The F90 broke the M5's oldest rule and sent power to all four wheels. When it landed in 2018, the first all-wheel-drive M5 set off the usual hand-wringing, then ended the argument by being savagely fast in any weather. Importantly, BMW included a 2WD mode that disconnects the front axle completely, and (last I checked) holds the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obkLDeO58Wo">Guinness World Record for the longest continuous drift</a>... perhaps an effort from the Bavarians to show the people AWD doesn't mean less fun.
Under the hood sat a thoroughly reworked S63 twin-turbo V8 making 600 hp, or 617 in Competition trim, all of it going through an eight-speed automatic. The dual-clutch and the manual were both gone by now, a clear signal of where the M5 was headed. The headline was the launch: 0 to 60 mph in roughly three seconds, a figure that belonged to supercars not long before.
The pick of the range is the 2022 CS, a lighter, sharper 627-hp version that turned out to be the last purely combustion-powered M5. In hindsight the F90 reads as the close of an era, the final M5 you could buy with no battery in the equation. It is brutally quick, easy to use daily, and looking more and more like a high point the cars after it would chase in a very different direction.

The current M5, the G90, is the most powerful one yet and also the heaviest by a wide margin, which tells you most of what you need to know about where the badge is going. Launched for 2025, it pairs the familiar twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 with a plug-in hybrid system for a combined 717 hp and a monstrous 738 lb-ft of torque. It will also creep through your neighborhood in near silence on battery power, which is a deeply strange thing to watch an M5 do.
The catch sits on the scales. At roughly 5,400 pounds it carries about half a ton more than the F90, enough that even with the extra power it is not actually quicker to 60 mph than the car it replaced. BMW's engineers poured their effort into teaching all that mass to change direction, and by most accounts the G90 still behaves like an M5 once the road opens up. The Touring wagon returns as well, and this time US buyers finally get to order one.
Whether the hybrid era suits the M5 is the argument of the moment, and sensible people land on both sides of it. What is not in dispute is that the V8 survives here partly because the electric motor helps it slip under emissions limits. The G90 is the M5 adapting to stay alive, and in an era where the next M3 may be all-electric, still having 8-cylinders in an M car is a good thing in my book.

5 Series

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2003 BMW 530i

1988 BMW M5

2001 BMW M5

2000 BMW Alpina B10 3.3

2006 BMW M5

2006 BMW M5

2000 BMW E39 M5

2010 BMW 5 Series

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1986 BMW M5

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1985 BMW 535i

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