Finally, BMW’s M5 station wagon is coming to the US—and it’s a hybrid

Enlarge / Everyone loves a wagon, especially when it's an M5. (credit: Fabian Kirchbauer Photography/BMW)

Telling someone they can't have something is a great way to make them want it. Take the station wagon, for example. This once-popular form factor for family transport has all but disappeared from new car showrooms in North America, consequently making the station wagon all kinds of cool in the process. At the apex are the superwagons, factory-tuned models with prodigious power outputs, with one in particular attaining legendary status in large part because BMW chose never to import the M5 Touring across the Atlantic. Until now.

BMW first made a Touring—or station wagon—version of the M5 in 1992 with the second-generation (better known as the E34) 5 series. When I was growing up in the UK, these were unavailable, as they were in the US, quickly giving the five-door M5 an extra level of cachet that the four-door lacked, despite a starring role in Ronin.

Truth be told, the E34 M5 Touring looked very cool, but it wasn't the greatest sales success.