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Long Roof Revival S everal years ago, I ordered a 2020 Buick Regal Tour X, a year-old station wagon built by Opel and just discontinued because GM had sold that European division. is Euro Buick was a smart-looking utility vehicle with nearly sport-sedan handling. Unfortunately, station wagons are shunned by Boomers who recall their parents' giant highway cruisers with fake wood cladding and by younger adults who have never experienced a low-slung utility vehicle that handles with alacrity. But car enthusiasts love a sports sedan that can double as a utility vehicle. Why? It's simple physics. A vehicle that's a foot shorter has a much lower center of gravity and simply lives to dive into the next corner. Our domestic automakers built a few entertaining wagons a decade or two ago. e Dodge Magnum SRT8 with its Hemi and Cadillac's CTS-V are both sport wagons that car guys sought out for hauling friends or cargo. But not enough of us wrote the check to warm the hearts of automaker accountants. Over four years of production, Cadillac sold just 1,767 CTS-V wagons and both Caddy and Dodge wagons in nice condition today fetch their original MSRP. Obviously, there's still some love out there for a high-performance wagon. BMW is betting that a few well-heeled USA enthusiasts can talk their spouse out of that tall SUV and into a svelte, low-slung, twisty-road slayer. After all, you nearly get three cars for the price of one. It's a plug-in hybrid so you get an electric vehicle with 25 miles of EV range for local errand running. en raise that rear hatch, fold the rear seats, and you've uncovered a cavernous space to put precious possessions. And if you need to pass that slowpoke on a two-lane road, there's nothing like 717 HP to make quick work of the task. Of course, at our M5's final price of $140,775, you could buy three vehicles at today's average MSRP, but you wouldn't be as joyfully entertained. I didn't have a need to load up our M5 wagon with my belongings to test the storage capacity, but we did keep the seats up and bring friends along on brief journeys. In both cases, I was able to give quick, remarkable demonstrations of the BMW's voracious power. Everyone was impressed. I'm sure that corner carving is just as detour transportation PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BMW BMW's M5 Touring reimagines the station wagon for a new generation of enthusiasts BY BRIAN DOUGLAS ranchandcoast.com 94 JUNE 2026 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE