BMW M5 Wagon Officially Coming to U.S. Market
After months of teasing, BMW officially confirmed on Thursday that the newest generation of M5 will come to America in wagon form. The folks in Bavaria have yet to unveil the new M5 sedan, but BMW was willing to let it slip that a station wagon will join its sedan sibling for the incoming model year.
Entering its seventh generation, the BMW M5 has long been the benchmark for proper sport sedans and the newest version will attempt to hold onto that title. With a M Hybrid drivetrain closely related to the BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP race car, we suspect power figures will be close to 600 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque. Similarly, BMW says its chassis engineers are hard at work fine-tuning the driving dynamics and agility to fit its wagon weight and shape.
Given BMW M executives' previous statements and the lack of a manual transmission in the current M5, it's highly unlikely that the new BMW M5 wagon will come equipped with a stick. Even so, continuing the lineage of the M5 wagon and the high-performance saloon car is worthy of praise.
The history of the M5 Touring dates back to the second generation (E34) M5 sedan, which launched in 1992. With a Motorsport-derived S38 3.8-liter inline-6 making up to 335 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, the E34 generation was capable of long-distance comfort and back road flogging alike. Fast forward to 2007 and BMW added a touring variant to the fourth generation (E60) M5. With a 5.0-liter V-10 and 7-speed SMG, the E60 generation was the beginning of technological advancement for BMW, arguably kicking off the current era of M cars.
BMW has yet to set an official reveal date, production timelines, or price for the pre-coveted wagon. Even so, BMW says that testing of M5 wagon prototypes is already underway in urban traffic, on mountain roads, on autobahns around Munich, and even in the U.S. Plus, BMW says it is heading to the Nürburgring's Nordschleife for some suspension and dynamics testing in the near future, where additional spy shots are likely to emerge.
