► BMW M5 Touring driven for first time
► We test the prototype G99 wagon
► Join us in a camouflaged test car
The new G99 BMW M5 Touring doesn’t begin production until November 2024, but CAR magazine recently bagged an early drive of the first M5 estate in two generations – not in Germany, but on some of our familiar test routes in Wales.
Covered in camouflage and awaiting a final suspension and steering calibration, this plug-in hybrid prototype is not quite to final specification but it is close, and a back-to-back comparison with a signed-off M5 saloon gives us an idea of what M is shooting for.
Naturally, adding a large luggage area makes the M5 even heavier than the saloon, but insiders suggest the penalty amounts to just 35kg – a drop in the ocean when the kerbweight is knocking on 2.5 tonnes (a by-product of a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8, all-wheel drive and an 18.6kWh chunk of lithium-ion battery).
In common with its four-door M5 sibling, the M5 Touring runs coil springs, fixed anti-roll bars and adaptive dampers all-round, and like the BMW M3 Touring gains additional under-body bracing. It’s this bracing (not the plug-in tech) that reduces boot space to 500 litres with the rear seats up, and 1630 litres with them folded – a 70-litre reduction on both counts.
Springs are described as ‘more or less’ the same as the saloon with a different tune for the dampers and revised bump stops, but the big difference to both lies with a new design of multi-link rear axle necessary to provide maximum load space.
First impressions are of a large, very wide car (2156mm with mirrors) that isn’t entirely at home on minor roads hemmed in by walls and hedges, but given space the Touring is breathtakingly impressive. Imagine a limousine that can really handle and you’ll be somewhere close.
Rolling refinement is high, the ride is suitably supple in Comfort mode and the new 2025 BMW M5 Touring never feels less than resolutely planted, but the fizz of road-surface information that does percolate through the (admittedly quite isolated) steering is a tell-tale of the precision and surprising agility lurking beneath.
Given space and with everything in Sport mode, the M5 Touring is fluid, controlled and far fleeter in feel than its porky kerbweight suggests, allowing you to commit to a line and really dig into the astonishing 717bhp of V8 hybrid performance (see our saloon drive for the deep-dive on that). Yet swapping into the finished saloon quickly reveals the extra sophistication of its set-up.
There’s additional damping support through high-speed compressions, rebound damping is less abrupt on trickier sections and there’s additional bite from the front axle, while the steering is more clearly defined in the saloon.
This is the final bit of fairy dust M is currently working on and demonstrates the prototype Touring isn’t yet quite as cohesive as it could be. Experimentation with rear bump stops, damper fine-tuning and – the finishing touch – a steering calibration aims to close that gap.
BMW M5 Touring prototype: verdict
Given how well the M5 Touring already drives and M’s recent track record with the M3 Touring, we’d bet on it doing just that before the new model reaches showrooms in early 2025, but we’ll find out for sure when we drive the finished product later this year.