2025 BMW M5 Touring – Family Missile

The 2025 BMW M5 Touring is BMW’s long-overdue admission that the coolest version of an M5 has always been the one with a long roof. This thing looks like it was carved out of granite by someone angry that SUVs keep winning sales charts—wide hips, squared shoulders, and a stance that says “I tow supercars home for fun.” The hybrid 717-hp powertrain turns the Touring into a family wagon with the attitude of a muscle car and the velocity of a railgun, yet it will still swallow strollers, dogs, and a week’s worth of Costco without breaking character.

From the outside, the 2025 BMW M5 Touring looks like BMW’s design studio finally agreed to stop playing nice. The long-roof silhouette is stretched tight like shrink-wrap over pure aggression, with a beltline that runs arrow-straight from nose to tail as if it refuses to acknowledge drag exists. The headlights are razor-thin, the grille is big, but not “what-were-they-thinking” big like some M models, and the whole front end carries the kind of confidence you’d expect from a wagon that can out-accelerate a superbike.

Perhaps BMW’s latest design language is controversial, but it is not the first time they have done this. Do you remember Chris Bangle Era? It’s been almost 20 years, but BMWs from that era aged relatively well. In this case, the Touring M5 trades the sedan’s corporate sharpness for something more athletic: a sleek roofline that doesn’t taper into coupe cosplay, a glasshouse that’s clean and upright, and body sculpting that actually seems to follow the airflow instead of fighting it.

The bumper intakes are enormous, but functional—feeding cooling to a drivetrain that could probably power a small village. Out back, the quad pipes sit wide and low, framed by a giant diffuser that looks like it was stolen off an M8 GTE race car. There’s nothing cute or quirky about it; even the smallest details, like the roof spoiler and subtly flared wheel arches, feel engineered for speed first, and aesthetics second.

And then there are the quirks—the kind that remind you this is still a wagon built by people who love driving. The roof rails aren’t decorative; they are rated to carry your actual stuff, not just your aspiration. Every piece of the exterior tells the same story: this is not a family car pretending to be fast. It’s a performance car that just happens to be able to carry a family—an M5 that looks exactly as unhinged as it drives, even more unhinged than the M5 Sedan.

Step inside the 2025 M5 Touring and you immediately understand BMW’s current interior philosophy: “high-tech first, feelings later.” The dashboard is a sweeping digital landscape dominated by curved screens and glossy surfaces, looking more spaceship cockpit than sports wagon. It’s undeniably modern, but the build quality doesn’t hit the bank-vault standard of the previous generation mainly due to excessive use of hard-touch plastics combined with glossy black surfaces. Then you sit down, sink into the sculpted M seats, and it’s mostly forgiven. They are firm in all the right places, bolstered like they are ready for Nürburgring duty, and comfortable enough for a Toronto-Montreal trek without requiring chiropractor intervention.

BMW’s infotainment is still the same paradox it’s been for years: simultaneously brilliant and baffling. The menus go twelve layers deep, and every major setting seems to live exactly where you don’t expect it. But once you learn its logic, or surrender to CarPlay like everyone eventually does, the system becomes a powerful tool: fast navigation, crisp graphics, great camera resolution, and more customization than any human actually needs. The digital cluster, meanwhile, is gorgeous and easy to use—just don’t expect the same clarity or simplicity of the analog days.

Interior space is where the Touring flexes hardest. The cabin feels airy thanks to the long roofline and big glass area, with enough legroom in the back for adults to sit without contorting like origami. But the real magic is behind the rear seats. With the second row up, you get a cargo bay big enough to swallow strollers, camera bags, and even a folded track-day canopy without playing Tetris. Drop the seats and it transforms into a luxury shipping container—flat floor, wide opening, and enough volume to make crossover owners question their life choices.

Under the hood, the 2025 M5 Touring is still a proper M car at heart—because BMW refused to let the V8 die just yet. The 4.4-litre twin-turbo S68 may be wrapped in more electronics than a gaming PC, but it still punches with that familiar, muscular charm. On its own, the engine is already a heavyweight, but BMW didn’t stop there. They strapped an electric motor into the transmission bell housing, fed it power through a lithium-ion battery pack tucked low in the floor tunnel, created a powertrain that’s part brute force, part engineering flex. The final result? A ridiculous 717 hp and 738 lb-ft, delivered with the kind of smooth savagery that makes the car feel like it’s pulling the horizon toward you rather than pushing the car toward it.

But for all its ridiculous output, the drama isn’t quite where it used to be. The exhaust note — once a defining M5 calling card — is now so muted it practically apologizes when you floor it. Blame emissions, blame the hybridization, blame the world we live in, but the fact remains: this wagon deserves a louder soundtrack. The V8 has the muscle, the electric motor has the torque-fill magic, yet the tailpipes whisper when they should bark.

The plug-in hybrid system isn’t just an emissions Band-Aid—it actually helps. Unlike AMG’s Formula-1 cosplay powertrains that overheat if you look at them wrong, BMW’s setup is built for real-life use. The electric motor adds instant torque at lower RPM, smoothing out the V8’s big-turbo moment of lag and turning part-throttle commuting into a silent, linear glide mode.

The battery isn’t huge—roughly the size you’d expect in a performance PHEV, not a family SUV—but it’s strategically positioned along the centreline of the chassis. That lowers the center of gravity, impoves weight distribution, and keeps handling tight instead of “hybrid-heavy”. You can plug it in, charge it overnight from a wall outlet, or much faster with Level 2, and actually get meaningful electric driving range for creeping through downtown traffic without making any noise.

And the best part? You can use the hybrid system however you want. Leave home early in stealth mode, run errands without burning a drop of fuel, and then let the V8 and electric motor tag-team when you hit your favorite on-ramp. It’s just a seamless, relentlessly powerful drivetrain that feels like BMW finally figured out how to merge old-school M brutality with modern electrified muscle.

On the road, the 2025 M5 Touring feels like BMW spent most of its development budget on making two and a half tons behave like a much smaller, much angrier car. The suspension is incredibly composed—firm, sure, but never punishing. It smothers rough pavement with that classic M-car confidence and keeps the body planted even when you’re pushing harder than any family wagon has a right to be pushed.

The chassis itself communicates beautifully in typical BMW M fashion; you feel weight transfer, grip changes, and road texture through the seat. The steering on the other hand—while improved—is still not the telepathic instrument BMW loyalists dream about. Point it into a corner with the Michelin rubber warmed up, and understeer simply doesn’t show up. It’s shockingly neutral for its weight, like the car is daring physics to say something about it.

Switch it to 2WD mode and the M5 Touring goes from “luxury missile” to “quietly unhinged.” Suddenly the rear axle becomes the star of the show, letting you adjust your line with throttle like the old-school M cars that used to star in grainy YouTube drift videos. Grip is strong, balance is better, and the whole car feels more playful than something this heavy should.

But not everything is perfect. Launch the car hard and the hybrid torque, twin-turbo V8 punch, and all-wheel-drive brain have a brief argument about who’s in charge. All four wheels scramble for traction, and the rear end gets bouncy as the suspension fights to put the power down. It’s fast—ridiculously so—but the drama is more “angry rhino sprinting” than “surgical precision.”

Yet despite all the fireworks, the M5 Touring is a shockingly good daily driver. It’s quiet, comfortable, and strangely relaxing when you’re not trying to bend time. The hybrid system smooths out low-speed driving, the adaptive suspension softens just enough, and the car settles into this effortless rhythm that disguises its performance potential.

And… that’s the point: This isn’t the “Competition” or “CS” model. It’s the version meant to do everything well without needing to be a track weapon. It won’t blow your mind in any single category, but it nails the overall experience: fast when you want, calm when you need, practical always. A super-wagon that doesn’t need to shout about it.

Engine	4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 + integrated electric motor
Transmission & Drivetrain	8-speed automatic & all-wheel-drive (rear-biased with selectable 2WD mode)
Max power	717 hp (combined)
Max torque	738 lb-ft (combined)
Battery / Hybrid System	15-kWh lithium-ion battery; AC charging up to 11 kW; approx. 25 km EV range
0–100 km/h	≈ 3.4 sec
Curb Weight	5481 lbs – 2486 kg
Fuel Economy (observed)	21 MPGe – ≈ 11.2 L/100 km (equivalent)
Price (as tested)	$140,775 USD
Website	www.bmw.ca