New M5 does enough to silence the critics

The M5 Touring is a rare beast in BMW's history.

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While the regular saloon M5 can trace its lineage back to the square-nosed E28 model of the late 1980s, only three generations of this high-powered model have gained an estate - or Touring - version.

It makes this latest M5 Touring rather special, but also means a lot of pressure riding on it to perform.

The latest generation of M5 has hybrid power for the first time, but can this combine with a more practical estate bodystyle to make it an ideal everyday performance car?

WHAT'S NEW?

Core to this M5 is that hybrid powertrain but there's a lot going on elsewhere for this Touring version. Extra space is what you want from any type of estate car and the M5 Touring's 500-litre boot - expandable up to 1,630 litres - is handily sized. At the back of the M5 Touring there's space to fit a proper tow bar with up to 2,000kg capacity.

UNDER THE BONNET?