M5 Carrier Bagged

It's the fastest estate car in the world! The mag's spy photographers could hardly believe their eyes when they saw the trademark quad exhaust pipes and deep front splitter which point to only one thing - an M5 Touring.

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Chris Thorp

04th May 2005

Although never officially imported into the UK, estate versions of BMW's flagship 5-Series have been built before, and engineers are known to be experimenting with the current load-lugger. Powered by the same mighty 507bhp 5.0-litre V10 as its saloon sibling, the Touring promises to be one of the most thrilling and capable family cars ever.

The rear-wheel-drive model is likely to sprint from 0-60mph in less than five seconds, and go on to an unrestricted top speed in excess of 200mph. That kind of pace would be enough to tempt buyers away from Mercedes' E55 AMG estate and Audi's forthcoming S6 Avant. Despite the advanced state of its development programme, BMW claims that if the M5 Touring is given the green light for the UK, it won't appear in right-hand-drive form before 2007. Prices would be a little higher than for the saloon, at around ΂£65,000.