Latest news with #wagons
The Drive
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
2025 BMW M5 Touring Review: Haters Are Wrong, but It's Not for Everyone
The latest car news, reviews, and features. If car dorks had churches, you'd see some of BMW's greatest hits on the stained glass and plastered on the walls. As you know, the 2025 BMW M5 Touring has been out for a bit, and reviews have been… mixed. As a wagon, this new luxury long roof is solid, but it doesn't look or feel like the bygone Bimmers that millennials grew up worshiping. And after hundreds of miles exploring its many modes and moods, I have complicated feelings about the darn thing myself. The candid curmudgeon in me says it's embarrassingly gaudy, annoyingly complex, and too fast for public roads. The realist in me is much happier with the old non-M BMW wagon I have at home. But objectively speaking, there's no denying that the M5 Touring is supremely comfortable, capable, quick, and technologically advanced. Which is surely what was on the whiteboard of whatever Munich office this thing was conceived. This is the seventh generation of BMW M5, chassis code G90 for the sedan and G99 for the wagon. M wagons are not entirely new, but they are to the U.S. market. The last time BMW sold a station wagon here at all was in 2018—the F31 3 Series—and the hottest version had a modest four-cylinder engine built for efficiency rather than performance. That's not the case anymore. The new M5 Touring is an aggressive, 5,500-pound plug-in hybrid family car with 717 horsepower and peak system torque of 738 lb-ft. All that oomph comes from a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 and a synchronous electric motor paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Or in BMW-speak: It's got an M TwinPower Turbo V8, fifth-generation BMW eDrive, and M xDrive. If that sounds complex, it's because it is, and so is the user interface. The new M5 offers many customizable features beyond the typical modern performance car driving settings, and it even swaps from all-wheel drive to rear-only in its most hardcore driving mode. Andrew P. Collins If you're willing to take it easy on the throttle, the plug-in hybrid can go 25 miles on a full charge. I was not, but more on that later. I have a 2017 BMW wagon myself—it's an M Sport, but that just means it has a few nice decorative flourishes. Still, I couldn't resist doing a photoshoot with the wagons together. Swipe through for some comparisons: The M5 Touring's cargo area is generous, as you'd expect. Folding down the rear seats creates a downright huge hold for whatever you are carrying. You'll want to be very careful squeezing long items in, though. The rear climate control is run by a screen, and of course, the entire dashboard is pretty much a screen, so don't go yeeting lumber in there without somebody carefully guiding you from the inside. Some particularly brutal commentary on the new M5 wagon came from critic Jason Cammisa, who recorded the wagon's wiggling under acceleration. 'I don't understand how any engineer let this car leave the building,' he said on his Carmudegon show. As an aficionado of classic German cars, he categorically hated it. I launched the car quite a few times and did not experience the same odd effect. But I agree with his assessment of the interior. Chris Harris reviewed the M5 more favorably but still couched his praise, '…as a fast, roomy, daily that treads the line of acceptability in these weird times, I loved it.' Travis Okulski similarly appreciated the car's refinement but called it 'too isolating to feel like it's ever working on a back road.' Andrew P. Collins Those guys all have serious driving experience and know what they're talking about, but I think Harris has the best assessment. An M5 is not optimized for smoking tires on Angeles Crest, it's not that likely to be used on a track, and it's definitely not supposed to feel like it's 'working' on a back road. This car's happy place would be high-speed highway cruising across Europe. Log out in Munich on Friday and prost 'ing at a bar in the Alps before the sun goes down. Zip the family down to Innsbruck for the evening. At socially acceptable speeds, it's quite comfortable and appropriately responsive. I was pleasantly surprised by the ride quality, too. The last modern M car I drove was an X4 M Competition, which was downright punishing on New York roads. But I was satisfied with the M5 Touring's comfort-to-stiffness balance. It rides cleanly over potholes or unpaved roads, even in the more aggressive drive modes. But when you go to make a turn, the response is instantaneous. The downside of this high level of isolation is that when you're driving a new M5 at sub-stupid speeds, it kind of feels like the car's sitting still while the world is moving around it. Like the windows are screens, and you're playing a driving game. The cockpit is a fine place to watch things fly by from, though—the seats are spectacular, front and rear. Andrew P. Collins Of course, one doesn't spend six figures on a 700-hp car to keep calm and carry on. New performance cars at this level are heavily comput'ified, and some, unfortunately, have reached an annoying level of capability where they're not fun until you're tripling the speed limit. Then, when you make a mistake, they drop you off a cliff—proverbial or otherwise. I fully expected the M5 to be one such vehicle. Linking turns at an aggressive pace doesn't provide the sense of accomplishment or oneness-with-the-machine that you get in an old E46-something. But the M5 is surprisingly easy to line-step with and can be quickly reeled in from overly ambitious driving. If you boot the throttle in a sport driving mode to light up the tires and kick the tail out at an intersection, you can do that, and then regain control of the car with minimal effort and input. Andrew P. Collins Granted, you don't really need a twin-turbo V8 for such silliness; all I'm saying is you don't need to be on the Autobahn to evoke some personality from the car. All that to say, the car's core mission hasn't changed all that much since the days of the first M5. In the '80s, the E28 M5 was a showcase of the era's top sport-luxury car tech, just like the new one is today. But the reserved executive aesthetic BMW used to do so well has long been left behind. Andrew P. Collins From the outside, the G99 M5's got some good angles and interesting visual details. More than a few passers-by complimented the Isle of Man Green Metallic color, and the optional Style 952M wheels are incredibly cool-looking. The vehicle has a lot of presence, and you don't need to be into cars to appreciate that you're looking at something special. Andrew P. Collins The interior has some neat decorative elements. The cockpit, though—gauges, dash, buttons, touchpoint materials—is overwhelming in the worst kind of way. Sitting behind the steering wheel of the new M5 reminded me of everything that sucks about Las Vegas. It's just a ceaseless expanse of lights, colors, and shiny materials that look very cheap under the slightest scrutiny. There are way too many lines and shapes on the dashboard of this thing. And those butterfly wing lights on the front… not feeling it. Andrew P. Collins At some point, the software designers at BMW must have been encouraged to get creative with displays. Maybe the idea was to be distinctive, maybe they just wanted to compensate for the inherent dullness of a huge rectangular screen being the only prominent shape in the cockpit. But they went way too hard. The gauge cluster is packed with so many colors, shapes, gradients, and shading. It's doing way too much and is neither legible nor cute. Almost every flat surface is illuminated. When you hit the hazard lights, you're surrounded by red blinking bars like the car's trying to warn you of an incoming missile. A gaudy plastic bar illuminated in M colors spans the dash, and the few physical buttons that are present are disappointingly low-effort. Like, a row of buttons will actually all be one button, yielding a very unsatisfying haptic experience. Some of the door plastic feels like it was 3D-printed on some kid's tabletop machine. In spite of my dissatisfaction with the interior, I would say that the M5 Touring is a decent value. At least in the context of cars at this price point. You get a lot of impressive technology, some unique capabilities, considerable practicality, and the novelty of being in a high-performance station wagon. These list for about $120,000 and they hold their own at that level. The longroof M5 looks like a six-figure car, and if you pick a good color, you'll make an entrance anywhere you pull up with this thing. Like most of the elite cars I've driven lately, I was impressed by it, but you won't catch me staring at the window wishing it'd come back. I'm fine with my 200-odd horsepower BMW wagon from the last decade, which I think is quite a bit prettier. It's more fitting to compare the new BMW M5 Touring to the Audi RS6 Avant. They're both about the same price, same idea, but have considerably different executions. Even though I've been called 'a BMW guy' (I do have three of them), it'd be the Audi for me if I had to choose. If you're interested in a new M5 wagon, I wouldn't get too hung up on evaluations of its performance at the track or its limits. This is a battlecruiser, not a starfighter. And you will feel like you're on the bridge of a spaceship while driving it. I'd much rather see an M340i Touring come to the U.S. market for people like me who appreciate sport-luxury wagons but don't want to commit $100,000 to a novelty. That said, I'm grateful that the M5 Touring finally came to America; here's to hoping it's a harbinger of more wagons, because sedan driving dynamics with crossover cargo capacity is a great combo. 2025 BMW M5 Touring Specs Base Price (as tested) $121,500 ($140,775) Powertrain 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 with trans-integraged electric motor | 8-speed auto | all-wheel drive Horsepower Gas Engine: 577 @ 5,600-6,500Electric Motor: 194 Total System: 717 @ 5,600-6,500 Torque Gas Engine: 553 @ 1,800-5,400Electric Motor: 207 Total System: 738 @ 1,800-5,400 Seating Capacity 5 Cargo Volume 27.2 cubic feet behind second row | 57.6 behind first row Curb Weight 5,530 pounds 0-60 3.5 seconds Top Speed 190 mph (M Driver's Package), 155 mph standard EPA Fuel Economy 54 mpge combined, 13 mpg combined (gasoline only) Score 8/10 A big shiny battlecruiser for ostentatious aristocrats. But for some reason, I still think it's cool.
The Drive
03-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
2025 Volvo V60 Cross Country Review: Still Sharp, But Starting to Feel Its Age
The latest car news, reviews, and features. I've always wanted a Volvo—specifically, an older one, like a 240 wagon. Because I'm mechanically inept and need a reliable daily, I've always thought a new V60 Cross Country might be the next best thing. It's still a Swedish wagon, and one that looks sharp in a sea of chunky SUVs. Obviously, that would mean spending a lot more money, and after testing one for a week, I'm torn. No question about it, the V60 Cross Country is a family car; it's just not a big family car. In much the same way, it's better suited to leave the pavement than other wagons without being a real off-roader. It's also peppy without being high-performance; more premium, but not overly luxurious; and more affordable than its Audi A6 Allroad counterpart, although far from cheap at $64,135 as-tested. And on top of all that, it's older than everything it competes with. If the Volvo excelled in just one of those areas, I think I'd have a much easier time vouching for it. And I want to be clear: It's not bad. Not at all. It's totally fine in pretty much every way, but because of its age, I don't believe that's enough. Caleb Jacobs Volvo is embracing its SUV era more than ever. You can see that in its new car design language, like the high-riding ES90. The Swedish automaker still builds sedans and wagons; they just aren't the brand's bread and butter anymore, and they haven't been for a while. This generation of V60, born in 2018, is proof. This means the V60's design is a remnant of sorts, and a good one at that. I still like the way it looks after all these years, and I'm glad that Volvo didn't give it the Lexus treatment by working in some garish maw on the face. It's slick, svelte, and nicely proportioned—about as good as it gets for 21st-century wagons. Caleb Jacobs Inside, it's largely the same as it was before the turn of the decade. Nice materials and colorways help it feel fresh amid all the sterile German luxury models that offer grey and dark grey as their upholstery choices. My tester's seats were wrapped in Amber ventilated Nappa leather, a bold kind of tan color that I liked. There's some woodgrain on the dash of Ultra trim models like this one, and somewhat begrudgingly, piano black on several touchpoints that are easily smudged. But hey, at least the 9-inch infotainment screen doesn't look tacked on. The V60 Cross Country comes with one powertrain option: a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system and an eight-speed transmission. It splits 247 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque between all four wheels. For anybody wanting more power, they'll have to switch to the non-Cross Country V60 T8 Recharge. I mentioned earlier that the V60 isn't a car for big families. Well, that proved tough given that I'm 6'5″ and have three kids, with two in car seats. (My 5'2″ wife gets a pass here; she'd fit in anything but prefers her Expedition.) We all fit inside, but just barely, and my oldest had a heck of a time sitting between his sisters. Once we were all loaded, the drive was nice. I toggled the gear shifter—which is made of a genuine Orrefors crystal, mind you—and set off on the twisty two-lane highway beside my house. This is where I immediately went off-script compared to how most of these Volvos are driven and goosed it on pavement. The mild-hybrid 2.0-liter turbo isn't a barn-burner, but it is zippy, particularly down low. It will pull away hard from a stop sign, but once you're going 55 mph, it loses its zing. Again, that's not bad considering this car was never supposed to be a performance model. Plus, just look at it. Caleb Jacobs It's undeniably solid around town, too. I drove the V60 Cross Country through Bentonville, Arkansas, to get to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for no other reason than to take pictures there. Just felt like the right place to shoot such a stylish car, y'know? And as somebody who's used to driving a big SUV everywhere, it was nice to have a vehicle capable of carrying my family and their stuff—however tightly—that fits in parking garages without a worry. That's the appeal of any wagon, of course; all the room of a crossover without the height or heft to deal with. Like I mentioned, I quite liked the screen package that Volvo baked into the V60, as it has everything you need and nothing you don't. The 12.3-inch digital dashboard looks clean and gives an in-cluster maps view that I found handy. Then, the infotainment screen, which is admittedly small by today's standards, was still plenty easy to read with Apple CarPlay enabled. Even with CarPlay turned off, Volvo's native Google infotainment OS is smooth and simple. I wouldn't be mad about using it if I left my phone behind or something. Will customers in this space be cool with such a subdued look when Mercedes offers a 'Superscreen' on the E450 All-Terrain? Tough to say. Caleb Jacobs Where the Volvo stood out to me in comparison to other makes and models I've tested is the feel. I mean that both in terms of the quality of materials and also in the quirkiness of it all. For example, the center screen has a 'driving journal' feature that automatically logs your trips. That's great, if not entirely necessary, and I can appreciate Volvo for baking that in. It's not German or Japanese; it's Swedish, and better for it. This shows through in its everyday refinement. Road noise is practically nothing, and combined with the well-thought-out material selection inside, you can tell what separates this from a Subaru. The V60, at this point in its life, isn't going to wow anyone with tech or luxury, but it does daily duty well enough to make it part of the conversation alongside other, fresher competition. I know this is hard to quantify, but I appreciate the V60's vibe more than most other cars I've tested. It's a cohesive package that doesn't try to be something it's not. You buy one of these because you want a practical runabout vehicle that's nicer than an Outback but every bit as stealthy. Whether or not the people around you appreciate it, you have a classy ride that can take you to the dinner theater or the mountain bike trail, and you don't look out of place at either. Caleb Jacobs It's just a little long in the tooth to buy a new one, and as I mentioned earlier, it's cheaper than a new Audi A6 Allroad, but the tech isn't nearly as advanced. I found a used 2024 V60 Cross Country with under 10,000 miles for $41,500, and that feels like a much more fitting price point considering what you get. I wouldn't be surprised if people in the market for a new premium wagon would pay more for something German simply because they're more modern. Buyers get to choose between two equipment levels: Plus and Ultra. Plus models start at $51,495 including destination and come standard with all the key features, such as the panoramic roof, Google services, and the digital dash. Driver assists such as lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control are also included. Upgrading to the $56,595 Ultra model adds interior niceties like the crystal gear shifter and ventilated seats, along with a Harman Kardon sound system, heads-up display, and four-zone climate control. Caleb Jacobs My tester was an Ultra model featuring several other add-ons, like a $750 climate package with heated rear seats, a $390 luggage cover, 20-inch wheels that cost $3,200, and a Bowers & Wilkins sound system that added another $3,200. The V60 Cross Country competes with only a few other premium wagons. Audi sells both an A4 and an A6 Allroad with starting prices of $48,495 and $71,795, respectively. Mercedes-Benz also sells an E450 All-Terrain that's more expensive still at $76,100. The Volvo's mild-hybrid 2.0-liter turbo is pretty fuel-efficient. In fact, it's the best among the bunch listed above. Its 31 mpg highway figure is matched only by the Mercedes E450 All-Terrain wagon, while its 24 mpg city rating is unmatched. It doesn't get too fancy with EV drive modes or anything like that, but the result is still a solid 27 mpg combined. There's very little not to like about the Volvo. At the same time, there's not a ton to get excited about besides its tasteful interior and sharp, Swedish look. It's completely unoffensive, and I can appreciate a car that doesn't try to be too much of anything just to get a response from people. I'm just left wondering if that's enough to warrant a $60,000+ purchase when the V60 has been around in its current form for so long. And to be clear, I don't believe a car needs something so silly as a 'Superscreen' to be worth the asking price. It's just that folks who prefer something simpler, like the Volvo, would probably rather pay less than the MSRP set on these high-end Cross Country models. Caleb Jacobs I don't think anyone will land in a V60 by accident. If you buy one, it's because you like it more than the rest. But unless it's more your taste than the Audi or Mercedes alternatives, I'm not convinced there's enough reason to spend that type of money on a new one. A used Cross Country for $20,000 less, though? Shoot. Sign me up. 2025 Volvo V60 Cross Country Specs Base Price (As Tested) $51,495 ($64,135) Powertrain Mild-hybrid 2.0-liter turbo-four | eight-speed automatic transmission | all-wheel drive Horsepower 247 Torque 258 lb-ft Seating Capacity 5 Cargo Volume 18.3 cubic feet behind second row | 60.5 cubic feet behind first row Curb Weight 4,004 pounds Tow Capacity 2,000 pounds Ground Clearance 7.8 inches Fuel Economy (est.) 27 mpg combined | 24 mpg city | 31 mpg highway Score 7.5/10 It's as good as ever and also as old as ever, which makes it a harder sell against its modern rivals. Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@
