2025 BMW M5 Touring Review: Superfast, Super Heavy | Worth the Weight? - video Dailymotion

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The legendary M5 wagon has finally arrived in the U.S. as the 2025 BMW M5 Touring, packing a jaw-dropping 717 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque with a plug-in hybrid setup. But can this nearly 5,500-pound superwagon handle the corners, or is it only good in a straight line? We test its 0-60 time, braking, handling, and real-world road performance. Is it worth the $141,000 price tag? Let’s find out.   #BMWM5Touring, #2025BMWM5, #M5Review, #SuperWagon, #HybridPerformance, #BMWNews, #CarTestReview,

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00:00The arrival of the 2026 BMW M5 Touring has had us salivating in our Cheerios,

00:06after all, this is the first time BMW has offered the M5 wagon for sale in the US.

00:12Still, one aspect of the super wagon has loomed in the back of our minds like an uninvited guest,

00:18the car's 5,500-pound curb weight. We know 700-plus horsepower, electric boost,

00:24and big tires can do a lot to offset mass, we witnessed that firsthand during our first drive

00:30of the M5 on German Autobahns, but we still wanted to subject it to the cruel objectivity of our test

00:35gear and a run on our favorite roads. We think the 2025 BMW M5 Touring was worth the wait,

00:42but is it worth the wait? We'll keep our introduction short, because really,

00:46how much introduction is needed? This is the Longroof M5, launched as a response to the

00:52success of Audi's RS6 Avant. Like the M5 sedan, the Touring is a plug-in hybrid,

00:58with a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 assisted by an electric motor integrated into the transmission.

01:05Together, they deliver peaks of 717 horsepower and 738 lb-ft to all four wheels.

01:13Both sedan and wagon do many fancy computerized things, like give the driver the option to send

01:19all power to the rear axle or cruise 25 miles at up to 87 miles per hour on battery propulsion alone.

01:25Still, we must talk about the elephant in the room. BMW claims a weight of 5,530 lb for the M5 Touring,

01:34140 lb heavier than the sedan, though our scale showed the wagon to be a tad lighter than BMW claims,

01:415,456 lb with a full tank of fuel and an empty cabin. When you consider the fact the 2022 BMW M5 sedan

01:51weighed about 4,100 lb, that's, like, heavy, man. Even the 4,902-pound Audi Avant RS6 performance

02:00is trim compared to the Bimmer Lotus founder Colin Chapman famously said that more power makes you

02:05faster in the straights, while less weight makes you faster everywhere. Well, quick on the straights

02:11is not the M5 Touring's issue. We timed it to 60 mph in an EV-like 3.2 seconds by setting all the

02:20programmable parameters to Sport+, the all-wheel drive system to 4WD Sport mode, and launch control

02:26engaged. And what an exciting launch it was. With a jolt of electric power assisting the engine,

02:33the M5 Touring threatened to squish us right into the seat upholstery as all four tires

02:38scrabbled for grip, a harbinger of problems to come. Our only complaint was the overly harsh gear

02:44changes. The M5 CF 8-speed grabs gears like an old THM 400 with a $25 Pep Boys shift kit,

02:51what about acceleration with rear-wheel drive engaged? Yep, we tried it, gleefully anticipating

02:57the conversion of the Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 2 tires to barbecue sauce. Unfortunately, BMW foresaw this

03:05temptation, and the M5 won't launch in rear-drive mode, at least not without traction control exerting

03:11its heavy hand. We took the hint and did not attempt any extreme measures to provoke a rubber roast.

03:17If you want to be off like the proverbial shot.

03:20For WD Sport is the mode to use, the M5 Touring's 3.2-second 0-60 run is an impressive number for a

03:28gasoline-fueled car, as is its quarter-mile time of 11.2 seconds at 126.1 miles per hour,

03:35or at least it is until old man perspective pops his head into frame and we compare the new M5 to the

03:41previous generation car. The 2022 M5 sedan has 627 horsepower, 553 LBFT, no hybrid assistance,

03:51and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, and it was quicker to 60 by 6 tenths of a second,

03:57and faster through the quarter-mile by half a second and 3.6 miles per hour.

04:02Mind you, out on the open road, the new M5 Touring Wagon goes like it has rocket boosters,

04:07with the electric motor ensuring you get the same wallop regardless of starting speed.

04:13It's a way more dramatic performance than the old gen M5, but it's still slower than the old car,

04:18and if $125,000, $141,000 for our test car is equipped, doesn't buy you absolute bragging rights,

04:27what's the point? Onward, then, to the braking test, where the 2025 BMW M5 Touring dropped from 60 to 0

04:36in 105 feet with the slightest bit of squirm only in the hardest of stops. Respectable until you look

04:43up the 2022 numbers and discover the older, lighter M5 needed just 101 feet. We suspected the new M5

04:51Touring's bulk would cause the biggest problems in the turns, and we were right. If you push the M5

04:57Touring hard on smoothly paved public roads, as we did in our first drive, it feels heroic,

05:02with lovely, quick, scalpel-sharp steering and what feels like grip that will never end.

05:08But what do the numbers, and the bumps, tell us? On the test track, the 2025 M5 Touring circled the

05:15skid pad at 0.95G, down from 1.04G in the 2022 M5 sedan with Michelin Pilot Sport tires and 1.07 in

05:26another 22 M5 that had much better Pirelli P0 Corsa tires. The 2025 M5 Touring circled our figure-eight

05:34handling test in 23.8 seconds at an average of 0.88G, 0.6 seconds slower than the Pilot Sport,

05:42shod 22 M5 and 0.5 slower than the one with Pirelli's. The bigger problem, though, was the way

05:50the M5 Touring's mass gave way to inertia. This is a car that loves to brake loose and slide.

05:57Fun? Not if you're trying to measure handling. Carrying even a slight amount of excess speed

06:04into the corners caused the M5 to understeer and plow its front end, while trail braking brought

06:09the back end out sharply, as did anything but the most delicate application of throttle on corner exit.

06:14The best way to get the M5 Touring pointed back the way it came was to do all our braking in a

06:20straight line before turning in. That's a good technique, to be sure, but we find that in more

06:26playful cars we can often get around the track quicker by bending the rules a little.

06:31It'd be easy to blame the Hankook tires, which bite into the pavement reluctantly as if the road

06:36is an empanada with its filling heated to incandescence. To be fair, we experienced similar

06:42behavior in the 22 M5 with the Michelin Pilot Sports, the car was much better behaved with

06:48the Pirelli courses. But the more work a tire must do, the more likely it is to misbehave,

06:54and almost three tons of wagon is a lot to ask of any tire. We rarely run into these sorts of

07:00issues when testing a Miata. Out on the twisty roads of Malibu, the 2025 BMW M5 Touring's excessive

07:07weight exhibited itself in other not pleasant ways. Again, acceleration felt explosive,

07:14and grip felt endless, though a purposely sloppy jerk of the wheel reminded us understeer was never

07:19too far away. No, the problem was that the suspension's dampers simply could not control

07:24the up and down motion of all the weight. We know these Malibu Canyon roads well, but this was the

07:30first time we'd driven this route since the Palisades' fire swept through and introduced some

07:35new contouring into the asphalt. There are a few mid-corner bumps we purposely aimed for,

07:41but a sharp new one took us by surprise. It set the M5 Touring's rear end bouncing like a pogo stick,

07:48and for one bowel evacuating fraction of a second, we thought the rear tires were going to lose contact

07:53with the ground altogether. Once our heart resumed its normal rhythm, we tried it again with the

07:59suspension set to its sportiest setting. While the bouncing motion was reduced, the rear end still

08:05acted like it wanted to skip off into the bushes. A BMW M5 should never have you thinking of an old

08:11live-axle Ford Mustang, but we sure did. Nor was this one problem only evident on one bump.

08:18As we blasted through the curves trying out the various suspension modes, we sailed through a couple

08:23of broad, choppy sweepers with the tires going chirp, chirp, chirp. As they lost and gained grip,

08:30we realized quickly that if drivers are to do any sort of serious twisty road driving in the M5,

08:36they must set the suspension to its stiffest mode as a purely precautionary measure.

08:41But the M5 Touring's ride is already stiff and busy, and firming it up further doesn't do your

08:46vertebrae any favors. As for the ride quality, leaving the M5 Touring on its softest settings

08:53didn't really help. While the comfort setting takes the edge out of the bumps,

08:57the constant vertical motion can induce motion sickness even in those who don't regularly

09:02suffer from it. Setting the suspension to its middle, sport, setting seemed to be the best

09:07compromise, evening out the ride without making it too rough. We went so far as to program an M

09:13preset button so we could quickly change from comfort to sport any time we were off the glass

09:18smooth freeway. We cast our mind back to that initial Autobahn cruise, and really,

09:23that's where the M5 Touring is at its best. It's a straight-line rocket ship,

09:28confident in curves if the pavement doesn't undulate too badly,

09:32and it's sure-footed provided you don't get too close to its grip limits.

09:36The adaptive cruise control and lane centering systems work nicely, the stereo sounds phenomenal,

09:42and the biggest challenge you face while driving the M5 Touring is not losing your patience with folks,

09:47often in other BMWs, who refuse to relinquish the lane. With the hybrid powertrain's immediate

09:54response and immense power, a two-second zots of the accelerator pedal puts you well into expensive

09:59ticket territory. So it looks like our initial expectations were correct. The 2025 BMW M5 Touring

10:08is a hell of a car, but it's just so damn heavy. PHEV powertrain notwithstanding,

10:13there is no reason a gasoline-powered midsize performance car should weigh nearly three tons,

10:19even if it's a wagon. There's nothing BMW could add to the M5 Touring to make it any better,

10:25instead, the engineers need to start taking away, to the tune of about 1,500 pounds.

2025 BMW M5 Touring Review: Superfast, Super Heavy | Worth the Weight?

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