ALPINA B5 TOURING
Don’t waste your time weighing up luxury and practicality. Have both
THERE’S SOMETHING profoundly pleasing about a barnstorming wagon. It’s a case of pragmatism meets performance in the best kind of way. The Alpina B5 Touring embodies this theory, with an added dash of luxury and exclusivity for your $217,000.
From the outside, the Touring’s appearance is understated, the traditional 20-spoke alloys, quad exhaust pipes and prominent Alpina badging the most obvious cues to what lies beneath. Even the V8 heart is hushed until provoked.
Step inside, though, and you’re in a space ostensibly BMW 5 Series at face value yet overtly Alpina in detail. Highquality materials are used throughout, with fine leathers and intricate coloured stitching signs of a bespoke touch.
The idrive controller and infotainment system is lifted from its Bavarian donor, while the digital instrument cluster receives a complete Alpina redesign.
There’s ample room front and back for heads and legs, and the rear doors open wide. Combined with 570 litres of cargo capacity that balloons to 1700L with the seats down, it makes the B5 a good choice for an affluent busy family.
However, turf the family for a spirited drive and the B5 Touring comes alive. Motivated by a twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8, the Alpina offers 447kw of fun. It sounds tough in sportier driving modes, and Alpina’s 0-100km/h claim of 3.7sec is credible, aided by the Alpina-tuned ZF eight-speed auto and a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system that delivers the traction needed to properly harness the 800Nm of torque. Frustratingly, though, the shift buttons are unsatisfying to use.
With the BMW 540i Touring as its base, the B5 is softer and not quite as agile as a BMW M5, yet with an Alpina-only Comfort Plus mode for the adaptive dampers (as well as air suspension on the rear axle), it delivers far superior ride comfort. Flick to Sport mode and body control tightens, but at the expense of truly plush ride quality.
Where the road surface allows the stiffer set-up, the B5 is so capable you can sometimes forget it’s a wagon. With four-wheel steer fooling you into thinking it has shortened the 2975mm wheelbase, the almost five-metre-long Touring is responsive and somewhat shrinks around you. It’s staggering how adept and fast it is for its 2.1 tonnes.
For the well-heeled buyer who wants practicality but who also enjoys spirited driving and exclusivity, the Alpina wagon is the chameleon that can do it all. If ever there was a case for not buying a bloated SUV with performance pretence, this is it.