2025 BMW M5 review

There’s a mystique around the BMW M5. An aura has built up over 40-plus years since the original broke cover.

BMW wrote the recipe for the ‘super sedan’ formula in 1984, the E28 M5 setting the template for all that followed. Big powerful engines transplanted into otherwise austere executive saloons, with a sprinkling of M Sport’s chassis fairy dust, the M5 has come to symbolise what it means to be a muscle car for the well-heeled.

The M5 story has evolved over the decades through successive generations. Engines have become bigger, with more cylinders, offering more power and resulting in ever greater performance parameters.

Now in its seventh generation, we can throw electrification into the mix, because the 2025 BMW M5 has undergone what is arguably its biggest change yet – it’s now a twin-turbocharged V8-powered monster with a plug-in hybrid system.

So has what can only be called a seismic shift towards electrification dulled the philosophy of the M5? Or is this new eco-friendly M5 as exciting and thrilling as those that came before? Let’s find out.

The buy-in for this new electrified BMW M5 starts at $261,700 before on-road costs and options. That’s for the traditional sedan variant. Prefer your performance brawler with more practical space? Then the 2025 BMW M5 Touring (or wagon), starting at $265,700, could be the one for you.

Interestingly, the new M5 defies the prevailing trend of new-generation models being more costly than the cars they replace. The previous F90-gen M5 Competition asked for $273,600 before on-road costs the last time it was on sale in Australia in 2023.

On test here we have the classic ‘super sedan’ formula, the 2025 BMW M5 sedan. And the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a big car, very big. And that’s not just down to the pumped-up wheel arches, pronounced front splitter and engorged rear diffuser.

At over five metres long (5096mm), the new G90 M5 is 131mm longer than the previous F90-generation M5. It’s also 67mm wider, 37mm taller and sits on a wheelbase stretched by 24mm.

Ripped? Assuredly, the M5 is all muscle car swagger. There’s simply no mistaking it for a regular 5 Series sedan.

But there’s more to the M5’s swagger than just pumped-up muscle and carbon-fibre body enhancements. There’s substance behind the stance, and it can be found under the bonnet and under the skin of BMW’s newest M hero.

The petrol 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is a relatively new one. With an internal code of S68, it first made its appearance in 2022 in the X7 M60i and has served in a broad range of Munich’s high-end SUVs and sedans, most notably in the plug-in hybrid BMW XM SUV.

In the M5 here, the engine on its own is good for some gob-smacking outputs – 430kW and 750Nm. But this is the new age of performance cars and those already prodigious outputs are boosted by a 145kW/280Nm electric motor located between the engine and gearbox. Total outputs? Try 535kW and 1000Nm! Yes, really.

The electric motor is fed by an 18.6kWh battery pack giving the M5 an electric-only driving range of around 60km. The impost for all this electro-mechanical wizardry? Substantial weight gain. Tipping the scales at 2510kg (kerb), the new M5 is 615kg heavier than the previous-generation M5 Competition (1895kg). I’ll dig into what impact, if indeed any, that has on performance later in this review.

And if you want to check out the BMW M5 in the metal, head on over to your local BMW showroom. You can find your nearest BMW dealer here.

If you're looking for more pricing, specifications, and latest offers on the BMW M5, click here.

The new M5’s increased dimensions pay dividends in the cabin, which is at once spacious yet enveloping in its design.

There’s an opulence to the interior; one that doesn’t stray too far from the BMW style guide. Sure, there are plenty of M-specific elements and the lashings of glossy carbon-fibre trim leave little doubt that this is a performance-focused car.

The front seats eschew the hard-edged sporting focus of those in the M3 or M4. Instead, as befitting what is an executive saloon, the M5’s front pews are altogether more comfortable. Still, there is enough support in all the right places to ensure that when you’re having ‘a bit of a go’, you won’t be sliding around.

It all looks very purposeful up front, with carbon fibre as far as the eyes can see, a racy red starter button, a chunky M dial for selecting drive modes, and that big widescreen display housing both the infotainment system and driver's cluster.

But amenity hasn’t taken a back seat either. A large centre console offers good storage for assorted bits and bobs, while the obligatory cupholders are useful. The door pockets can take bottles.

The steering wheel, unusually for BMW, is flat-bottomed, yet still maintains that signature girth the Bayerische Motoren Werke is renowned for. It feels special in hand and looks the goods with red M buttons and red +/- symbols on the paddle shifters. It’s a minor thing, but it really does enhance that feeling of specialness in the driver’s seat.

The second row is generously proportioned, while seat comfort is excellent, certainly when perched in the outboard pews. The middle position is impacted by the M5’s large drivetrain tunnel, robbing those sitting there of valuable foot room.

Amenities in row two include separate climate controls and air vents, four USB Type-C outlets (two in the rear of the centre console and two more hidden behind sliding covers in each of the front seat backs), as well as seat heating for the outboard seats. The side windows are fitted with sun blinds, while the rear window features a powered sunshade.

A fold-down armrest reveals a pair of cupholders while, as they do up front, the door pockets can easily accommodate bottles.

For those with little ones, the outboard seats are fitted with ISOFIX child seat mounts complemented by top-tether anchor points on the seat backs.

Boot space measures in at 466 litres, the load decently long and deep, although it loses out in width thanks to the M5’s large wheel wells. The second row can be folded away to liberate some more space, but BMW doesn't provide a number for the larger capacity.

A new 14.9-inch touchscreen hosts the M5’s infotainment system. It runs BMW’s 8.5 iDrive operating system, and straight off the bat there’s a wealth of apps and customisations to get your head around.

The key stats here are wireless (and wired) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, along with inbuilt satellite navigation and DAB+ digital radio.

And while the screen resolution is top-notch and the graphics look like they’re carved out of 4K high-definition stone, the array of apps and customisations can be a little overwhelming. But the reality is most owners won’t be leaning on them regularly with myriad set-and-forget features.

Access to the screen is via touch, voice commands (a bit hit-and-miss), or by using the elegantly blingy rotary dialler located in the centre console.

There’s also an omnipresent shortcut bar running across the bottom of the screen that displays some of the most commonly used apps as well as the M5’s temperature control.

Perhaps the most useful functions focus on the M5’s performance with selectable and customisable drive modes, as well as an array of telemetry data including a g-force meter and lap timer.

While digging through menus and sub-menus to change drive-mode parameters like steering, brakes, drivetrain, chassis, energy recovery and even engine noise through M Sound can be a complex process, BMW has smoothed the path by allowing those individual settings to be stored as favourites and then accessed via one of two M buttons located on the steering wheel.

The 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster is standard fare and can, if desired, display a variety of M-specific telemetry data. It can also be configured for full-screen mapping, but only BMW’s native sat nav. There’s no smartphone integration on the driver's display.

A crisp head-up display projects vital driving data and route guidance (if using the M5’s sat nav) directly onto the windscreen.

BMW also offers ConnectedDrive, a companion app that provides a range of remote access features via your smartphone.

The wider BMW 5 Series range wears a five-star ANCAP safety rating awarded in 2023, which is based on testing conducted by its European counterpart Euro NCAP. However, that safety rating does not extend to the M5 performance variant, leaving it unrated.

For context, the broader 5 Series line-up achieved scores of 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant, 86 per cent vulnerable road users and 81 per cent for its safety assist systems.

As you’d expect of a car of the M5’s calibre, BMW has loaded it to the gills with its advanced safety and driver assist technologies detailed in the table below.

And they are, for the most part, nicely calibrated. My week with the big super sedan didn't elicit any glaring interference from the M5’s safety assist technologies, the only minor complaint, as per usual across almost every manufacturer, surrounds the speed sign recognition system.

One day some enterprising tech-head will finesse a speed sign recognition system that knows when a sign-posted limit applies only to off-ramps, or that the 40km/h school zone limit doesn't apply at 10:07pm. That day hasn’t come yet, and the result is insistent bonging and beeping warning you to slow down, even when you are travelling at the correct, human-detected speed limit.

It's a minor complaint, certainly when compared against the rest of the M5’s suite of active safety measures that work smoothly and do an excellent job of not being overly intrusive.

Airbags? There are seven of them, including a front-centre ’bag that reduces the severity of head clashes between front-seat occupants in the event of an accident. The second row is fitted with head protection airbags but misses out on side protection.

For those with little ones, the outboard seats are equipped with ISOFIX child seat mounts, while the outboard seatbacks are fitted with top-tether anchor points. There are no child seat anchors for the middle seat.

The M5 is covered by BMW’s standard five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, while its 18.6kWh battery is warranted for eight years/160,000km.

Servicing intervals are spaced out every 12 months or 16,000km, whichever comes first. BMW Australia offers two five-year/80,000km service packs. The standard Service Inclusive Basic pack asks for $5059 upfront at the time of purchase, while opting for the ‘Plus’ pack at $8152 ups the ante, inclusive of brake pads and brake discs front and rear, as well as windscreen wipers. I’d argue that’s money well spent upfront, leaving buyers with peace of mind for the first five years of ownership.

Comprehensive insurance runs to a sizeable $8687 per annum, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

BMW says the plug-in hybrid M5 will use a miserly 3.2 litres per 100 kilometres of 95-octane premium unleaded on the combined cycle. Now, there are a lot caveats here, the primary one being that owners are strict about keeping the M5’s 18.6kWh battery charged ready for the daily commute.

Recharging at the maximum AC rate of 7.4kWh will see the battery replenished from 0–100 per cent in an estimated 2h 15min.

That battery can provide a claimed 68km of range in EV mode (at a maximum speed of 160km/h) based on European lab-tested WLTP protocols. Out in the real world, I was getting closer to 60km using only the electric motor, before the 4.4-litre V8 kicked in to do the heavy lifting.

And once it does, there’s a lot of extra weight to haul around. Still, I might not have achieved BMW’s 3.2L/100km consumption claim, but after a week covering a variety of driving conditions, the M5 indicated 6.9L/100km. When compared with the previous generation’s lighter and non-hybrid M5 that regularly posted numbers in the 10s and 11s, it isn’t a bad number.

Where to begin?

The first thing that hits you when you depress the big red starter button is… nothing.  There’s no rumble from the beastly V8 under the bonnet, no burbling of exhaust note that, in a different era, promised so much.

Instead, the default start-up in this new-age M5 is hybrid mode, and that means the only sound you’ll hear is your own whispered breathing. And providing the right driving conditions are met, it can prowl the streets like a predator stalking its prey silently for around 60km using only electrons.

But that’s not the point of the M5’s hybrid system, not by a long way. Yes, there are fuel-efficiency gains to be had, and yes, your neighbours will appreciate your efforts to leave the ’hood in a quiet manner.

But what that 145kW/280Nm electric motor provides is more – more power, more torque, more acceleration, more performance, more everything.

BMW says its new M5 can dispatch the benchmark sprint from 0–100km/h in 3.5 seconds. Now, that might be slower than the 3.3sec claimed by its most recent M5 Competition predecessor, but it's semantics when we’re talking numbers in the low-to-mid-3s.

The electric motor’s biggest contribution to the overall package is filling in the torque gaps lower down the rev band, with the result instant throttle response and a surge of forward momentum that leaves you slightly breathless. Of course, in the real world that matters little, but what we have in the M5 is a sports sedan that can be, when you need it to, blisteringly quick.

Let’s look at real-world everyday use. It’s nice and all to have all that power, all that torque, on tap under your right foot. But the reality is most M5s that land here are unlikely to ever reach their full potential, certainly not under Australia’s throttled road rules.

And that begs the question: does the M5 make sense?

Well, yes, because despite its 2.5-tonne-plus kerb weight, and despite the prodigious amount of engineering wizardry under the skin, the M5 is still a comfortable and compliant daily driver.

Yes, you can drive it in EV mode alone, or you can opt to treat it like a regular hybrid; a blend of electric and combustion power that is as seamless as any Toyota you’ve driven.

And it’s comfortable on the road too, with a surprising suppleness to the suspension, certainly when Comfort mode is selected from the multitude of drive modes.

Only when the brawnier Sport mode is activated does ride comfort begin to wane a little, but even then, there’s still plenty of cossetting goodness under wheel to not leave you feeling shaken to your very core.

As for that heft, that 2.5 tonnes of engineering? It doesn't exactly disappear, because physics. But the weight penalty is not as egregious as you might imagine looking at raw data on paper.

To test its mettle, I headed to my favourite section of rural back road, leaving the stop-start nature of city traffic behind. Getting there required a decent stint on the motorway and here the M5 behaved impeccably, a true Autobahn cruiser gobbling up the clicks with ease and in comfort.

Of course, being Australia, the M5 was hardly troubled on the motorway, our 110km/h upper limit barely a warm-up jog compared to the no-limit reaches of its native Germany.

You’d expect, then, all that weight would hobble the M5 when its moment to shine presents itself in the shape of a lonely back road with razor-sharp corners and sweeping bends as bewitching as a siren’s song.

And you’d be wrong, because BMW’s M-division has woven its magic to ensure the M5 is more than adept at handling anything the road can throw at it.

Any thoughts of the M5’s weight are banished, the M5 feeling more agile than it ought to. That’s partially down to the rear-wheel steering that helps turn the five-plus-metre-long sedan into corners with a sharpness you don't at first expect. And BMW’s excellent Active M Differential helps keeps balance and grip in check, shuffling the drivetrain’s prodigious outputs between the rear wheels as needed.

The end result is a big sports sedan that feels lighter on its wheels than it should, with greater agility than expected, backed by startling straight-line speed out of corners that never feels on the ragged edge.

The eight-speed automatic transmission is a peach too. Left to its own devices, it’s more than capable of finding the right ratio at the right time, while using the steering wheel mounted paddle-shifters adds an element of tactility and joy.

The steering, nicely weighted and with sharp responses, comes to the fire when tackling some corners. It never feels unwieldy and that rear-wheel steering set-up, which tuns the rear wheels 1.5 degrees counter to the fronts, helps to keep things sharper than they ought to.

Pulling up a 2.5-tonne sedan with confidence requires some impressive braking, and here the news is good, with the M Compound brakes fitted as standard (not to be confused with the $18,500 optional carbon-ceramic brake package) doing a fine job of retarding speed. Brake pedal feel remains decent tackling rural back roads, the big sedan pulling up assuredly every single time. It inspires confidence to push that little bit harder.

Various drive modes can toggle up the engagement levels. I only sampled Comfort (which does exactly as the name suggests) and Sport (which adds some but not all the available performance ferocity). There is a Track mode, too, but it is, as the name suggests, best saved for the racetrack.

For those looking for more personalisation, there’s the M5’s set-up mode that can alter the characteristics of almost every facet of the performance package – traction control, damping, steering weight, brake regeneration, engine sound, brake pedal feel and driven wheels (AWD, AWD Sport and RWD). Preferred settings can then be saved and accessed via a single press on either the M1 or M2 button on the steering wheel.

It's best saved for the racetrack, though, and if you want to get an idea of just how BMW’s halo M-car handles Mount Panorama, you can read our track-focused review here.

And that’s the beauty of this latest-generation M5. It is every bit the performance car you want: unflinchingly fast, capable and tactile on the track. And yet, it’s also a pussycat when you need: comfortable and benign around town, effortless on the motorway, and with excellent fuel economy thrown in for good measure.

There’s no question this generation of M5 is different to all that have come before. And while that might upset the purists just a little, there’s enough of the old swagger, the muscle of yesteryear, to satisfy all but the staunchest badge loyalists.

Here is a super sedan big on muscle, big on performance, bigger still on refinement, yet with a modern spin that, while on paper it appeases the emissions nannies, actually enhances the one thing that hallowed ‘M’ badge represents – performance.

And yet, despite the performance-enhancing regime it has been subjected to, this new-generation M5 is more approachable, and arguably more than ever before. And as a bonus, you can save some bucks at the bowser.

Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.

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