2025 BMW M5 Wagon Prototype: Heavyweight Contender

 The M5 Touring is headed stateside for the first time, and we couldn't wait to get behind the wheel.

The good news is the upcoming BMW M5 Touring weighs just 140 pounds more than the M5 sedan despite a substantial load-carrying extension grafted to its hindquarters.

The bad news? This small increase pushes BMW's plug-in-hybrid wagon to 5530 pounds, a solid 1100-plus pounds more than the previous M5 sedan. That's a lot of weight. Too much weight, I comment to Dirk Häcker, BMW M's head of development.

Häcker's in the passenger's seat of the G99 M5 Touring prototype I'm threading over Wales's open moorland roads and country lanes. Even though the M5's dashboard is disguised with drapes, and the exterior is covered in camouflage that's as hypnotic as TV static, everything is pretty much signed off on, save for the Touring's suspension and steering calibrations. Häcker says both still need a little fairy dust before production begins this November, though a final-spec M5 sedan is on hand as a reference for us and a target for the M development team.

The M5 Touring is big news worldwide but especially in the U.S., since it's M's first wagon to land officially in the States. In fact, U.S. interest was key to making the case for the G99 Touring. The E34- and E61-generation M5 Touring each sold around 1000 units worldwide, and while the new Touring isn't likely to see those numbers, interest from the U.S. helped make the business case for the body style's return, according to Häcker.