Overview

Since 1990, the BMW 5 Series Touring has offered estate car buyers a winning combination of luxury, practicality and a large dose of driver appeal. This is the fifth generation of the line (codenamed G31 by BMW), derived from the seventh-gen 5 Series saloon. It was on sale from 2017 to 2024 and has now been superseded by an all-new version, so it’s only available as a used car.

But that new car has a lot of work to do, as this 5 Series Touring represents something of a high watermark in the large executive estate class. It’s not quite as spacious as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate (not much is), but BMW finally matched Audi for interior design and quality and it’s just lovely to drive, blending satisfying handling with a comfortable ride.   

We tested many examples of this 5 Series Touring over the years, using it as its maker intended: carrying lots of people and stuff, and travelling very long distances. You can read more about how we test cars at Parkers to reach the verdicts given here.

There’s a vast range of petrol and diesel engines to choose from, either 2.0-litre four-cylinder or 3.0-litre six-cylinder units, all of them turbocharged. There’s a plug-in hybrid, as well. Every engine has an eight-speed automatic gearbox, most are rear-wheel-drive as standard but xDrive four-wheel-drive models are quite common. Sadly, there were no overtly high-performance models – European markets did get an M550i Touring, of which we’re rather jealous.

The trim level line up is much simpler. There are just three – SE, M Sport and M Sport Edition. They all have broadly the same standard features including an iDrive infotainment with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Rather, it’s the models’ packages of exterior styling details and interior trim that mark them out.

Aside from the aforementioned Mercedes, rivals to the 5 Series Touring include the Audi A6 Avant, Volvo V90, Jaguar XF Sportbrake, Skoda Superb Estate and Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake. You may also be considering big SUVs such as the Audi Q7, Mercedes-Benz GLE and BMW’s own X5.

Over the next few pages, we thoroughly review every aspect of the 2017-2024 BMW 5 Series Touring. We cover how practical it is, what the interior’s like, how the driving experience stacks up and what it costs to run, among other things.