BMW M5 review

The M5 is huge. Almost 5.1 metres long and two wide, it’s not far off S-Class size. Yet it’s got the interior wrong. Rather than putting normal sized components in and maximising space, it’s made every component as large as possible. The steering wheel is fat and enormous, the seats are huge, the M buttons are outsized. You sit in it and feel like a child.

And making all these things so big means there’s less actual space in here. Rear legroom is OK, but not really that generous and the 466-litre boot, while only 34-litres shy of the M5 Touring, isn’t actually that enormous in its class. It’s narrow too, with significant wheelarch intrusion.

What’s the driving environment like?

Familiar to all BMW owners, you get a big bank of curved screens up front, all with top-notch graphics and response, and BMW’s latest 8.5 iDrive to play with. Best of luck. You risk spending more time in here than you do looking at the road. There are 57 app icons on the homepage, and most of them look almost identical. Plus tiny and hard to hit. We’ve had a go at BMW before for this, but its operating system is woefully complex and hard to find your way around, even once you’re used to it. Too many options.

It feels quality all the way through. It helps that the sports seats are exceptional, holding the typical body perfectly through corners and yet not squishing the bits that don’t want to be squished on a long journey.

How intrusive are the safety systems?

Good news here. BMW’s self-driving and lane keep systems are still the class of the field, managing the car in a way that feels natural and smooth. Options include a huge head-up display and stuff like Parking Assistant Professional which allows automated parking and manoeuvring over a distance of up to 200 metres. Basically, you get a smartphone remote-control M5.

Tell me more about options.

There’s a panoramic glass roof that can be optioned away by a 30kg lighter carbon roof, and plenty of carbon fibre trim options. The lightweight irony of which is not lost on any of us. Interestingly, BMW offers most things singly, but also the ‘Ultimate Pack’ which loops most of the good stuff into one £19,500 option package. But that does include the carbon-ceramic brakes (gold calipers if you want to spot them), so it’s not bad value in context.