BMW i5 Touring - long-term review

According to the RAC, its patrols attended 22,703 pothole-related breakdowns in 2024, due to the UK suffering from an estimated one million potholes. And that’s just on my school run.

You might wonder how someone damages their car when the potholes are clearly there to be seen. Well. Driving home from a New Year celebration, it was wet and dark, and I saw the small puddle and thought nothing of it. Hitting it should have only made a small splash... but sadly, hidden underneath was a huge crater.

There was an almighty bang and the car lurched. You can see in the picture where the wheel dropped in. I was convinced one of the spangly £800 20in 'M Star Spoke BiColour Jet Black' alloy wheels (that I’d been protecting with my life) was ruined.

Luckily, depending on how you see it, it was only a minor, repairable chip, and I was extremely lucky to get away with not blowing the tyre into tiny shreds of rubber. But it was hugely frustrating. And it prompted a wider thought: perhaps we’re wasting our time speccing expensive wheels when the pothole statistics are so against us. Problem is they look too good...

Speaking of looking good... well. The i5 hasn’t had a very lucky start to the year. Thinking it was all-wheel-drive, TG’s Rowan Horncastle managed to get the i5 stuck on some wet grass in deepest Wales. Engaging the reduced power mode that’s supposed to ease getaways on slippery surfaces was useless, so it needed a tow from Jack Rix’s V8 Defender. About time one of those mahoosive 4x4s came in handy.