BMW M5 review

Driving position

If the M5 were a plane, you’d be travelling first class.

You just have to climb aboard and let the quality Merino leather seats envelop you with their great side support.

Then adjust them to perfection simply by using the buttons on the two-spoke steering wheel.

The offset stainless steel pedals add to the sporty feel, if the burble of the V8 engine soundtrack wasn't enough of a signal.

Tech and features

Most features such as the sat-nav and the four-zone climate control use the BMW iDrive system, so they're altered with touchscreen buttons.

There’s also a heads-up display, so you don’t need to take your eyes off the road for a moment.

Cars equipped with BMW's optional large glass sunroof flood the cabin with light, adding to the sense of space, and even when it’s speeding along the motorway, the M5 is incredibly quiet inside.

Engines and power

Make no mistake about it, the BMW M5 is a big, powerful machine capable of raising your pulse with its thunderous V8 engine note and thumping performance.

Despite its scale and bulk, 600hp and xDrive all-wheel drive ensure the M5 can cover ground rapidly.

Handling and ride comfort

If that's not enough, you can, at the click of a button, scare yourself silly by turning the car into a rear-wheel drive machine (where power is sent only to the back wheels), for maximum playfulness at speed.

By contrast, thanks to the adjustability of the surrounding setup, the M5 can also be made to glide along motorways and cruise calmly through city streets without much fuss, automatic gearbox doing the hard work for you.

It's a brilliantly rounded performance saloon. There are plenty of driving and steering modes to choose from and you can even programme your favourite combinations and activate them from buttons on the steering wheel.

Boot space

Open up the boot and you’ll be greeted with a wide, deep storage area easily capable of swallowing a small family's worth of luggage.

Fold down the rear seats and the length of the M5 (it's five metres long!) and you'll have enough space to swallow an over-enthusiastic trip to IKEA.

Storage solutions

As for the front of the cabin, with narrow door pockets aside, there is plenty of storage space in the cabin, including a pretty big glovebox and a couple of cupholders for front-seat passengers.

There’s even a wireless charging point for your mobile in this decidedly tech-heavy car.

Rear seat passengers should also easily get comfortable thanks to the large amounts of legroom on offer.

Rear seats

Passengers in the back enjoy a similar level of luxury, although the central transmission tunnel does limit the use of the middle seat to shorter passengers willing to squeeze their legs on either side of it.

Fuel economy

We won’t beat around the bush here. The BMW M5 is not a cheap car to run – its powerful engine and high insurance group see to that.

Driven carefully, you might just get 28mpg. If you start to take more advantage of its power and performance this figure is going to drop considerably.

Insurance groups

While careful driving can improve economy, there’s nothing you can do about the insurance group.

Even if you’ve never so much as had a speeding ticket, it’s still going to be in the highest possible group with most insurers.

Servicing costs are also going to be on the eye-watering side, especially if you’re driving the car hard and getting through brake pads, discs and tyres.

Add on high road tax, plus the luxury car premium and we’re talking major moolah.