BMW 5 Series G90

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.