It’s shaping up to be a confusing and unusual time for performance cars, and the new BMW M5 is the most recent example of a cherished nameplate undergoing significant change. The latest fast Bavarian sedan is here, and wow, is there ever a lot to unpack. The first plug-in hybrid M5 borrows its powertrain from the flagship XM SUV, and while that does endow it with a modest all-electric range, there are a few elephants in the room worth addressing.
An M5 needs to be quick, and BMW says this new one will run from zero-to-62 mph in 3.5 seconds. Hang on, didn’t BMW claim that the old M5 Competition ran from zero-to-62 mph in 3.4 seconds? Yes, yes it did. Will you notice one tenth of a second? Probably not, but how often does a flagship performance sedan get slower over the generations?
It’s not slower for a deficit of power, at least. With 717 horsepower and 738 lb.-ft. of torque on tap, the new M5 sees a considerable power boost over its predecessor. Granted, only 577 horsepower come from the S68B44T0 4.4-liter bi-turbo V8 engine, because this new M5 is a plug-in hybrid. A 14.8 kWh battery pack and an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission adds the extra thrust to get a combined output north of 700 horsepower and an electric range of 25 miles, but it certainly doesn’t help the curb weight. Going by DIN curb weight, this thing weighs 5,368 pounds. Ouch. The old one had a DIN curb weight of 4,177 pounds, and even that wasn’t light in the grand scheme of things.
So, if the old M5 also rode on the CLAR architecture, what else could be bloating the curb weight? Well, rear-wheel steering of up to 1.5 degrees probably isn’t keeping things light, and although it can pay dividends in virtually shortening the wheelbase, it likely won’t help other conditions in which you’ll notice vehicle heft. Speaking of electronics, the new M5 features all manner of gizmos under the skin beyond four-wheel-steering. As with before, the all-wheel-drive system can be put into two-wheel-drive mode for smoky drifts, the stability control has multiple driver-selectable intervention thresholds, and the dampers are adaptive units.
Unlike before, BMW claims “near-linear” wheelspin intervention for the stability control, which should enhance the subtlety of the system when on track. Speaking of closed-course driving, the most hardcore preset for shutting down ADAS is locked behind an optional M Drive Professional package, a must for any M5 that could be seeing track time because while advanced driver assistance systems can be of great benefit on the street, they can be of great detriment in a high-performance driving environment.
Taking a step back, the new M5 doesn’t have the big sniff treatment given to the M3 and M4, but the design certainly isn’t without sin. Why are the kidney grilles largely blanked off? Why is there a Camry dent in each corner of the rear bumper? This new executive express just doesn’t look as executive as the last one, and it’s not a traditionally handsome sedan that happens to be bonkers quick. On the plus side, being 2.8 inches wider than a standard 5 Series thanks to seriously pumped fenders ought to give the new M5 serious on-road presence.
Moving to the inside, the new BMW M5 is fairly standard 5 Series fare with some sporty bits. However, this upholstery choice certainly stands out, and by not rocking the boat too much, BMW’s done well with the cabin. Of all areas on the new M5, the interior ought to be the most widely agreeable, as it should be, because that’s where drivers will spend the most time.
On paper, the new M5 doesn’t exactly seem like the greatest possible successor to the outgoing car, but I will admit that I’m not the target market for this car. So, with that in mind, let’s go check and see what actual F90 M5 owners are saying on the Bimmerpost forums:
Well, we certainly know where that M5 owner stands, and they aren’t the only one. It seems that the new G90 M5 is receiving a lukewarm reception from many current M5 owners, largely due to the specs on paper.
Alright, so an extra 15 kilograms or 33 pounds isn’t a lot more weight than an X5 M Competition, but not only does the math check out, the X5 M Competition is a midsize SUV. That’s a hefty benchmark.
Not much to say about this one, except ouch. Then again, the outgoing M5 was a brutally fast performance sedan, and following it up in an era of increased emissions sensitivity in a way that pleases everyone was going to be a nigh-on impossible act.
If there’s one widely agreeable positive first impression of the new M5 that we can end on, at least BMW launched the new M5 in a good color. That green is pretty solid, and would look good on a variety of cars. Past that, it’ll be interesting to see how this thing shakes out in the real world. BMW hasn’t been a mainstream enthusiast brand for years now because mainstream enthusiasts generally don’t buy new luxury cars, but when a niche high-end product like the new M5 isn’t getting flowers from late-model M5 owners, it might be a good idea for the brand to do some reflection.
(Photo credits: BMW)
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The front is fine. The rear is a little weird. Oh wait, this isn’t the new Škoda Superb RS? Hmmmmm…
I’m just gonna say it I don’t ever aspire to own a vehicle that weighs more than two tonnes. I’m not going to do it. I don’t car how fast it is, how luxurious, how well it handles etc. This straight up shit looking 5 seater sedan weighs an entire 1 tonne! more than my own car, a 2012 Mazda CX-5, which also has a big boot and can carry 5 6-foot adults. It’s physically just such a ridiculous waste of resources and it looks like garbage. I had a previous gen 5er as a rental for a few days and it was okayish but not amazing to drive but at least it looked good, this is just crap. It’s not just BMW loads of manufacturers are shovelling out this too expensive, ugly, overweight garbage and as someone who has previously loved cars for all they are in all shapes and sizes, ICE or EV whatever for over 30 years but man is there anything aspirational anymore? Not to me.
As it is a new BMW M5, either the price or the acceleration will make me soil myself, so the added weight won’t matter.
But wow, have BMW lost the plot.
1190 lbs more and it’s 5368 lbs?!
What a pig! (CHONK was funny)
Spider-pig, Spider-pig…does whatever a Spider-pig does!
It may be heavy but at least it’s also ugly.
It over 1000 lbs more ugly!
About 3 Camrys worth of ugly
But enough about my ex! *tap dances frantically as a giant hook comes from offstage*
Bring
More
Weight
Beefy
Meaty
Whale
Maybe I’m an outlier here, but I never saw the M5 as a track car. For me, they’ve always been cars that were built for high speed travel in comfort on public roads. Not that you couldn’t track the older versions, but if that’s what you wanted, then there were 3-, 2-, and 1-series cars that were better suited for that. So the fact that the new one isn’t suited for the track doesn’t bother me at all. That said, this one takes BMW’s trend of increasing weight to an absurd extent. A half ton more than the previous car is ridiculous and it’s hard to believe that they can just make that feel like it’s not there via the engine, suspension, and brakes. Sad. As for styling, it looks better than I would have expected, but that’s only because of the horrorshow styling of other recent Bimmers.
This is actually a good point, because with all the added weight of PHEV and the uselessness of it from any performance standpoint, it really does signal that the new M5 is aimed squarely at the market of a 7-series buyer who wants the cachet of M model badging. Someone who’s going to daily drive it to work, park in the C-suite parking as a status symbol, and brag that it has 700 hp and he has to fill up the gas tank once a month.
“Why is there a Camry dent in each corner of the rear bumper?” Dammit you made fishstick come out of my nose.
Why were you putting fish stick up your nose in the first place?
There’s some future point at which BMW has figured out what the fuck they’re doing, who they’re building cars for, how to do so in a modern fashion, and what the point of their product line is, but that’s clearly not today. This is less ugly than it could’ve been, I guess.
Nah, that’s not a future point, that’s a different timeline. You forget we’re in one of the bad timelines.
Looks like a mercedes sedan in profile, something about the pinched shape and the taillights… Not a bad thing, I guess. Otherwise it looks like what you’d expect from a bimmer anymore, it doesn’t really bother me,
This seems like they took an i5 and shoehorned an engine in there instead of adding hybrid tech to a gas car. Except with the electric range being decidedly meh and the extra poundage it has the all downsides of both ICE and EV but none of the benefits.
I keep saying it, but this is further evidence that engineering a PHEV powertrain is hard, even for a company like BMW, who have plenty of bona-fide past and present PHEV successes.
It’s harder than designing a hybrid, because the motors and battery need to handle primary traction, rather than supplemental torque. It’s harder than designing a BEV, because it has to still run when the battery is dead. There are two powerplants, and if you fail to optimize either, or fail to coordinate their capabilities, they become less than the sum of their parts.
The 2025 M5 is the kind of thing that happens when an MBA says, “Yeah, PHEVs are just overgrown hybrids, right?” and only gives the engineering team as much time and resources as they’d give for a hybrid project.
The great thing is going to be seeing how crap these are on the 4th lap of anything.
1st lap: Just as a portly 700+hp sedan should be.
2nd: Battery still has juice from regen, running strong.
3rd: Down to engine only, working hard but fading.
4th: Engine is heat soaked, tires and brakes are approaching molten status from fighting physics. Computer nannies are boarding tiny escape pods to escape the forthcoming embarrassment of being lapped by a track prepped 90’s Corolla.
The Lizzo M5. What a fucking disgrace of a car and what has become of the brand.
Imagine how quickly this thing would go through tires
I’m glad that after all the divison over the Cybertruck, BMW was here to bring us all together in abject hatred of this thing. 😀
It can still build bridges, even if it’s too heavy to drive over them.
It broke through the original bridge, only to become the pillar on which a stronger bridge is build.
“it’s not a traditionally handsome sedan that happens to be bonkers quick”
As an elder GenX, I think the furor over the weight and appearance of the M5 has to do with the need to re-calibrate what the point of the M5 is anymore.
It isn’t the swift and understated old-money Q-ship that we remember. That is now covered by the 540 and i5, both of which would destroy any M5 of our youth in a straight line and be more comfortable and efficient while doing it.
The recent M5s are all about peacocking on YouTube and showing how little taste bucket loads of money bestow on a person.
There’ll always be a place for conspicuous consumption.
Couldn’t they just keep making the prior year’s model?
Keep moving. Nothing to see here but a fat, overpriced dream sedan nobody’s ever dreamed of.
I know my metrics are way out of date, but I still think of a sporty/performance car over 3000 pounds as a bit of a porker, ok, I’ll adjust my thinking a bit, maybe 3500. Things have been creeping up for years, I guess now they ate leaping up.
I don’t care, I don’t have to buy them, but the whole safety thing bugs me too. I am generally safer if in a larger moving object when I hit something, but everybody who gets hit is less safe.
No, 3000. A performance car should weigh less than my station wagon.
This weighs 1000 lbs more than my station wagon.
The horsepower can overcome the weight of this thing in a straight line, but physics wins out when this porker has to go around a corner.
I also hate the piece of plastic behind the Hofmeister Kink. That’s looks really low rent on an expensive car.
They put that piece of plastic there to visually extend the window and draw attention away from the fact that the roofline end extends behind the centerline of the rear wheels. The entire roofline of the car looks like it came from a much longer car and got slapped onto a short wheelbase. On the regular 5-series because they don’t have the deep shoulder sculpt needed for the fender flares it looks even worse, and can get even worse than that if you buy the 530e or i5 because they replace it with chromed plastic that makes it even more apparent.
Great explanation! It’s just jarring to me because as an owner of older BMWs my eye naturally goes to the Hofmeister kink, but when there’s a piece of black trim right there it’s a big let down. I wouldn’t want to see that on a 1 Series.
Man, that is one heckin’ porker.
Getting strong “Kia Stinger, but much worse” vibes from the grille.
GWVR 6482lbs… Have reached the point where a freakin’ 5-Series qualifies for a Section 179 deduction?
A Gen 2 Ford Raptor weighs 5500-5700 lbs. It’s absurd that the difference in weight between a 5 series sedan and a full size 7 foot tall off road truck with 35” tires (and a full size spare 35” tire) is basically the equivalent of one adult male passenger.
Hell, if the Raptor has a small driver and 1/4 full fuel tank and the M5 has a chonky driver and full fuel tank they might weigh the same
If it does it will probably outsell the old one. The current application of the Section 179 deduction for “Commercial Vehicles” is ridiculous. We offer tax credits on EVs in the name of environmental concerns, while also promoting the production and purchase of 3 ton us vehicles that will be used to commute to work through our tax policy. And a guy that buys a Mitsubishi Mirage gets no break.
Don’t get me started, oh hell too late, then we have safety defined as surviving crash standards at the expense of visibility out the vehicle and pedestrian safety.
“the most hardcore preset for shutting down ADAS is locked behind an optional M Drive Professional package, a must for any M5 that could be seeing track time because while advanced driver assistance systems can be of great benefit on the street, they can be of great detriment in a high-performance driving environment.”
Sadly the heft of this sucker is going to be it’s biggest detriment for those bold enough to track it. From what I’ve seen of the last gen M5 and M550i (also the G80 M3) on the track is their alarming ability to absolutely destroy front left tires on a clockwise course. Not surprising given the weight and power.
Yeah I feel like 0.1% of these will ever see a track. One because they’re going to absolutely devour tires on a track and also because the demographic who can afford this thing probably can also afford a more enjoyable track car if they so desire.
Good point!
I am struggling to comprehend how heavy and ugly this thing is