The 2026 BMW M5 Touring Is A Bi-Turbo V8 Hybrid Super Wagon For Enthusiasts
For the past 40 plus years, if you’re a driving enthusiast looking to get out of your impractical sports car, the BMW M5 was just the perfect replacement. This vehicle essentially offered enough space for your family and their stuff without compromising driving fun, especially when the road gets twisty. Now, last year, we saw BMW introduce an all-new version of the M5. Now, in its seventh generation, just like its predecessors, it was built off of the latest version of the BMW 5 series. And the big shocker with the new M5 is that BMW made every version a plug-in hybrid twin turbo V8, which significantly increased the power, but also significantly increased the weight. Now, one of the other big surprises with this new generation M5 is we can now finally get a wagon version of the car. It’s called the BMW M5 Touring, and it is basically embodies the perfect family car for a lot of driving enthusiasts out there. So, as you can see this week, we finally managed to get our hands on the latest 2026 M5 Touring painted in this individual color called Laguna Seikka Blue. And the big question I want answered, has BMW finally managed to create the ultimate family car for enthusiasts? Stay tuned to find out. [Music] Now, before we start talking about the gorgeous exterior styling of the wagon version of the M5, of course, the M basically stands for motor. So, let’s go ahead and remind you guys what’s powering this allnew seventh generation model. Now, the big controversy, like I mentioned, is the fact that every M5 is now a plug-in hybrid. It was just necessary to give this car the power that it needed to compete with its rivals. Now, as you can see, underneath this hood, you’re going to find a very beautiful looking engine bay. The engine, of course, is longitudinally mounted, and if you guys are familiar with BMW products, you’ll know this engine. And it’s a 4.4 L double overhead cam twin turbocharged direct injection V8 with their double Venos variable valve timing technology. Uh it is uh augmented or assisted by a electric motor that’s sandwiched between the engine and the 8-speed automatic transmission. That electric motor draws its power from a 14.8 kWh battery pack that allows it to go up to 25 mi of electric only range. Now, the V8 on its own delivers 577 horsepower and 553 pound- feet of torque. However, when you add the electric motor, which adds 194 horsepower and 207 pound- feet of torque, BMW claims the total output is 717 horsepower and 738 foot-lbs of torque. Uh, it all goes out through an 8-speed automatic transmission built by ZF. And of course, BMW’s MX drive all-wheel drive system is standard. It has the ability to switch off the front differential or the or to switch to disconnect the front differential. So, you can do smoky burnouts. You can do drifts in this car, which is kind of cool considering the fact that this is an all-wheel drive family station wagon. Now, fuel economy, because it’s a hybrid, you would expect it to be really decent, right? Sadly, it is not great. It’s only rated at 11 in the city, 17 on the highway, about 13 combined. That’s if you don’t even have any charge in the battery pack. BMW says if you keep the battery topped off and run it as a hybrid, it’ll get around 54 MPG, which that number really doesn’t mean much because it’s the equivalent MPG, but electricity is consumed in kilowatts. Now, it has a 16gallon fuel tank, so you’re lucky to do at most around 250 mi of range on a full tank. That’s including the 25 mi that you get in electric only charging. So, BMW really needed to make the fuel tank larger. I suspect there just wasn’t room for that because of all the other complex componentry with this being a plug-in hybrid. Now, BMW claims this model is good for 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 190 mph because my test car has the $2,500 drivers package. As this car sits, remember it’s now a plug-in hybrid with a 15 kWh battery pack. Um, this model weighs in at just over 5,500 lb. It’s a whopping, you know, 1,200 lb more versus the previous generation, but only around 100 lb heavier versus the sedan version of this car. Now, I know that weight is heavy, but I want to remind you guys the Audi RSX Evant is also around 5,000 lb, and the Mercedes AMG E53 wagon is around 5,300 lb. So, in reality, the weight of this car is actually kept in check with most of its competitors. But, let’s go ahead and close up the hood here and talk about the exterior styling. Because as you guys know, this allnew seventh generation M5 was introduced last year, and the look of this car is just really uh attractive for me. I love the lines of the car. Uh it also is painted in this color called Laguna Secika Blue. It’s an extra $5,000, but it’s an individual color. It’s also a heritage color. I believe we first saw this color on BMW M product on the M3 back in the 1990s, and it certainly looks amazing with the lines of this car. I love the hood bulges that you get with the creases with the BMW logo of course that’s in the center of the hood. It’s got the updated twin kidney grills which are gloss black painted with the nostrils. They’re also illuminated because my test car has the executive package that illuminates the grill along the outer portion. You have some functional openings there with the M5 badge. The headlights, you can see these are the iconic full LED headlights that BMW is known for. It includes LED projectors for the low and high beams, LED daytime running lights, LED turn signals with which have kind of like a sequential fade in and fade out design when they’re active. I don’t love the look of it when it is fading in and out, but um it definitely gives it a more distinctive look. You can see there are some functional uh vents there. A big gaping hole here that allows the engine to swallow air for the intercooler, for the radiator. I suspect these holes, as you can see, um there’s already stuff that’s built in there. I really think there should have been kind of like a mesh in front of it to protect this area from getting, you know, pummeled with rocks. But, uh, again, it’s all there for the cooling. You have integrated parking sensors, a front camera system along with the radar sensor for the adaptive cruise. I don’t like how the camera here is offset. I really wish BMW would have put it there in the middle. That just bothers my OCD. But overall, as you can see, this Laguna Seika Blue with the black accents just looks amazing. It looks incredible. I think the design is going to age really well. And keep in mind, this is just the standard M5, although we haven’t had word if there’s a competition version coming out or a CS version coming out later on. Now, moving around the side profile, BMW gave this car a huge growth spur with this allnew 7th generation. And the M5 wagon certainly has a nice presence to it. Uh, with a 118.3 in wheelbase and a 200.6 in overall length, this car is around 5 in longer than the previous generation. It actually has the same overall length as the current M5 sedan. So, I like how BMW kept the proportions exactly the same. It’s 77.6 in wide, which is almost 3 in wider than the previous generation, and it’s almost an inch taller as well. That’s because BMW had to raise the floor up to leave room, of course, for the battery pack that’s lining the floor. Now, as you can see, my test car has uh the upgraded 21-in alloy wheels, or technically it’s a 20-in wheel at the front, a fatter 21in wheel at the back. These are technically a free wheel. Uh this is kind of just like a multis-spoke bycolor design. I didn’t like these wheels on BMW’s configurator, but I have to say here in person, it looks fantastic. Uh especially when it’s all cleaned up, but it’s a pain in the butt to clean. So, kind of keep that in mind. Uh my test car has the optional for $9,000 carbon ceramic brakes, which have 16 1/2 in rotors at the front clamped down by a six piston gold painted caliper. The rears are around 15.9 in. So, again, huge brakes necessary for stopping this heavy car. You have a 285×40 R20 uh Handcook Ventus summer performance tire. The rear is slightly fatter at 295s. This vehicle does come with an adaptive variable suspension, of course, that’s MS specific tuned. The rear wheels also have an adaptive rear steering, although they only turn a minuscule 1 and a half°. Um, so that’s a very small amount, but it helps of course with the agility of this car. I also love the full paint finish that you get along everywhere of this car. There’s no additional black or trim pieces, which I really like. It gives a a tidy appearance. And then if you open up this door here, this is where you plug the vehicle in. Uh the M5 comes with an 11 kilowatt onboard charger. On a level two, it’ll take about four hours to charge this vehicle uh from your home. There is no CCS combo port like you would find on this car’s competitor, the E53 hybrid. Um but with around 25 mi of range, you really don’t need it. It’ll probably take around 12 hours to charge on a level one, which is the standard household 110 outlet. You can see the mirrors. These are the Mspecific mirrors which have kind of like that floating top portion. They’re also gloss black. They are power folding. You have integrated cameras. Uh turn signals as well. It looks good, of course, with all the black accents along the window trim. I like the low profile black roof rails. And then every M5 comes with the sky panoramic glass roof, although that does not open to vent air. It does have a retractable shade, which is nice. As I back away from the vehicle, you can really see the gorgeous long roof proportions of this car. I I think BMW nailed the styling. I mean, the sedan I thought looks good, but this just takes it to the next level. What it really just needs is some window tint. Once you tint the windows, especially in this blue color with those wheels, this is just literally a chef’s kiss for me when I look at the exterior design. But of course, if you want to save 5 grand, BMW also has some beautiful colors that are free, like the aisle of man green, which I also particularly love. Now, looking at the rear, you can see the rear just is such a big improvement over the sedan. You can see it’s got those slim full LED taillights, which just works on this car, which are basically grafted from the sedan. You have this nice tasteful rear spoiler at the back which is gloss black with the integrated turd or third brake light. You have a a wiper that sits here on the back window. And then very minimal badging, just a subtle M5 badge there to let everybody know you have the performance model. And then the rear bumper, you can see super aggressive. And it has the signature black uh black painted chrome outlet exhaust, which this car has a twin turbo V8 even though it’s a plug-in hybrid. So, let’s go ahead and fire it up. You can listen listen to that wonderful sound. [Applause] And I love the fact that BMW offers a V8 because if you guys are comparing this car to the E53 which has a twin turbo inline 6 or inline 6 that’s turbocharged, this V8 just has a much more aggressive ive muscle car sound to it. Now, a power liftgate is obviously included and one of the beauties about getting the wagon is just a lot more practicality because the sedan offers only 16 1.5 cubic feet of space. However, in the wagon, you get up to 27.2 cubic feet of space with the seats up. Now, that’s up versus the preliminary estimate when this car first came out in 2025 or last year. BMW said it had around just under 18 cubic feet. The true number BMW clarified is now 27.2, too, which is just around 3 cubic feet less versus what you get in the Audi RS6 Avant, this car’s main competitor. You have some storage off to the side. And to the side over there, you have some underfloor storage as well. You just get a fixer flat kit and a tire compressor. If you want to fold down the seats, BMW makes it pretty easy. You basically just pull on this little lever here. You can see it’s not a completely flat floor, but when you fold down everything, the cargo area expands to around 67 cubic feet of storage space. 67 practically rivals that of a lot of midsize SUVs. It’s got more space than a lot of compact and subcompact SUVs. So, this is again going to be really excellent if you guys plan to use this as a family vehicle. And it really shows you that a long roof wagon uh basically gives you all the practically practicality that you can need without sacrificing the drivability that you might get from an SUV. So, clearly BMW did an amazing job with the exterior design of the M5 Touring. But, let’s go ahead and hop into the interior so we can talk about all the changes they’ve made for this new generation. Before we get inside, however, as you can see, here is the current BMW intelligent access key fob, which is standard on every M5. It’s got the BMW M colors here on the fob. It actually also feels really hefty. It’s a relatively large size key, but it feels pretty high quality. I don’t like how the piano black, however, shows a lot of scratches and smudges on the key. Um, you can see there’s your usual buttons here for lock, which is the BMW logo. If you push that three times, um, it’ll actually remote start the car. You have unlock, power lift key, and then a panic function. So, overall, the key is nice, but I kind of wish it had an M5 badge on it. As you can see, as I approach the vehicle, BMW does include an auto walkway lock and unlock feature, which you can turn on and off. It’s got the flush style door handles for aerodynamics. The mirrors are electrically folded in. You can also just lock it by touching right there. It’ll lock the doors. And if you want to unlock it, just touch the back part of the door handle, pull it up, and that’s will unlock the door. If I was farther away and I approached the car, however, it would automatically unlock the door for me. Now, my particular test car has a really amazing color combination. So, you have that beautiful um Laguna Secika blue followed up with this full marino taupe and lagoon uh premium leather interior. This is technically a new two-tone option that was available at the toward the later part of 2025. But again, this two-tone color combination makes these seats stand out in a great way. And the beauty about these seats is it’s not even extra. This is included in the price of the M5. You have the illuminated M5 logo, M5 logo here. This headrest also does adjust up and down, but not forward and back. It’s power adjustable in the screen. These seats are also heated and ventilated. The ventilated seat comes with the executive package for an extra three grand. However, if you’re looking for massaging seats, BMW does not offer that on the M5. You have like a 14-way power adjustable seat with twoerson memory on the driver and on the passenger side. So, again, lots of features that you expect, but I think massaging seats that have been included, especially at this price point. You can see the upper door panel has a soft touch injection molded plastic. It’s actually really nice and padded. You have this beautiful in interaction light bar that spawns or spans from the dash going into the door panel. It also has this like 3D textured uh crystal glass effect to it. Um that’s standard equipment. You have the same leather over here where you’d rest your elbows. The window controls, you can see have that high quality tactile feel. Although instead of like the glossy plastic, I would have preferred these to be metal like it is in the BMW X7. The door handle is also silver painted plastic which would have been nice if it was real metal. You have power folding mirrors. You have beautiful genuine carbon fiber. The uh 18 speaker Bowowers and Wilin stereo is standard. It’s not extra which is a nice touch. sounds incredible in case you guys get tired of listening to the V8. Down here it is a soft touch injection molded plastic with additional storage. Um, but overall you can see the interior makes a great first impression. The seats are really what’s going to stand out, especially in this two-tone color like this taupe and lagoon which matches the blue on the outside. Now getting inside, this has around 5 in of ground clearance, so you have a lower sedan step-in height as opposed to an SUV. As I shut the door, the door has a nice solid sounding thunk. Um, this car sadly is missing uh soft closed doors. You can get that in a lot of other, you know, competitor set vehicles. So, that’s something I think BMW should consider adding. Now, as you see getting inside this interior, the start stop button is right here by the toggle for the shifter. Push that. You can hear it has that starter sound from Han Zimmerman. That’s because every time you start the vehicle up, it’ll favor electric only driving, which I actually really like because it reminds you it’s a plug-in hybrid. If you want to listen to that V8, just push either the M1 or M2 button. the engine will start right up and it has that nice snarl. Now, that sound is also augmented, but you also have that lovely burble from the exhaust. So, that again, you know, reminds you that you’re in something super special. I love the steering wheel on this model. It’s very race car- like with the flat bottom, the flat bottom design. It’s got the little racing line here at the 12:00 position. Lots of buttons here. M1 and M2 are the customizable drive modes that you can set to your liking. M1, I have it as kind of like sport. This one I have it as like maximum attack sport plus. Um you have these big paddles uh which have kind of like a red backdrop to the paddles as well. If you pull and hold the left pedal, activate a boost function for 20 seconds, it gives you maximum power. And you have your cruise control uh controls here along with your audio controls. The wheel itself offers a power tilt telescoping function where you can easily get a comfortable driving position which is nice. And then you also can see a head-up display is included with the executive package I believe. And then you have the same soft touch material from the door panel onto the dash over here. It actually almost feels like leather, but you don’t see any exposed leather stitching. I love the way the interaction light bar looks with the way it illuminates. You can also change that color. It also will show you messages and, you know, different symbols or not symbols, but patterns when you guys um have the interaction part turned on. And then, of course, every M5 comes with their latest iDrive 8.5 software where you have a 12.3 in or display for the driver. And then you have a 14.9 in center display which includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Uh and it also includes overtheair updates. The system works really well. It’s a touchcreen obviously, or you can also use the iDrive controller with the glass controls, which are standard on this model. The vents are controlled via this little scroll thing here, which you can see the vent is actually right here. So, you can’t actually see the vent moving, but it’s a really nice, you know, slim design. You can also close and open the vents via that little touch sensitive panel there, uh, which is also a really cool high-tech touch. Uh, I don’t have my phone connected cuz I’m using it to film, but when you have it connected, it takes up the entire screen, uh, which is lovely. And if I put the vehicle into reverse, you can see there’s your backup camera, which has trajectory, distance markers, parking sensors, cross traffic braking. It also has their backup assistance where it will remember where you parked or the way you parked and then back itself out on its own in that same manner that you pulled into the space. So, that’s a really cool high-tech feature. The quality and resolution of the camera is also great. Um, this little toggle, like I mentioned, controls the 8-speed auto. You push it forward to go into reverse, kick down to go into drive. There’s also a sport mode here along with pushing the P to go into park. uh to put it into park. You have all different drive modes here as well. If you want to adjust your drive modes, you can basically go into the M hybrid, which will allow you to cycle this between either a road, a sport, or a track mode here. So, that’s all really uh cool to kind of get or let me go back here to the M mode. You can see track. If you activate the track mode, it actually turns off the interaction light bar. It gives you kind of like it blacks out the screen. Uh that’s to kind of minimize distractions. Obviously, most of the times you’ll have this vehicle in either road or sport. I actually really like the way the gauge display looks in road mode. And if you push the M hybrid mode here, you can see you can put it into your different drive modes here. Hybrid, electric control, e control is where you can save the power of the battery pack to use for later on. Um, or you can also go back into its electric setup. If you go to setup here, you can kind of custom tailor this to your liking. If I want to take it out of M2, um, you basically just push this button and it will take itself out of the M2. Although the engine is staying on right now because it’s letting the engine actually warm up. Your cooled and heated seat controls are located here on the screen. The cooled seat functionality doesn’t work super great, but at least it’s included in this car. You also have a three-le heat and three-le heated steering wheel as well, which is a nice touch. Your climate, you can see it’s a quad zone climate. You can also adjust the air flow here. Um, along with the sink function, this car doesn’t have any kind of perfume that wafts a scent, which I think also should have been included, especially at this price point. But for the most part, it’s pretty easy to use. You can hear the engine shut off because it’s now drawing power from the electric part. And the air conditioning also will stay active, which I also love. This also has their personal assistant where you can talk to the vehicle using, you know, your voice to command it to do a few things, which is nice. Um, down here, you can see you have a wireless phone charging pad, cup holders with two USBC charging ports. No heated and cooled cup holders like in some of BMW’s, you know, bigger vehicles as well. I also love the way the glass controls look here with the M uh badge there. I don’t love the piano black because this is going to show fingerprints and smudges. This is a nice padded center console. If I open this up, it’s not the biggest or deepest, but it certainly is very usable. Um, the seats I mentioned earlier, these are the included leather seats. I love the two-tone. They’re comfortable and supportive. You can also adjust the bolstering here, and you can also make this headrest go up and down electronically. Um, they are really great for somebody my height. So, try the seats out for themselves. But, they are sport seats, but they’re great for long-distance comfort, which I love. I love the carbon fiber here. Um, and you can see the glove box is damped and lined with felt. It’s not the biggest glove box, but it certainly is still very, very usable. The rearview mirror, you can see, is auto dimming. It’s also frameless. No digital camera rearview mirror, but the review out of the back is really great. You also have Alcantara going across the A-pillar and across the roof, along with this big panoramic glass roof, as you can see, which lets in a ton of light. You can also open and close this retractable shade. Um, this is definitely not dark tinted enough to have the shade open all the time when the sun is really intense. I also would like to see this open up to vent air. But overall, as you can see, the interior is still a very nice place to spend time. It’s identical to the sedan. I just love this two-tone color combination. It has high quality materials. Not a single squeak and rattle. Beautiful technology as well. Uh it’s just missing a couple of features like massaging seats or uh soft closed opening or soft closed doors. That would have been nice to have, especially at this price point. But let’s go ahead and hop into that back seat area. Let me turn the car back on. It kind of shuts itself off every time you open the door. But as you can see, getting back here into the back seat, this is where you can easily sell this car to your spouse as a family car. My test car has the executive package. So, you have the manual retractable sun shades, which I love this feature. Honestly, the car should come standard with uh tinted windows. You have the same soft touch materials here, leather here, metal speakers, covers, which are also illuminated at night for the Bowowers and Wilin stereo. It’s all hard soft touch plastic here with additional storage. And then this seat sadly does not recline. It really should for the wagon version. But when you fold down the seats, you can see it’s almost a flat floor. It has a slight incline to it, but it’s great at expanding that cargo capacity. You can see the armrest folds down with two cup holders. Now, as I get back here, you can see the space offers around 3 uh 6 36 1/2 in of legroom, which is usable, but not the best in the class. You can see these sport seats definitely take up some of your knee room. This is basically my driving position. Um the floor, as you can see, is not completely flat. That’s for the drive shaft for the uh rear drive shaft because this is a rear drive bias vehicle. You do have three-level heated seats, but no ventilated seats. You have quad zone climate. You have two USBC charging ports, a little storage shelf here. You have rear seat air vents on this portion and on the uh B-pillar as well in addition to um having this little tab that slides open. You can see there there’s another USBC here along with a mount for a tablet which is a nice touch. No storage pockets in the the two sport seats which would have been nice. But um the seats themselves they have a nice rake to them and they also offer good thigh support along with this headrest which is also pretty soft as well. Uh in terms of the headroom space you can see I have a solid maybe 3 4 in of headroom clearance. This is actually more, I think, than the sedan, which I love. I love the panoramic glass roof that comes over into the back seat area as well. Um, you have a nice grab handle here along with that beautiful suede Alcantara. You can easily sit back here and cross your legs and get comfortable. So, again, not the biggest in the class, but this is certainly much more usable than like an M3, for example. And I just love the fact that you can look behind yourself here and see all that huge amount of cargo space. And that’s what makes the M5 Touring such a attractive vehicle. It’s just a a tempting vehicle, especially for the very minuscule price increase over the sedan. So, when BMW first announced that they were bringing the M5 Touring to America, my lips just started salivating because I’ve always wanted a BMW station wagon that just happens to come from their the performance M division. I mean, when I first had a chance to drive the Audi RS6 Avant, that’s kind of when I fell in love with these fast station wagons. So, now that we are behind the wheel of the all-new M5 Touring, the M5 station wagon. When I first got my taste of this platform in the sedan, I liked the car. I love the car, but I just knew that the wagon was for me. I mean, for an extra two grand, you can’t go wrong with the package that BMW gives you. And the beauty about the wagon is it has the same powertrain, a 4.4 L twinturbo V8 with a powerful electric motor that delivers nearly 200 horsepower on its own. A total of 717 horsepower for this car. And this isn’t even the fast version. Now, I expect BMW to eventually do a CS or Competition at some point, although they haven’t confirmed that. But this model being 100 lbs heavier is capable of BMW says 0 to 60 sprints in around 3.4 seconds. So, the last M5 that I tested did it in around 3.06 seconds. And that’s with it slightly cold. Uh, now we are at 85° temps, so it’s finally nice and warm. So, let’s go ahead and see what we can get uh with this wagon version. To get the best time, you basically put it into its M2 mode here, which I already set to be most maximum attack. We’ll brake torque it. Launch control active. 0 to 60 in 3.28 seconds there. That’s with it on level ground. The front still fights for traction a little bit. That’s kind of what I noticed with the uh M5 sedan when I had that car back in April. This model obviously has a little bit more weight. Still has a little bit of grip problems from the front end, but it is fast. This thing when you have it in its sport plus, you activate the launch control with the electric motor assistance. It just gives you instantaneous power right away. Now, again, you can’t get around the 5,500 lb of weight. This is a heavy vehicle, but it’s also relative in its in its weight because other competitors are also over 5,000 lb as well. But still, this is a lot of power. It’s a lot of crazy fast power. So, this is like supercar levels of acceleration. Let’s try one more time here. That 8-speed is just so fast and it shifts 3.3 seconds there. 0 to 60. That’s with it more going slightly uphill. So, I expected this model to be a smidge slower. BMW claims I think it’s either 0.1 or 2 seconds slower than the sedan, but this is still plenty fast. Now, unfortunately, the E53 hybrid that I tested, the sedan, did did 0 to 60 in like 3.3 seconds, something like that. So, it’s not that much faster. This car is not that much faster than that E53. Granted, that has it’s a it’s like around 200 lb lighter, 300 lb lighter. It has around 15 less horsepower, something like that, a little over 100 horsepower less. But still, this is plenty of power. And also what I love about this is because of the electric motor, it just has so much instant power along with that V8 that has the burbles, the pops and crackles. Oh, revs all the way to like 7,200 RPM. And you hear some pops and crackles from the exhaust. There’s also a synthesized sound as well. Man, the shifts from this 8-speed are just lightning fast. They almost feel as harsh and as aggressive as a dual clutch, especially when you have it in its maximum attack mode in M2. That’s where it’s going to give you basically everything. But when you take it out of M2, that’s where the car can actually trickle along on electric power alone. So, as soon as I took it out of M2, the car switched into its hybrid mode. And then when you switch into its hybrid mode, it’ll eventually go into pure EV mode because we are driving the car around with around a 90% state of charge, 95% state of charge. So, this car actually does have the ability to drive on pure electric power alone. up to 87 mph. What’s interesting, the engine’s on now. What’s interesting is when you drive it in pure EV mode, it actually will um shift because it has to go through the uh 8-speed automatic transmission. So, it actually will produce some shifting as you as you go through the gears, which is a weird sensation. But unlike some other plug-in hybrids that I’ve tested, like a Bentley plug-in hybrid, there is actually a synthesized sound that creates some visceral experience with the car, which I think is necessary. But overall, you know, toodling around town in pure EV mode is a weird feeling, but it’s also nice because it helps to save you a lot of gas because that’s one of the big problems with uh a twin turbo V8 is it guzzles a lot of gas, especially when you’re stopped in traffic. Now, when you switch it back to pure electric mode, you can really feel this vehicle, you know, drives around like an electric car. Now, granted, it only has around 200 horsepower in this mode. And the last M5 that I tested when I did a 0 to 60 test in just pure EV mode did 0 to 60 in around 9 seconds. So, it actually does have enough power to get you around town in most of your day-to-day driving without having to wake up the gas V8. Now, if you push the accelerator pedal past the click point, that will automatically wake up the V8 to give you the full fat 717 horsepower. This thing really does have that dual personality. Now, when it’s in this mode right now that I’m driving it in, the dampers are in its softer setting. The car has a better ride in this mode because when you’re in sport mode, when you’re in sport plus mode, that guy, the construction worker, is literally giving me a thumbs up. That’s how much attention this car gets. Uh, when it’s in sport plus mode, the suspension is harsh. It feels like you’re driving around in a race car with its, you know, firmst adaptive suspension setting. The big wheels also transmit a lot of impact harshness. The car also has rear wheel steering, which helps it to turn a little bit easier on a dime. This is still in pure EV mode. can literally hear it’s creating a fake sound, which is weird to be hearing a fake sound in something like this. But, um, it’s still when you’re on smooth pavement, the ride is agreeable. As soon as you start hitting some crappier pavement, that’s where you feel a lot of impact harshness. The seats in this in this car are also extremely comfortable and supportive. They really hold you in place nicely during aggressive driving. Yet, I was also extremely comfortable on longer trips. Visibility out of this car is good. I can see out of the front, the side, and the rear ex like excellent. There’s no blind spots whatsoever. And this car has their full suite of driver assistance tech. Uh that’s standard. You don’t have to pay extra for that for the most part. Although uh there is a driver assist professional package on some other BMW models. Um and this vehicle is also really quiet. It’s quiet in pure EV mode. Yet if I put my foot down, you hear almost like the sound of an engine, which is really odd to to hear and feel that in a car like this. But it makes me want to drive this car in pure EV mode a little bit more. I also love the way the infotainment system looks. This is the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto that’s connected or the Apple CarPlay that’s connected. Full screen, which is nice. Quick and snappy and responsive along with the BMW voice commands uh to kind of help you if you don’t feel like, you know, using the touchscreen portion. But, uh, there isn’t a single squeak and rattle in this car, and it’s easy to live with. This is an easy car to live with on a day-to-day basis with from its comfortable seats to its good ride quality on smooth pavement like this until you hit some really crappy pavement. And then when you get bored of driving it like this, all you have to do is just, you know, push the M1 or M2 button. Uh M1 for me is kind of like the mode that I really like because it’s kind of like the perfect combination. It puts it into hybrid mode. It will wake up the engine and be responsive when I want it with that lovely V8 sounds, but then when I, you know, drive more softly, it’ll switch back into its hybrid mode. And this is where we can talk about the fuel efficiency because this car is rated at a very poulry 13 MPG combined when you have the battery depleted. Now, in my week’s worth of testing, I had a chance to test out the fuel efficiency in multiple ways. First of all, when it’s in this mode, M1, when it’s in hybrid mode, when I left the battery topped off, that’s really how you should be driving it. This car was averaging around 27 MPG, which is actually pretty good. It’s not as good as the I believe it was the 34 or 54 MPG is what the EPA says, which I think is a bologoney number. When I had the battery depleted, that MPG dropped to around 19 MPG, which is not great, but hey, it’s a twin turbo V8. That’s what you’re going to have to deal with. Uh, when you drive it in pure electric power alone, I was actually able to get around 28 mi of pure electric driving, which is better than the 25 that the EPA says, which is fantastic. Love the fact that BMW, you know, gives you that ability to drive this car in pure electric mo power alone, and it actually gets pretty decent real world range. So, that’s very impressive as well. Uh, even though I said in the walkound that the driving range is, you know, if you’re getting 250 mi, that’s going to be lucky. I actually was able to do better than that. I was able to get 300 miles of range on a full tank. That’s with the combination of the gas engine and, of course, or a combination of the electric motor and the battery pack and of course the fuel tank once that eventually depleted. This does have a small, you know, 15.9 gallon fuel tank. That’s where I think BMW should make the fuel tank larger. I just don’t think they had space for it considering the fact that it again has to deal with the all the complexity that this powertrain gives you. But overall, this car basically has all of the wonderful characteristics of the sedan. Instead, we have it in this wagon body style that’s even more practical. I love looking out of the rearview mirror at the back and seeing the way that looks back there, how it has an unobstructed view of your what’s behind you along with this getting great gas mileage, having the electric only power, crazy fast acceleration. I mean, 3.2 2 seconds is pretty fast. Although I was hoping that this car would also be closer to the low 3 second mark, like 3 seconds flat, but that’s what the sed sedan can do. And that’s because the sedan has around 100 lbs less weight to carry around. So really, in reality, if you’re looking at this class, if you can afford something like this, the M5 Touring should definitely make it to the very top of your list. Will BMW come out with an even faster version? That remains to be said. Um, there’s also again the E53 hybrid which is uh around $40,000 less than this car or actually at the top end only around $20,000 less, but that also is pretty fast as well. There’s really a lot of good choices out there, but for me personally, I find the M5 Touring to the best to be the best looking model, especially if you could get it in the right color combination like this. So, a couple years ago, Audi sent me an RS6 Avant to test for a full week, and I dubbed it to be my favorite practical family super wagon, basically because it gave you all of the handling characteristics of like a sedan with the practicality that you would want from an SUV. So, after spending a full week with the allnew M5 Touring, remember, this is the first time that America is getting a wagon version of the M5, although technically this is technically the third time the world has gotten a wagon. I think the wagon first showed up in the 1990s, followed in 2007 with the V10 powered M5, and then of course we now have this model. I have to say, when I first had a chance to drive the sedan version of this car, I loved it. But I also just kept thinking to myself, for an extra $2,000, you could have this gorgeous long roof wagon. And I have to say, it’s easily worth the extra price because, as you guys saw, this has the same kind of performance as a sedan. 0 to 60 happens in just over 3 seconds all day long, which is plenty fast. It’s actually fast enough to smoke a lot of supercars and sports cars out there. The ride quality is a little bit a a little bit too firm for me. I actually was kind of hoping BMW would have tuned the ride of this particular body style to be a little bit softer. It doesn’t need to be this harsh even when you have the dampers and its comfort setting. I suspect it has to do again with the big wheels and tires and the fact that it’s designed to be an M car. So, I would like to see them tweak the suspension tuning to give you a softer ride. The interior is however very quiet, very refined, but it also has wonderful V8 noises when you guys want it to make those noises. But at the same time, I actually don’t mind driving this vehicle in pure electric power alone because it has almost 200 horsepower in EV mode. It has the sounds, the iconic sounds designed by Han Zimmerman. Like other BMW EVs, it still has the traditional shifting. So, it has plenty of power to tool around town in pure EV mode, which you’ll a which I was able to do nearly 30 miles of pure electric only range, which isn’t as good as this car’s main rival, the E53, although I haven’t had a chance to drive the new wagon version yet. But at the same time, the M5 wagon has a little bit more bragging rights because it has a twin turbo V8. It has over 700 uh horsepower, and it also is going to be faster, although it’s not that much faster compared to the last E53 hybrid that I tested. The back seat also isn’t the biggest in the class, but it’s very useful. The cargo area is among the biggest when you fold down the seats with its nearly 67 cubic feet of storage space. And the looks of this car, it just attracted attention everywhere, especially in this heritage colored called Laguna Seika Blue. It is for me worth every penny of the $5,000 that BMW charges for this model because it just adds some uniqueness, some exclusivity. Now, if you guys are interested in getting your hands on the M5 Touring, uh the Touring version, like I said earlier, the wagon only costs $2,000 more than the sedan. So, the sedan starts at 119,500. The wagon starts at $121,500. That’s actually a bargain even though it is an expensive car compared to the RS6 Avant, which starts at $130,000. The AMG E53 hybrid wagon starts at around $94,000, which is a lot cheaper. But remember, the AMG only has 604 horsepower, which is still plenty of power. This has again 717. Now, of course, my test car has a lot of expensive upgrades. The most expensive are the brakes at $8,500 for the carbon ceramic. I would probably skip that cuz I don’t think I would need that on a car like this unless you plan to track it, which you won’t for the wagon version. Um the executive package is like an extra $3,000. It has the $2,500 um uh driver’s package as well and another $2,600 for the gas guzzler tax. When you add in destination and everything else, the total price for this particular one that I’m showing you here is $145,000. just over 145 grand, which I know sounds like a lot of money, but remember, if you’re looking at an RS6 Avant, which only comes as a performance version now, that is easily around $10,000 more expensive comparably equipped. Now, of course, the Audi is still an amazing choice, but again, the Audi doesn’t have as much power. It doesn’t have the electric only driving, although technically the BMW and the Audi are pretty similar in terms of 0 to 60 performance. The Mercedes again is going to be a smidge slower, like.3 seconds slower. But the Benz on the top end when you equipped it like this car, it’s kind of around $20,000 less. So, there’s a lot of good choices out there if you guys are looking for the ultimate family wagon. But, I’m happy to see BMW finally throw their entry into the ring. And in terms of the design, this is definitely going to be my favorite looking wagon that you’re going to find, my favorite looking high performance wagon. So, if you can afford it six figure price tag, this is easily a bargain when you think about it compared to the rest of its rivals and you compare it to the performance it gives you relative to that sports car that you might be getting rid of. But with all that said, hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2026 BMW M5 Touring. If you’re also looking to see latest cars I’m testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Redline Reviews. Like us on Facebook, and as always, guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so much for watching. I’ll catch you all in the next video. [Music]
The #BMWM5 has long been the easy choice for driving enthusiasts looking for a super sedan that can essentially do it all. When #BMW introduced the next generation #M5 last year, the company finally made the bold decision to bring the gorgeous #M5Touring to the states and its the first time enthusiasts are able to get their hands on the #BMWM5Wagon. With a standard plug-in hybrid powertrain and a monstrous twin-turbo V8, this new #BMWM5Touring promises to offer all the practicality you can want in a more practical body style that undercuts its closest Audi rival in price.
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