Tested: 2025 BMW M5 Is a Moonshot

When JFK declared we’re going to the moon, there was no agreed-upon plan. Sure, very smart engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had probably thought about it, maybe even penciled a calculation or two on the back of a napkin, but the presidential declaration made the need for a viable plan very real. There were many proposals and ultimately the concept that won—and got Apollo 11 to and from the moon—focused on extreme svelteness. The lunar program relied on saving every possible gram it could because the math of such a galactic undertaking, literally, is that adding weight requires more fuel, which itself increases weight. It’s a case of diminishing returns, ergo lightness won.

The BMW M5 has not followed a similar path, though it is unfair to single out this one model, or even BMW. Every car company has made larger and heavier models over the last 30 years. But as BMWs grew, the brand introduced smaller cars—with a numerically smaller name, in some cases—to fill the vacated spot. While arguably more capable than ever, do not hate the new plug-in hybrid M5 because it weighs almost exactly as much as a 2019 BMW X5 xDrive50i or more than a 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE53. Do not hate it because it is dimensionally larger than a 1996 BMW 740i. It may wear the same badge, but it will never do what an E39 M5 can do, in part because it weighs 1275 pounds more. (That would be 5251 pounds, which represents a 139-pound deduction from BMW’s published curb weight, so that was a nice surprise. That said, the carbon-ceramic brakes and carbon-fiber roof are the lightest way to spec an M5.) Much like the M3, when it lost the V-8, don’t hate the M5 for what it isn’t. Love it for what it is.

The G90 M5 is a luxury sedan with a Saturn V rocket under the hood. Its twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 makes 577 horsepower. Its electric motor, capable of driving the car on its own for up to 25 miles per the EPA, makes 194 horses, and they combine to make a plug-in powerplant pumping out 717 horsepower: more than twice the power of the early 1990s E34 M5. The car is capable of accelerating to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds. It can hang on the skidpad at 0.98 g. It can stop from 100 mph in less than a football field. It’s also one of the fastest cars from corner to corner in a canyon and more comfortable than Grandpa’s favorite chair in city traffic. Unfortunately, this M5 isn’t quicker than the last F90-generation M5 CS. That one burned a quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds, three-tenths quicker than this one. Nor is it quicker than the previous generation’s base model. But we suspect BMW has the ability to turn up the wick on this hybrid, and more variants are on the way.

So what if it’s a bit of a numbers car? When the M5 is not at the limit, adaptive dampers relax the ride to luxury levels. Its seats are huge thrones with umpteen-way controls. Massagers? You betcha. If you can’t get comfortable in this front seat, we’ll bet you’re the type that inspired White Lotus writers when creating Parker Posey’s character. BMW could have called this an M7, and no one would question it. Plus, this M5’s back seat is downright huge.

As with the 2018 F90 M5, this one has stretched rear fenders. The 2.8 inches in additional width over a stock 5er does not do the M5 a lot of livability favors in city traffic. You sit so deep in the cockpit that the corners feel a zip code away. Pick up a friend and forget leaning over the center console to nudge the passenger door ajar, because the door’s practically out of reach. The car is, of course, equipped with all kinds of sensors and cameras to help you with parking and maneuvering in a lot.

The steering feel is a little numb, but then again we drove the M5 back to back with a Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. But as we said, this car is fast on the road. With all-wheel drive, clawing out of a corner on 285- and 295-section width Hankook Ventus S1 Evo Z tires (front and rear, respectively), grip is in abundance. And its chassis balance is good—not just good for a car that weighs this much, but good period. The brake feel and sensitivity from the $8500 carbon-ceramic stoppers makes for confident trail braking into corners. The faster you go, the smaller it feels.

We still aren’t coming around to the latest BMW infotainment interface. BMW likes to make its customers the guinea pigs for new user interfaces, after all—remember, it pioneered a single control wheel with iDrive a couple decades back. Media hacks took to it like a cat takes to water. But this endless app-screen menu that is today’s interface is very difficult to digest while in motion. It’s almost like it was designed in a lab and never tested in a car.

Which brings us to the cost of this ride. The new M5, including its destination and gas-guzzler tax, starts at $123,275. When adjusted for inflation, that’s less than the 2000 M5 and the 1991 M5 cost when new. So in one sense it is a huge bargain, but then there is the current market of uber-sedans, which include the more affordable Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and the Audi RS7 (a hatchback, but so what). Only the M5 is a plug-in hybrid in that group, which is a meaningful distinction. For us, however, a manual-transmission Blackwing is way more desirable even if it is slower in a straight line. Our hope is that BMW recognizes the challenge of diminishing returns in the sedan arms race, and soon there will be a BMW M5 that once again takes us to the moon.

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