2025 BMW M5 review

02/09/2025 08:27 PM

2025 BMW M5

The safety car in front of me shoots out of Forrest’s Elbow confidently, firing ahead at an incredibly rapid pace as the gap between us quickly blows out.

Behind, I’m hanging on for dear life, sweaty palms gripping way too stiffly onto the meaty flat-bottomed steering wheel as I twist and feel my way through the tight left-hander.

I’m holding a reasonably tight margin as we weave our way across the top of the mountain, but I know my chaperone in front is barely even trying.

The radio in the cupholder crackles with a familiar voice:

“Once you clear that corner, pin it. You don’t have to back off until you get to the second bridge. But go as far as you feel comfortable.”

I jam the throttle hard, trying to use the width of the exit to my advantage to build pace. I’m shoved back into my seat, accelerating ferociously as Conrod Straight unfurls before me. The speed is phenomenal and there’s no perceivable slow-down.

I hold my end of the bargain, keeping the pedal mashed for as long as I dare. The BMW roars as the car flies down the hill and up the short rise, feeling light and sketchy as it crests the top.

I steal a look at the speedometer and see 277 boldly displayed. With the second bridge overhead I brake gratefully, somehow keeping things together through The Chase as I take a huge breath.

Let me give some context here: This is not normal practice for me. I’m not an experienced race or track driver. I often ply my trade in four-wheel-drives, going as slowly as possible up hills and over rocks to test out things like chassis and suspension designs, payloads and clearance, and looking for the limits of traction.

This couldn’t be more different. I’m in the 2025 BMW M5, and have been let loose on the most hallowed strips of bitumen in Australia.

I’ve been on a few racetracks in my time, but Mount Panorama is certainly the most foreboding.

The voice over the radio came from the safety car in front of me, tasked with setting a pace and keeping an eye on my progress. My guide and mentor through a tense and fearsome introduction to Mount Panorama.

It was less than 24 hours ago that the Bathurst 12 Hour concluded, seeing BMW taking the first two spots on the podium with BMW M4 GT3s in front of a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT and Ferrari 296. That car in front of me was the safety car for the race.

Now with the track opened up to a select group of punters and media, I was filled with fear and trepidation. There are staggering levels of power in this car, and a considerable amount of weight to manage with this new hybrid powertrain. Mount Panorama doesn’t have much room for error, and my closest experience so far was through Gran Turismo, on the couch, in my undies.

But the simple fact that after getting my bearings I felt confident enough to push myself hard – and give the car a nudge at times – is testament to the quality of engineering that lies underneath the metalwork of this new M5.

Along with having good space in the second row and boot, loads of comfort and technology, this car also gives supercar levels of performance and pace at an impressively accessible level.

It’s a core vehicle of BMW’s heritage and DNA – providing huge swathes of performance and swagger in a vehicle that still rates highly for comfort, space and luxury.

Predating the M3, the big brother is one of the formative M cars that wrote the rulebook on what made such a badged vehicle so special.

It’s been a constant story of evolution along the way. Iconic inline-six power made way for a V8 in the E39 M5, while a V10 popped up before turbocharging came onboard with V8s from 2011.

A manual transmission made way for BMW’s sequential ‘SMG’ transmission with the V10, which was later followed by a dual-clutch automatic. And of course, the M5 eventually went to an all-wheel drive system.

Now, there’s another contentious rung in the ladder: hybridisation. While a 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 continues to provide a sledgehammer of fuel-burning motivation, a 145kW/280Nm electric motor has sandwiched its way between the donk and gearbox to provide a 60-odd kilometre electric driving range.

With 430kW and 750Nm coming from the engine – with the latter figure available from a huge wall of revs (1800–5400rpm) – you’ve got a huge amount of combined grunt available here: 535kW and 1000Nm.

Imagining myself threading this five-metre sled between the unforgiving concrete walls of the mountain, you can surely see why I felt a bit nervous.

The trade-off from this hybrid evolution (there’s always a tradeoff) is weight and complexity. The new BMW M5 has a kerb weight of 2510kg, which doesn’t look good against the listed 1895kg kerb weight of the previous-generation BMW M5 Competition. Obviously, you can blame most of that 615kg jump in heft on the electrified parts of the drivetrain.

But still, acceleration is horridly fast. The 0–100km/h dash is claimed at 3.5 seconds, a figure one BMW insider suggested was far from ambitious, and could well be faster in the real world. We aren’t sure just yet, but more on those driving impressions later.

How much is a BMW M5?

It’s bigger and heavier, but pricing has actually been trimmed back a little in this new-generation BMW M5. Whereas the old M5 Competition had a sticker price of $273,600 plus on-road costs back in 2023, we’ve got a lower starting point here: $259,900 plus on-road costs.

And with the Mercedes-AMG E63 currently on hiatus until the new model arrives, the only real competitor for this barnstorming Bimmer would be Audi’s RS6 wagon or RS7 liftback/sedan thing.

Adding in hybrid power – and 60-odd kilometres of electric-only driving range – while dropping the price does add in a quotient of value for the M5, no doubt. There’s plenty of standard equipment as well, as you would expect from this flagship saloon.

Such features include M light alloy wheels – with a staggered 20-inch front and 21-inch rear fitment – automatic tailgate, adaptive LED headlights, Bowers & Wilkins sound system, four-zone climate control with climate pre-temperature setting, twin wireless charging pads, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 14.9-inch infotainment display.

The seats are heated and ventilated up front, with heated rear seats and steering wheel. There’s Merino leather seat trimming in a range of colours, and plenty of interesting details, lights and materials throughout the modern, suave cabin.

Aussie-delivered M5s get a weight-saving carbon roof, which feels like urinating on a house fire compared to the added weight that hybrid power brings. Every bit counts, and a lighter roof does a lot to shift that centre of gravity downwards.

2025 BMW M5 best deals

Even though this is a first drive of the BMW M5 for us in Australia, there are already a couple of demonstrators available on Drive Marketplace.

Find your nearest BMW dealer here to get hands-on with the new M5 in the metal – and enquire on a test drive. And If you’re looking for more pricing, specifications, and latest offers on the BMW M5, click here.

How big and heavy is the BMW M5?

Size and weight are certainly the elephants in the room here when compared to the previous-generation model. Along with 615kg of additional weight, you’ve got more sheetmetal in every direction with the new M5.

It’s 113mm longer, 41mm taller and 67mm wider, with more track width (35mm front, 90mm rear) and a 24mm bump in wheelbase.

On the inside of the new M5, you’ve got an interior treatment that’s modern and certainly luxurious, with plenty of eye-grabbing details. But at the same time, it’s not nearly as ostentatious and overt as what you get in a high-end Mercedes-Benz.

There’s a nice glossy carbon-fibre material across the bottom of the dashboard, along with plenty of mood lighting higher up. There are plenty of sharp angles and interesting elements, similar to the i5 electric variant of the same body style.

Like so many new vehicles, the dashboard is dominated by a huge infotainment display, but the flat-bottomed steering wheel is another standout detail. Like other M cars, it’s got a girthy thickness to the rim that eases in the 10-and-two positions. There are some nice details here, including the paddle shifters, additional driving mode buttons, and the lower spoke.

Seats aren’t outright sporty in the M5, as you’d get in an M3 or M4. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of plush bolstering for drivers and passengers, but it’s still a relatively broad seat that gives plenty of supportive comfort on longer drives.

Air vents are clearly visible on the dashboard, but are hidden in the fold between materials. Lower down, unobtrusive controls let you control direction of the air, but also the volume of air.

There are two cupholders in the central area, along with twin wireless charging pads that double as storage for your incidentals. The central storage bin isn’t huge, but is big enough and hides a 12V power outlet. Two USB-C outlets are mounted centrally on the dashboard.

Leg room in the second row of the M5 is good and seat comfort is particularly good. The seats are soft and cushy, with plenty of rake that allows you to sink into them nicely. There are four air vents pointing at you for comfort, along with power outlets and sun blinds.

The boot – with 466 litres of space available – is big in terms of depth and height. The width is limited by wheel wells that run the full length of each side in the boot. But still, there’s plenty of room for suitcases or maybe even some golf clubs.

And of course, if you want more boot space, consider waiting for the forthcoming M5 Touring.

Does the BMW M5 have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?

BMW’s latest and greatest infotainment system is employed in the 2025 M5, which measures 14.9 inches in size and provides plenty of functionality and features. There’s wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, along with native navigation and digital radio.

The menu offers an expansive range of choices, most of which you won’t need on the everyday. Keen drivers will enjoy the range of customisation in driving modes available, though, with the ability to sort through things like energy recovery, drive logic, chassis, steering, brakes, drivetrain, M X-Drive (for rear-wheel drive, if you so desire) and M Sound.

In other words, there’s plenty of customisation available for the gearheads among us.

While we didn’t get to test it out on this first taste, BMW does have a ‘ConnectedDrive’ companion app that delivers additional functionality and remote features to owners.

Is the BMW M5 a safe car?

While all variants of the broader BMW 5 Series range are listed as being under the five-star ANCAP rating umbrella, such a thing isn’t extended to the high-performance hybrid M5.

The 2023 rating is an impressive one, and includes petrol, diesel and full electric power. However, considering the different powertrain layout that we have in the M5, along with the many various chassis changes that would happen, a five-star result isn’t necessarily guaranteed in this case.

What safety technology does the BMW M5 have?

As you would expect, there is the full array of safety equipment available on board the 2025 BMW M5. Traffic sign recognition does beep and bong at you, and will no doubt fall into the same trap of missing and misreading some signs around town. However, the bonging noise is less annoying than others I have experienced, and it can be turned off.

Otherwise, you have all of the important ingredients like forward and reverse autonomous braking, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keep assistance.

Our driving was comprised of only regional back roads and on a racetrack, so we cannot give a solid verdict on how they perform in the cut-and-thrust of town driving. However, going off previous experience of other BMW vehicles, we would hazard a guess that performance in this regard would be good.

How much does the BMW M5 cost to service?

For five years’ worth of servicing, which will cover 80,000km of driving, you’re looking at $5059 spent to keep servicing up to date. Considering how serious the hardware is, this pricing seems reasonable.

And if you’re looking at using the car hard, especially the brakes, then stepping up to the ‘Plus’ package throws in coverage of the brakes (and windscreen wipers) for a little more than three grand ($8152) and might be upfront money well spent.

For car insurance, the newness and price of the 2025 BMW M5 precludes us from getting an accurate insurance quote. Rest assured, though, considering the price of the vehicle, it won’t be excessively cheap.

Is the BMW M5 fuel-efficient?

BMW claims a staggeringly good fuel efficiency figure of 3.2 litres per 100 kilometres, which is a clear improvement over the circa-10L/100km figure of the previous non-hybrid vehicle.

However, this figure must be approached with scrutiny. On one side, with a full electric battery you can drive as far as 60-odd kilometres (and up to 160km/h) without burning a drop of fuel. But if you never drive this hybrid with a full battery – and if you drive it hard – then fuel efficiency can be as bad as you could ever dream. Weight+power+performance = draining that 60-litre tank incredibly quickly.

In our drive experience, the on-road test wasn’t long or varied enough to give a good indication of real-world fuel useage. And considering the two or three refuels during our three-hour track session, consumption at that time would have been biblical.

But on the flip side, there is the possibility you can bring high levels of efficiency into the ownership of the M5, provided that you leverage the electric side of the powertrain as much as possible. We’ll learn more about this in the future and report back.

What is the BMW M5 like to drive?

Before we got onto the track in the new M5, we did get the opportunity to spend some time on public roads north of Bathurst.

One pleasing thing about the powertrain of this M5 – when being driven like an M5 should – feels like an internal combustion car. But one with razor-sharp throttle response and not a skerrick of lag to note.

Not to say that BMW's hot-vee V8 was a laggy experience to begin with. The wide range of revs where that 750Nm of torque is available paints that picture. But now with that additional layer of instant electric assistance, there's an even more hair-triggered nature to the throttle response here.

And despite the hearty level of mass we have here, acceleration is staggeringly fast. Whether it's from a standing start or a rolling speed, four driven wheels give loads of grip and surety in the way the car rockets forward.

There's good noise as well. It's not thunderous, but there is a deep and satisfying rumble to accompany the staggering straight-line pull on offer here.

Handling is similarly surefooted and dynamically responsive through the fast-geared steering of the M5. It's not just the front wheels, either. Integral Active Steering is BMW-talk for rear-wheel steering, giving 1.5 degrees of angle at the back for an improved sense of agility.

It helps, and an active rear differential assists the M5 to turn into corners keenly and confidently. It's not an overly nimble feeling through the steering wheel, and the car doesn’t feel light on its feet. That's because it's not a light car.

Instead, there's a crushing sense of capability on offer here. The M5 bludgeons its way through a tight corner, quickly and goading you on to try more, rather than skipping through merrily.

The level of ride quality on offer over patchy and rough roads is terrific, provided that you keep the chassis in Comfort mode for some extra bump absorption. Body control stays well managed still, and allows you to crank up the dynamism on rough back-country roads to explore the clout of grip and acceleration on offer.

It allows the BMW to shirk the scary-on-paper reputation, and be quite approachable and explorable in real life. The rear-wheel-drive bias isn't overt in its regular setting (that can be changed to full rear-wheel drive, however), which allows the driver to get on the gas quickly and confidently on corner exits. This car is capable of great speeds, and is one of the most capable two-lane overtakers I've ever experienced.

Once we got onto the racetrack, and after we got our bearings on a couple of slow laps, the M5 started to really show its colours as a honed, clinical and impressively fast piece of kit.

I got into the driver's seat with high levels of anxiety and a good dollop of fear. But after I came to grips with moving past these emotions, the M5 proved to be a reassuring – yet ferociously potent – partner on the track.

Considering the weight, there's an outrageous amount of mid-corner grip and able-bodied rotation on offer here. Even someone so inexperienced as me was willing to apply small doses of additional throttle on the early exit of some corners, searching for some additional pace after only five laps on the track.

Once again, the rear-wheel steer and an active rear differential – standard fit on Aussie-delivered models – help with that sense of dynamism and grip.

And once you're out of the hole, there's an incredible amount of pull from any speed available in an instant. There's no let-off of acceleration, and there is a good sense of stability at big speeds.

Until you're cresting the hill on Conrod Straight at 270-odd kays an hour, feeling the car bobble as the suspension unloads underneath you.

Yes, you can feel the weight of the car at times. It's not something you'd want to get properly out of shape, because that's a lot of weight to rein back in.

I felt small doses of this at high speed, with sharp steering and big weight starting to feel a bit twitchy. But because of the impressive chassis engineering and dynamic tuning, it's a not burdensome feeling and is only isolated to smaller moments. Those more talented than me on a racetrack might be more negative in the feel of this car at ten-tenths on a racetrack perhaps.

But the amount of confidence this 535kW/1000Nm rocket gave me on such an unforgiving track is something special, and not something that others could easily match. Rather than trying to stick me into every wall possible, the car was loyal to my inputs and intentions.

And watching a luxury four-door sedan – with lashings of technology and a commodious boot – round up a couple of high-performance Porsches up Mountain Straight is kind of funny.

The standard steel brakes did start to get quite hot after a few laps of this fast, unrelenting track, and pedal feel is progressively at odds with the sharply responsive throttle and steering. But once you press hard, you're rewarded with good braking feel and plenty of stopping force.

For those who want better braking performance and longevity in these kind of track conditions, carbon-ceramic brakes are available as an option.

How much weight can a BMW M5 tow?

You might be surprised to see a 2000kg braked towing capacity for the BMW M5, which opens up the possibility of different large trailers, campers and small caravans if you so desire. But a maximum towball downforce of 100kg limits this in the real world.

For unbraked trailers, there is a regular limit of 750kg in the M5.

Should I buy a BMW M5?

There’s a lot to like about this new M5, including the trimmed-back pricing and boosted performance levels. But the weight is certainly going to detract from the appeal for those who want a driver’s car above all else. The M5 hides that weight hideously well, and our track driving showed that capability on offer is at a spectacularly high level.

The driving experience for me showed that the capability feels more like a sledgehammer than a sword, which bludgeons its way through corners rather than dancing through on ballet toes. But perhaps that’s always been the domain of the M5? Brutal straight-line performance and huge mid-corner grip, but matched to good levels of comfort, absorption and refinement.

Those who want that ultimate sense of steering feel and sharpness might be left wanting here, but the level of performance and capability cannot be overlooked here. Plus, you’ve got a car that doesn’t scare you with its huge performance potential. Instead, it’s much more approachable, comfortable and explorable than you would expect.

Adding in hybrid technology puts the M5 into the extra-heavyweight category these days, but also adds in a future-proofed powertrain that can give buyers a lower cost of everyday running on their daily commute.

And when you consider the current lack of a full-fat E-Class AMG competitor to this super-sled (there’s one coming), you’re going to have to look at the Audi RS7 – with its 463kW/850Nm non-hybrid V8. It’s down on grunt, but it’s also down on weight. But not by that much. Audi lists the RS7 as having a 2250kg tare weight compared to 2397kg tare for the hybrid M5.

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