• Plenty of space for five passengers
• Not the largest boot, but still practical
• All come with powered tailgate

How much space is there?

There’s no denying the BMW 5 Series Touring is a big vehicle,and those sitting on any of the seats will be appreciative of the space on offer. There’s plenty of leg- and headroom for four, with adequate space for a fifth on the middle rear seat, despite the large transmission tunnel in the footwell.

The centre seat base may not be as sculpted or as inviting as the outer two seats, but it’s not raised so high above the others that it forces your head up into the roof. As good as the 5 Series Touring is, a Volvo V90 offers even more rear seat space with legroom being particularly impressive.

Boot space and storage

The rear seats can be folded 40/20/40 (so you can either lower the entire rear seatback, or split it into the percentages listed), and when folded almost entirely flat, the luggage capacity increases by 30 litres compared with the previous generation to 1,700 litres. The E-class is still the most generous with 1,820 litres, the A6 Avant with 1,680 litres and Volvo V90 with 1,560 litres.

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You can also carry 120kg more than before at 730kg, and the standard rear air suspension self-levels to balance out the load. 

There are some well thought-out touches that improve convenience. The load cover automatically retracts and lowers again when you open and close the tailgate which comes with electric operation. As ever – and uniquely in the segment – the Touring’s rear window opens independently of the tailgate, so you can drop lighter items through it without having to open the whole boot.

To contain big loads safely, you can also use the luggage partition net, which extends up from the top of the rear seats to the roof. Previously, you’d then need to store the partition net and load cover at home, or in the rear footwell – risking damaging or even losing them – but BMW has now created a space below the boot floor so you can tuck it out of sight without eating into space.

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Is it easy to park?

To help cope with the 5 Series Touring’s significant size, BMW include a few useful bits of tech on every new model. Even base SE gets all-round parking sensors, a rear camera and a parking assistant. This can find a space and then park the car in it, while a reversing assistant makes getting out of tight spots easy.

Safety

Euro NCAP has awarded the BMW 5 Series Touring a maximum five-star rating, with a 91% rating for adult occupant and 85% rating for child occupant protection, and 81% for pedestrians.

It did note, however, that the passenger-side knee airbag did not deploy quickly enough to fully cushion the crash-test dummy’s right knee from the dashboard during its testing. Protection of the driver’s neck and rear passenger’s chest was also rated as marginal.

You get two Isofix points found on the outer rear seats.

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Driver assistance systems available

A range of driver-assistance systems is available. This includes:

• Collision Warning and Pedestrian Warning with a low-speed city braking function, and also cruise control.
• Active Cruise Control (ACC) with Stop & Go function is optional, and can be activated between 0-130mph. It keeps a safe distance to traffic, and will even brake to a stop and move off again within 30 seconds.
• Steering and Lane Control Assistant also operates at speeds up to 130mph, and can be used in conjunction with ACC. It steers between white lines – the driver can remove his hands from the wheel for short periods. Generally good, the system did struggle with heavy rain and merging lanes of traffic during our test.
• Lane Keeping Assistant, which alerts the driver if the 5-series crosses white lines without indicating, and helps steer the car back into its lane if a collision is deemed likely.
• Lane Change Assistant automatically changes lanes if it’s safe to do so following a long press of the indicator when Steering and Lane Control Assistant is also active.

WATCH: BMW 5 Series Saloon Euro NCAP crash test: