I’ve Put 1,000 More Miles on Our BMW M5 Touring. Here’s the Verdict

I wrote in our first update that a Chicago police officer pulled up next to me at a red light just to ask what the car was. It’s kept happening since then, at gas stations, in parking lots, at stoplights, from people who clearly have no idea this is the new M5. None of that tells you anything about how the car drives, but it’s the part of ownership nobody puts in a spec sheet, so I’m starting there.

1. It’s Cool Because Nobody Else Is Selling This

Start with the obvious, subjective thing first: I like this car because it’s different. BMW hasn’t sold a touring here since the 3 Series Wagon quietly disappeared from American price lists, and this is the first M wagon the brand has ever brought to the US in any generation. The E34 M5 Touring never came here. Neither did the E39 or the E60/E61 version, despite Europe getting all three. For decades, if you wanted M power in a longroof BMW, you moved to Germany or you didn’t get one. That alone makes the G99 worth paying attention to, before you even get into how it drives.

2. Dakar Yellow II Turns The Car Into An Icebreaker

The color deserves its own paragraph. Dakar Yellow II on a car this size will get called a big banana by somebody, and I’ve made peace with that. It’s a conversation starter everywhere I park it, and more than once it’s turned into an actual conversation with a stranger who wanted to know what it was. If you’re going to build a car this aggressive, this dynamic-looking, and this large, you might as well commit to a color that matches the attitude. We went wild with it, and I don’t regret it. As a side note, we had a choice in colors when we picked up the M5 Touring for testing purposes.

3. EV Mode Is The Thing I Was Wrong About

I expected to tolerate the hybrid system. I didn’t expect to like it. But in Chicago traffic, which means near-constant stop and go for a big chunk of my commute, gliding along on electric power alone is quietly satisfying, and I find myself defaulting to it without thinking about it anymore. The Touring’s official EV range sits in the upper-20-mile range, and I’m seeing real numbers close 40 miles mixed city driving. The part that changed my mind, though, is that you don’t have to baby it or plan your day around a charger. Enough highway driving replenishes the battery on its own, so on weeks when I’m doing a mix of city and highway, I never plug it in and still get to use electric power around town.

4. It Swallows A Family Of Four, Car Seats or Booster Seats Included

The battery pack does eat into cargo room somewhat, and this car does sit a little higher off the ground than I’d like, a byproduct of where BMW packaged the pack. But none of that has mattered in practice. With two car seats installed, we’ve still got room for luggage on a trip, and the Touring shrugs off the odd Costco or Walmart run without anyone having to play cargo Tetris in the driveway. This is still a family car that happens to have 717 horsepower, and after 2,000 more miles I trust it more in that role, not less.

5. I Love The iDrive Controller More Than I Expected To

I was one of the people complaining when BMW first showed the G60 and G90-generation cars with fewer physical buttons. But after spending time in the Neue Klasse cars, I’ve come around on how much I value what the M5 still gives you. I use the rotary iDrive controller for something like 60 to 70 percent of what I do in the cabin, touch covers another 20 to 25 percent, and voice handles the rest, mostly because voice recognition in this car is still hit or miss. I also still get physical toggles for the vents, and the capacitive buttons that open and close the actual airflow can be worked without ever touching the screen. Compare that to iDrive X, where nearly all of that gets buried in a menu, and it’s refreshing to still have some old school buttons in the car.

I could keep going. The power, whenever I actually get to use it, still hasn’t gotten old. But this update is supposed to be things that might not be so obvious, so here are the three things still bothering me.

1. The Suspension Hasn’t Won Me Over

This is the biggest one. In a city like Chicago, with the potholes and expansion joints and generally rough pavement we deal with, the ride is too stiff, and that’s in Comfort mode. I don’t even attempt Sport or Sport+ unless I know the road ahead is smooth. The dampers rebound too aggressively for my taste, which means the car never really gets a chance to settle in properly. The wheel travel feels short, so potholes and even ordinary speed bumps land as a jolt rather than something the suspension absorbs. I drove the M5 sedan recently at Monterey over some grass and dirt roads, and the same character showed up there too, bouncing up and down over surfaces that should have been well within a car like this.

Up next

After driving the new M5 on different roads around the world, I can draw the conclusion that there seems to be a narrow window where the Touring feels planted and quick without drama, but step outside that window and it gets ragged fast. Also, on repeatedly bumpy stretches, I noticed the regenerative braking and the suspension arguing with each other, producing an odd sensation where the car bounces and then hangs mid-bounce instead of settling. What worked for me was dialing brake regen down to its minimum setting on rough roads, which smooths things out.

2. The Hybrid Handoff Still Has A Hitch

BMW deserves credit here, because this system is nowhere near as clumsy as what you get in the XM. But it’s not seamless either. There’s still a beat of turbo lag when the car transitions out of electric mode and the V8 spools up, milder than the XM’s version but noticeable enough that I feel it, especially if I’m going in and out of hybrid mode repeatedly in traffic. It’s a small thing on its own, but it adds up over a commute full of stop-and-go, and it’s the one piece of the drivetrain that still feels like a work in progress.

3. The Weight Is There, I Just Haven’t Found It Yet

I could spend another 500 words on the M5 Touring’s curb weight, but that horse has been beaten to death by every outlet that’s tested this car, myself included in the first update. Here’s my honest take after 1,000 more miles: I didn’t drive the car hard enough during this stretch to really feel it. It’s there under heavy braking, I’m sure of it, and I’d guess it shows up in an emergency stop or a properly committed corner. But unless you’re driving at 7 or 8 tenths consistently, which almost nobody does on a public road, I don’t think most owners will ever notice it.

What’s Next

The next update is going to focus almost entirely on range and real-world efficiency, because that’s turned out to be one of the more surprising parts of living with this car. A 717-horsepower wagon that can also function as a quiet electric commuter isn’t something I expected to find myself impressed by, but here we are. More on that soon.