. BMW is claiming a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, though we’re fairly positive that our testing will reveal that to be incredibly conservative; expect a lower time. Top speed is limited to 155 mph, unless you opt for the M Driver’s Package, in which case it’s raised to 190 mph. Because it’s a PHEV, the M5 Touring can travel 25 miles on pure electric power at speeds up to 87 mph. Something that BMW is calling “a pre-gearing stage” let’s the e-motor increase its torque from 194 lb-ft to 332 via the transmission. This powertrain is closely related to the one BMW already offers in the XM SUV.
Like the M5 sedan, the M5 Touring is all-wheel drive, using the performance-slanted M xDrive system with fully variable front to rear torque distribution, though only the rear axle has an electronic locking differential. And yes, there’s a rear-wheel-drive mode, should you feel like accelerating your next purchase of a set of rear tires. The M5 Touring also comes with rear-wheel steering. There are five driving modes, Hybrid, Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus, and Electric. However, if you opt for the M Driver’s Package, you gain two additional modes, Dynamic and Dynamic Plus. These two modes ensure you’re getting maximum power out of both the engine and hybrid motor, and that the cooling system is fully engaged. Dynamic is for “sustained” high performance driving, whereas Dynamic Plus would be engaged for a fast lap.
Speaking of dynamics, the M5 Touring has just about every handling trick the M Division could throw at it. The body-in-white is strengthened, with many Touring specific modifications including the area surrounding the luggage space. Then it’s got adaptive dampers, the latest version of BMW’s variable-rate steering called M Servtronic, along with the aforementioned rear-wheel steering. The brakes are adjustable in terms of feel and are either big steel rotors (16.1-inches front, 15.7-inches rear) or optional (and bigger in the front at 16.5-iches) carbon-ceramic rotors. The carbon brakes are 55 pounds lighter overall, and feature gold-painted calipers. The front suspension sports double A-arms, while the rear is comprised of a five-links. The wheels are staggered, with the front tires having 285/40/ZR20 stamped on the side, while the rears read 295/35/ZR21.
On the inside, the M5 Touring sports 17.7 cubic feet of storage with the rear seats up, and 57.6 cubic feet with those seats stowed, a bit less than the RS6's 19.9 cubic feet with the seats up and 59.3 when folded. The Mercedes-AMG E63 is even larger, though we don’t know the specs on the newest generation version (yet). Tons of luxurious amenities are standard, including a massive panoramic roof (called Sky Lounge) is standard, as is an 18-speaker, 665-watts Bowers & Wilkins Surround Sound system. Curved displays show off the latest generation of BMW’s iDrive system, as well as a standard head-up display featuring BMW’s latest mapping software.
BMW will be launching the car in the last quarter of 2024, and you can expect it to show up at dealers about a year from now, maybe a bit less. That’s about all we can say about the new M5 Touring before we actually get behind the wheel. Well, all of the above plus the fact that BMW is saying the M5 Touring will weigh 5,530 pounds. To be fair, that’s a “preliminary estimate,” but if anyone harbored any illusions that the long-roof M5 would somehow weigh less than the already porky 2025 M5 sedan, which is about 1,000 pounds heavier than its predecessor, time to let go of those. To be more fair, new EU regulations forced BMW to say that the G80 M3 weighed around 4,200 pounds, even though when we put the car on our scales, it was under 3,800 pounds. Here’s hoping we find the same to be true with the G91 M5 and M5 Touring.
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.Read More
