The BMW M5 Touring

BMW

BMW finally brings the M5 Touring to America and takes this enthusiast back to the teenage driving dreams that started it all.

Friends of On the pch know how much I love the BMW 5 Series. Just take a look at my beloved E39. I was an impressionable, newly-licensed, sixteen-year-old in 1996, when Joji Nagashima’s legendary design arrived in the U.S., first as a sedan and later that year as a wagon.

But I was also a poor city kid and knew that the 5 Series was reserved for gentleman in the suburbs and country clubs on the Philadelphia Main Line.

I had to settle for the family’s Chevy Celebrity wagon, also known as the Silver Streak. Wishful thinking, in that it was really grey and really slow.

BMW E39 M5

Introducing Gumby

Adolescent wishes came true last week when my good friend Bernard rolled into town in a BMW M5 Touring, a G99 based on the most recent G60 5 series.

In similar duds to my Oxford Green-over-tan E39, this one was dressed in Smyrna Green over two-toned taupe grey and deep lagoon. The playful hue led B to affectionately call her Gumby.

Drive Mode

Unlike the old Celebrity, this Smyrna Streak moves. Its 4.4L twin-turbocharged V8 engine pairs with an electric motor to produce a combined output of 717 hp and 738 lb⋅ft of torque.

The PHEV offers several drive modes. “Hybrid” mode combines combustion and electric. "Electric" mode runs fully…electric. And "e-control" mode maximizes driving performance through a sort of smart temperature control of the combustion engine and at least 80% charge rate of the high-voltage battery.

Gumby’s optional "M Drive Professional" track-focused software package offered additional "Dynamic" and "Dynamic Plus" modes, which streaked sixteen-year-old smiles along Newport Beach Back Bay roads.

BMW

A Wagon Renaissance?

This is the first time that the M5 Touring has been offered in North America, owed, no doubt, to competition with the other German automakers—Audi’s RS6 Avant, my good friend John’s practical, family car, and the AMG E 53 Wagon from Mercedes-Benz.

More wishful thinking from me: A wagon renaissance that corrects the glut of SUVs in the market. Luc Donckerwolke, designer of the Genesis G90 Wingback Concept seems to agree. And Audi’s recent announcement of an RS5 Avant looks to add to the momentum.

Where does it rank?

Like Nagashima, this 5 Series is designed by another non-German—Mexican designer José Casas, Head of Exterior Design for BMW.

Casas, whose journey was influenced by the art of design from Mexico to California to Detroit to Germany, manages to balance heritage and modernity in this new model.

In my humble opinion, it’s the best 5 series since the E39. Bravo, José and BMW.

BMW

All photos by BMW. For more, visit https://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/m-series/m5-series/bmw-m5-touring.html