Can a facelift help solve the BMW M5 Touring?
Neue Klasse refresh incoming for 727hp plug-in V8 uberwagon
If you’re thinking that it hasn’t been very long since the M5 Touring’s introduction, you’d be right: it was less than a year ago since we first drove it in the UK. But BMW is already well into facelift mode, with the intention of bringing the plug-in V8 more into line, design-wise at least, with the Neue Klasse cars - kicked off by the iX3.
Plus, well, there have already been updates for the G99 in the shape of increased onboard charging speed (from 7.4kW to 11kW last year) and the imminent detuning of the V8. It’s very much the way of modern cars, with upgrades here and there through the lifecycle of a car as tech (and regulations) develop at a ferocious rate, rather than the old way of a launch, a mid-life overhaul, and then the end of production.
This does look like a fairly substantial revision however, given the amount of disguise. While the M5 status is in no doubt - those exhausts and rear arches make sure of that - the front end is clearly altered. The light design is different (and the grille doesn’t illuminate with them; we can but hope it stays that way) with the entire vibe just a little softer than the first time around.
Probably the cladding and the conditions are helping that impression, but each intake seems a tad less aggressive, the grilles smaller, the general in-yer-faceness of the G9x toned down slightly. Look at it next to the XM for some proof. Maybe a transformatively different M5 is just wishful thinking so soon into its life, but it’s hard to say that anything in automotive is impossible right now.
Along with the new version of the twin-turbo V8 and the design changes, we can expect this M5 to get the usual raft of BMW Life Cycle Impulse tweaks: some new colours, wheels and materials will join the configurator, the latest generation of iDrive will feature (maybe even the new panoramic display), and there’ll probably be some new apps to pay for as well. As is the way of new cars.
Let’s be hopeful and predict a new M5 Competition as well, with some chassis adjustments. Either way, nothing about this car has been confirmed for the moment, and BMW isn’t short of new car projects right now, so an official announcement about another M5 may still be some way off. But it’s nice to know that the old supersaloon (and estate) remain a priority. We’ve been here before with M5s that didn’t quite hit the mark from the beginning - it’ll come good in the end. Won’t it?
Agree, I've not noticed a new M5, but I'm not sure I'd recognise one if I saw it anyway (unless it was in that shade of yellow.
It s the size and weight of the thing.
Of course, the "Comp" models are true LCI ... fixing/improving more than just cosmetics a.k.a how the car should have been released in the first place.
I don't think I've seen one although I live near J3 on the M3.
Hard to tell how it looks with the camo. paint but those kidney grills look much better. But as others have said it is just too big, which may be why there seem to be more M3s around.
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