BMW M5 Touring (G99) - How Much is Too Much?

The BMW M5 is now in its seventh generation, but so far, only three of the seven have offered the option of comfortably (and ethically) housing a large dog in the boot. John Marcar has borrowed the latest version from Partridge BMW in Hampshire to test.

The M5 Touring Story So Far...

Since I've been aware of what an M5 was, I've always loved them. Even as a small child, getting to grips with the exciting, ever-expanding world of performance cars, the idea of a large family car capable of keeping up with a supercar had me enamoured. I'm a product of the late 1980s, so for me, the first M5 I'd have been aware of would have been the E34. The E34 M5 was introduced a year after I was born in 1988, but in 1992, the punchy straight-six 311hp (massive for the time) engine and dynamic chassis were added to the 5 Series' touring platform. In touring form, the M5 was by far the most understated performance car on offer and that made it unequivocally cool for me and every other 6-year-old on the planet.

After the E34, the M5 in touring form wouldn't reappear until the early 2000s, in the form of Chris Bangle's controversially styled, V10 engine-powered E61 M5. Once again, the subtle sports styling of the E61 meant that, despite its 501hp screaming F1-derived engine under the bonnet, to the casual observer it might as well have been a 2.0L diesel family car, which made it excellent.

Now, for the 2025/26 G90-era, the M5 touring has made a comeback in the form of the G99, but unlike its predecessors from the nineties and naughties, it's less subtle about its capabilities in more ways than one.

The Design - Better in Touring Form

Here, I can only offer a personal opinion, and I will. In saloon car form, I don't like the new M5; I think it's fallen victim to the controversial design department in Munich and thanks to the clunky proportions towards the car's rear end. But in estate car form, the brutalist design somehow works.

I'm not clever enough to know why, but when I look at the touring, especially the rear quarter (which I despise on the saloon version), it's potentially the best-looking M5 ever.

But while we're thinking back on the past, BMW design throughout the ages has always been controversial. When the E60 (the V10-powered M5) came out in 2005, I, along with every other teenager on the planet, screamed in confused rage. The BMW M5 had morphed from one of the most beautiful automotive shapes in the world, the E39 M5, into something that looked like something from a low-budget sci-fi film. Yet a few years after the E60 came along, the model became acceptable, and dare I say it, is now somewhat legendary?

The design of the latest M5 is dividing opinions, and that's okay, but if you hate it, your opinion might change in the next 10 years or so - either because you'll have learned to love it, or because you're comparing it to whatever has come next.

The Power

Under the bonnet of the G99 M5 is BMW's much-celebrated 4.4L twin-turbocharged V8. As a unit, the engine is a masterpiece and has been carried forward with a few tweaks and developments from the previous (F90) M5.

In the latest M5, the engine alone produces a frankly absurd 577bhp and 553 lbs ft of torque - or, to put another way, 750Nm. To offer a reference point for that torque level, the Pagani Huayra R hypercar also has 750 Nm of torque, but you might as well forget that figure, because the new M5 is also equipped with an 18.5kWh battery that sends even more power to the wheels via an electric motor. The electric motor produces 194bhp independently, which isn't far off the power of the new Electric Mini Cooper SE.

Once the power of the twin-turbo V8 and the electric motor are combined, the result is 717bhp, 738 lb ft of torque, or if we convert that to Nm, we're into four figures: 1,000 Nm of torque, making the G99 M5 by far the most powerful M5 ever.

The Elephant in the Room (the weight)

The G99 M5 is not only the most powerful ever, but thanks to hybrid components, it's now also the heaviest. The G99 is a few kilos short of 2,500; once a full tank of fuel and 4 adults are loaded, the mass jumps to almost 3 tonnes.

To throw in a positive twist, credit is owed to every single powertrain engineer responsible for making the G99 accelerate in the way that it does, because at the first push of the throttle, you would never believe it is a 2.5-tonne car. Despite its weight, the G99 can accelerate from 0.62mph in an apocalyptically fast 3.6 seconds and top out (if the optional M performance package is ticked) at 190MPH. Thanks to some clever trickery with the built-in stability control, the new car feels remarkably light on its wheels when launching, and, for casual cornering, the heaviest M5 also handles like one of the lightest, too.

Eventually, though, the weight becomes unavoidably apparent. When you're really pushing hard through the tighter corners and leaning especially hard on the brakes, there comes a point where physics does what physics wants to do - that's not a battle you're ever going to win. The result of spirited driving is likely to sting financially, with the replacement of tyres, brake pads and, perhaps unsurprisingly, fuel.

Yet ironically, on the topic of fuel consumption, thanks to the hybrid element for daily driving, it's the most economical M5 ever. The G99 will happily average a combined 56.5MPG, or if you're driving really sensibly, almost 90MPG - which for an M5 is unheard of until now.

Pure Joy to Drive

Even with the extra-heavy payload, the new M5 still drives and performs the way the M5 always has. Thanks to the new-age electronic adjustability to everything, it's easy to configure the car to feel just how you want it to. From steering and brake pedal feel to the more conventional tweaks to things like power and chassis, there is a driving mode to suit all styles. At times, especially in damp conditions, the power can feel a little overwhelming, but once you know what to expect, it can be easy to relax into the process. As is the norm with most BMW M cars, I preferred the chassis and steering in the softest 'comfort' setting for road use and found that the engine felt most characterful with some fun over-run rumbles and turbo whooshes.

The Party Piece - Luxury and Convenience

Since its inception in the 1980s, the BMW M5 has been loved for its versatility across both performance and luxury, and the new model continues that tradition as an exceptionally comfortable long-distance cruiser. The story is the same in the back seats, too. The second row is both spacious and comfortable, with ample room for head and leg room for passengers over 6ft.

Being the touring, 500L of boot space is rewarded as standard, and if the seats are folded down, the space jumps to a very impressive 1655L. The G99 ticks all the boxes for fulfilling the duties of an M5, it's fast, capable and practical - whilst being blisteringly fast when needed.

The Price

The G99 is by far the most powerful, the heaviest, and the most luxurious M5 to date, but there's another record that is less positive for the buyer: it's the most expensive, too.

Before a single option is ticked, the new M5 touring now comes with a pricetag of £116,000 - add on some optional extras and packages, and that figure increases almost as fast as the car accelerates. The car I had on test had enough options ticked to push it into the £130,000 price bracket, but with an ambitious session on the BMW configurator, prices of £145,000+ can be reached alarmingly easily.

To Conclude

The new M5 comes with a lot of headlines and a lot of talking topics. The result of all of them is that it's probably not going to be a car for everyone, and that's okay.

Yes, it's expensive, yes, it's heavy, and yes, to some, the styling might take a decade or two to fully appreciate, but it is unquestionably an M5, and it does all of the things that the BMW M5 has been doing so brilliantly since the 1980s. For that reason, it's hard not to love it.

Words by John Marcar
Photography by Henry Faulkner-Smith
Special thanks to Partridge BMW Hampshire