Reviews
2026 BMW M5 Touring Review: The Wagon That Wants to Be a Supercar
BMW resurrected the M5 wagon for the hybrid era. It is heavier, faster and stranger than ever — and somehow more likeable for it.
| 0–60 mph | 3.5s |
|---|---|
| Power | 717 hp |
| Top speed | 190 mph |
| Weight | 5,390 lb |
The idea of a fast estate car has always carried a quiet kind of confidence. You are not shouting about performance; you are smuggling it under the guise of school runs and hardware-store trips. The 2026 BMW M5 Touring leans into that contradiction harder than any M car before it, pairing a twin-turbo V8 with a plug-in hybrid system and a body shape built for dogs and flat-pack furniture.
Let us address the number that dominates every conversation about this car: it weighs nearly 5,400 pounds. That is a startling figure for something wearing an M badge, and BMW’s engineers clearly spent the development cycle wrestling with it. The result is a car that masks its mass with an almost supernatural composure rather than pretending the weight does not exist.
How it drives
On a fast back road the M5 Touring behaves like a much smaller machine. The steering is quicker than the weight suggests, body roll is kept in check by adaptive dampers that read the road dozens of times a second, and the all-wheel-drive system shuffles torque rearward the moment it senses you are enjoying yourself. There is a rear-wheel-drive mode for the brave and the empty, and it transforms the car into something genuinely lurid.
The hybrid system is the surprise. Rather than feeling like dead weight, the electric motor fills the gaps below the turbos, so throttle response off a corner is immediate. You can also cover roughly 25 miles on electricity alone, which means the daily commute is silent and the weekend is anything but.
It does not hide its mass so much as choreograph it. The M5 Touring is a heavyweight that dances.
Living with it
This is where the wagon body earns its keep. The boot swallows luggage that would defeat the sedan, the rear seats are genuinely comfortable for adults, and the ride in Comfort mode is supple enough for long motorway hauls. The cabin technology is dense — perhaps too dense — with most physical controls now living inside the curved display, but the materials and build quality are beyond reproach.
The verdict
The M5 Touring is not the purist’s M car, and BMW knows it. It is heavy, complicated and expensive. But it is also one of the most complete performance vehicles you can buy, a single car that can drop the kids at school, win a traffic-light drag race and then disappear quietly home on electrons. For a certain kind of driver, that breadth is the whole point.
