BMW i5 Touring review

Prices for the i5 Touring start at £70,045 for the i5 e40 in entry-level Sport Edition trim, or around £965 a month over four years with a £5k deposit. 

It comes replete with 351 miles of claimed range, 19s, 335bhp, heated seats, wireless phone charging, ambient lighting, a Harman Kardon hi-fi and AC charging speeds of up to 22kW – it’s the less-is-more place our i5 money would go.

A £1,200 Comfort Pack adds a heated steering wheel – handy on cold mornings when you’ve forgotten to set the pre-conditioning via BMW’s handy app – plus keyless entry and something BMW calls the ‘travel and comfort system’. Which turns out to mean ‘a holder for an iPad, a clothes hanger and a handy hook on the seat back’. So why not say that? The entire i5 is a ‘travel and comfort system’ for heaven’s sake.

Other spuriously titled options include the £2,000 Technology Pack, which features things that anyone can understand – like a head-up display and automatic parking – and things only BMW’s marketing department can fathom. Like ‘natural interaction’. In English, that means ‘Orwellian eye- and gesture-tracking that we hope means you won’t have to prod the touchscreen quite so much to understand how everything works inside'.

M-Sport is the mid-range option, starting from £76,455, or £960 over four years. It keeps the same powertrain but adds that M-Sport suspension, red brake calipers and various other M-Sport aesthetics, plus double-spoke 19s and Alcantara upholstery.

Above that sits M-Sport Pro. It costs £79,455 (£990 on finance) and adds 20in alloys and an illuminated grille, which are two very good reasons – worse ride quality and the grace of full-face tattoo – not to get it.

The i5 Touring M60 xDrive is £100,095 or £1,265 a month (ouch) before you’ve done anything to it. You have to wonder exactly who that will appeal to given how much car (or cars) you can get hold of for that money. Still, adaptive suspension, Bowers & Wilkins surround sound and various other bits are yours if you’re interested.

Also on the options list are two adaptive suspension set-ups, including one that subtly leans into corners when you’re feeling schporty, and a good old-fashioned towbar (£1,200). We suspect the latter will prove more of a must-have than the former. A panoramic glass roof is £1,600.

An Audi A6 Avant e-tron costs similar money for its rangier/bigger batteried version, while the VW ID.7 Tourer is a five-figure sum cheaper. How much is the badge worth to you? If you can put up with slightly less space, the Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake is even more affordable and goes much further...