The best BMW M5s ranked

10. E34 BMW M5 Convertible

The idea of a convertible M car usually fills us with dread. Chop the roof off your sports saloon and you typically end up with the structural rigidity of a bratwurst. But the E34 M5 Convertible is different — it’s so wrong but somehow so right.

And it almost happened. BMW had priced it at £50,000, booked a Geneva Motor Show stand, and was just about to pop the champagne when the company brass got cold feet. Their logic? An M5 Convertible might make people want a normal 5 Series Convertible, which would cannibalise sales of the 3 Series ragtop. So, in true German fashion, they killed it before things got fun.

A pity, really. The E34’s straight-six was a masterpiece, borrowed straight from the BMW M1 with the glorious induction noise to back it up. It’s the sort of car that makes you question the sanity of marketing departments.

9. F10 M5

You wouldn't have wished the F10 M5's job on your worst enemy. Replacing the F1-derived V10 E60 M5 was a thankless task, so it has proved as the F10 languishes at the bottom of this list of the best M5s. To its credit, BMW set about building the F10 with the best intentions, asking E60 owners what they didn't like about their cars – its tiddly range, highly strung power delivery and tight back seat – and setting out to fix them.

As a result, the F10 can travel more than 200 miles between pricy tank fills, its twin-turbocharged V8 has a mid-range grunt the old car's V10 can’t touch, and tall people will fit in the back without first trimming their extremities. Unfortunately, the old model's charm was lost in the process. Yes, the F10 was significantly gutsier, but its muffled V8 was no match for the V10's scream and the blown motor didn't have the same razor-edged responses, either. The F10 was also significantly bigger, which was great for interior space but made the M5 feel a bruiser on tight British B roads. BMW learned, at least in this case, that democracy doesn't always deliver the correct answers.

8. G90 BMW M5

After the mess Mercedes made of the new C63 – a one-trick, straight-line quick hybrid four-cylinder, with none of the charms of its V8 predecessors – we were understandably nervous to hear that BMW had similar plans for our beloved M5. The G90 gets a 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 that produces 585PS (430kW), a figure that sounds perfectly adequate as is before BMW adds a 197PS (145kW) electric motor for 727PS (535kW) and 1,000Nm (738lb ft) of torque total.

With an eight-speed gearbox and four-wheel drive, the M5 rockets from 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds and will blast to 189mph if you hand BMW a chunk of money for the M Driver's Pack. The flipside of the hybrid coin is the M5's ability to travel up to 40 miles on electric power thanks to its 18.6kWh battery. This ability comes with one slight problem and yes, it’s the weight. Tipping the scales at 2,455kg, the M5 makes EVs look like featherweights and no amount of clever rear-wheel steer, adjustable differentials or active four-wheel drive and dampers can completely disguise that. 

It still has proper luggage space, though and sounds good – albeit the speakers pipe it. Boost mode augments how fast you think it's possible to travel by flicking the car to maximum attack mode for "great dynamic flare" and astonishing overtaking. Nevertheless, you wonder just how good the M5 could be without the weighty electronic trickery. 

7. E39 BMW M5 Touring

Yes, the current M5 is available as a Touring, and yes, the E34 got one too. But wouldn’t it have been nice if BMW had built an E39 M5 Touring? Well, they did, only it never made it past the prototype stage.

It’s baffling, because both the Mercedes E55 AMG and Audi S6 came with estate bodies at the time. BMW could’ve ruled the fast-wagon roost with the E39 — one of the most loved M5s ever. Its blend of elegant styling, proper rear-wheel-drive handling, a 400PS (298kW) V8 and a manual gearbox sounding like the ideal palette cleanser after a modern BMW.

Throw in a bigger boot, that clever split-opening rear window and four exhausts poking out like chrome shotguns, and you’d have had the ultimate one-car garage. School runs, ski trips, track days — they’re all covered. But instead, BMW said “nein,” leaving the rest of us wondering what could’ve been.

6. E60/61 M5

The E60-generation M5 is perhaps the version most likely to entertain a Marmite reputation, blending its scorching appeal with a litany of issues. It represented a high point in terms of BMW’s confidence in the M5 badge, but perhaps a bit of overconfidence, on the back of the strong sales and following the model had developed with the E39.

The divisive styling came straight from BMW’s mid-2000s playbook, and it was with the E60-generation that BMW last offered a Touring variant (E61) for M5. This unapologetic approach to how the M5 appeared – a complete revolution from the cool, late 90s understatement of the E39 – had a perfect match under the bonnet. The 5.0-litre ‘S85’ V10 with a redline exceeding 8,000rpm and power of 507PS (373kW) turned the M5 into a rocketship with the soundtrack to match. But for many, its notorious unreliability and clunky SMG gearbox casts a shadow large enough to eclipse the E60’s trump card.

5. E34 M5

Not so much a tricky second album, but more of what went before it. The E34’s effortless elegance and straight-six poise meant that it picked up where the original E28 left off, but with modernisation and more performance at its core.M resisted the temptation to up the cylinder count to eight for the E34, instead deciding to retain and evolve the ‘S38’ 3.5-litre straight-six of the E28.

Initial versions came with slightly increased engine capacity by way of increased piston stroke from a new forged crankshaft, while it also fielded new camshafts and Bosch electronic engine management. The end result was 315PS (232kW) at a heady 6,900rpm, while later versions got a larger 3.8-litre version of this engine producing up to 340PS (250kW). The E34 also introduced a Touring estate to the M5 line-up for the first time, but in very limited numbers – 891 were produced.

4. F90 M5

Soon to bow out of the BMW line-up, the F90 should be remembered as the M5 that took the car’s performance to ballistic new levels, as well as being the first of the breed to move away from being exclusively rear-driven in favour of a variable all-wheel-drive system.Inheriting the 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged ‘S63’ V8 engine of the F10, the F90 took advantage of its new drivetrain configuration and butch eight-speed ZF transmission to make the most of a massive increase in power.

The standard M5 makes 600PS (441kW), enabling 0-62mph in just 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 190mph with an optional M Driver’s Package removing the electronic top speed limiter. Further evolutions included the 617PS Competition variant, while the M5 CS (Competition Sport) was at the time BMW’s most powerful car ever at introduction in 2021, with 627PS (461kW) and a claimed 0-62mph of just 2.9 seconds.

3. E28 M5

The 277PS (204kW) 3.5-litre M88 straight-six engine developed for the M1 was always bound to end up powering further cars to emerge wearing M badges and the blue, violet and red stripes that have become synonymous with M. The most obvious place to start would be in the 6 Series, and that’s precisely what happened when BMW revealed the M635 CSI in 1983.

However, a year later, the E28 5 Series saloon got the same treatment. An earlier effort in the form of the M535i with a single overhead camshaft version of this engine laid the foundations for the M5’s introduction in 1984, as a full-blown super saloon with supercar rivalling performance.

2. E60 BMW M5 CSL

If there’s one guaranteed way to make any BMW M car even better, it’s to slap the letters ‘CSL’ on the back. It stands for ‘Coupe Sport Leichtbau’, that is ‘Coupe Sport Lite’, and it’s reserved for BMW’s maddest, most focused creations. So the idea of an E60 M5 CSL (yes, the one with the 8,000rpm, F1-screaming V10) is enough to make grown adults weak at the knees.

And here’s the twist: BMW actually built one. Well, sort of. A prototype was created, tested, and quietly locked away. Engineers stroked the 5.0-litre V10 to 5.4 litres, boosting power from an already ridiculous 507PS (373kW) to 550PS (405kW). Then they put the car on a diet worthy of a wellness influencer, 100kg lighter thanks to a carbon roof, binning the rear seats and fitting paper-thin door cards. The result? A Nürburgring lap time 20 seconds quicker than the standard M5. Twenty. Seconds. Quicker. Now that could have been quite a thing. 

1. E39 M5

The ultimate M5? M-division aficionados might find it impossible to agree on one particular version as being the outright best, but we’d wager almost all of them would say that the E39 was one of the greatest. It's the late 90s/early 2000s M5’s near-universal appeal that swings it into pole position in our countdown. This was the M5 that took the badge into the mainstream, over 20,000 of them built on the main 5 Series production line in Dingolfing.

It was the first M5 to make use of V8 power, its 4.9-litre S62 engine producing 400PS (294kW) and sending drive to the rear axle exclusively via a superb six-speed manual gearbox. Its handling, performance and long-distance comfort elevated the M5 into more desirable territory than before, while it also piled on the tech, debuting an electronically activated ‘Sport’ mode for sharper throttle response and heavier steering. Selectable drive modes and customisable settings would go on to become an M5 hallmark from this point forward.