BMW's reluctance to make the M5 Touring again is not understandable. Sure, it won't be popular in some markets. But there's so much bottled up desire for such a car.
Rival company Mercedes-AMG has no such misgivings about powerful wagons. It has one for both the C63 and E63. The three-pointed star also tried (and failed) to popularize AMG versions of the CLA and CLS Shooting brake models.
Meanwhile, Audi thinks it's the opposite of BMW because it mainly focuses on hatchbacks of wagons. But reluctantly, it has produced the RS3 sedan, soon to be joined by the RS5 Sportback.
Anyway, BMW finally revealed the all-new M5 yesterday. And it's the second time we wanted to see a wagon version too. Don't believe us? Just check out the G11 M5 Touring renderings we've added to this article.
There's a stopgap for those who want a fast Bavarian family car, and it's called the M550i Touring. Like the M5, it's powered by a 4.4-liter V8 and packs standard xDrive. But between 450 and 600 horsepower is a 33% power gap we cannot ignore.
Basically, the new M sedan is the closest a "normal car" has ever come to a supercar. It will do the 0 to 100 km/h sprint in 3.4 seconds. You can thank launch control and AWD traction for all that!
The new M xDrive is by far the biggest change here. It uses a central transfer case with a multi-plate clutch, which can distribute all of power to either the front or the rear axle. There's even a 2WD mode for when you want to get the tail out, as exemplified by this rendering by X-Tomi Design.
So why would you want a larger trunk, perhaps hurting performance? Well, because it's cool. Just check out the old V10-powered F61 M5 Touring. Humiliating more expensive sportscars has always been a BMW specialty. Could you imagine a wagon out-sprinting a €125,000 Porsche 911 GTS? Because it will...
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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