Alpina B5 2020 review: Touring

Dressed in black, the B5 looks smart, sleek and understated. The kind of wagon you wish you had parked on your driveway and a far cry from many other attention-seeking performance wagons.

The B5's trademark 20-spoke alloy wheels are stand out feature of the side profile and a personal favourite of mine. With the brake dust quick to cake on, though, they would benefit from regular cleaning, which will no doubt require an entire afternoon's investment. What the hell, it's worth it.

Upfront, Alpina has applied an aggressive-looking spoiler with signature branding, giving the car a slightly more athletic stance, while the rear valance neatly frames the angry-looking stainless steel quad exhaust. The BMW logo on the boot lid is now bookended by the slightly awkward-looking Alpina logo and B5 BiTurbo lettering.

Alpina saved its finest design work for the interior with a makeover that dials up the luxury factor big time. The seats, draped in Nappa Leather and featuring bespoke diamond stitching, were a crowd favourite - soft, supportive and extremely comfortable. A pleasure to spend time in.

Other Alpina touches in the 5 Series' cabin include the signature plaque on the centre console that displays the build number of the car, the bespoke leather-bound steering wheel, and the redesigned instrument cluster using the Alpina blue and green. The rest of the cabin more or less retains much of the familiar switch gear and layout of the 5 Series.

Upfront, Alpina has applied an aggressive-looking spoiler with signature branding, giving the car a slightly more athletic stance. (image: Dan Pugh)

There's generous space available for passengers and cargo alike. Head and legroom in the rear was ample for someone of my height (180cm), with inches to spare to the roof and seat in front. My kids had more than enough space to spread out, too.

Boot capacity is 570 litres which increases to a generous 1700 litres with the 40/20/40 split fold seats down– more than enough space for two bikes. Items such as surf boards or skis can be accommodated by folding down the middle seat.

Head and legroom in the rear was ample for someone of my height (180cm), with inches to spare to the roof and seat in front. (image: Dan Pugh)

The beauty of the B5 is how easy it is to live with as a daily driver. Cruising in Comfort mode was well, supremely comfortable, with the V8 happy to bounce around the suburban back streets.

Ride quality was untroubled by even the most dire road surfaces, which, coupled with the well-insulated cabin, made for a delightful driving experience. Navigating the two-tonne car around the city was easy with well-weighted steering and parking aids helping that make light work of visiting a crowded shopping centre.

There's plenty of storage on offer throughout the cabin, including a decent glove box, door bins with big bottle holders, and a centre console housing multiple USB ports and a pair of 12-volt outlets.

My kids in the rear seat made good use of the creature comforts including air vents with individual temp controls in the centre console and heated seats. There are also map pockets in the front seatbacks, bottle holders in the doors, a fold-down centre armrest with two cupholders and two 12-volt sockets.

The Alpina B5 is based on the BMW 5 Series, which has a five-star ANCAP rating. Along with the comprehensive suite of airbags, traction and stability control, there's a decent list of advanced safety equipment.

Coming standard is AEB (front and rear), evasive steering, front and rear cross-traffic warning, blind spot alert and lane keep assist. The Alpina B5 also comes with BMW's emergency call function.

For child seats, you'll find two ISOFIX mounts and three top-tether points across the rear row.

The Alpina B5 Touring is a unique high-performance family taxi made for the discerning driver with ridiculously deep pockets. (image: Dan Pugh)

Price is a sore spot, with the B5 Touring coming in at $217,000. Worse still, a handful of options - including soft close doors ($1,150) and leather dash ($2,243) - pushed the final price to an eye-watering $220,393.

There's a stack of standard equipment for the price, though, including LED headlights, cruise control, quad-zone climate control, electrically adjustable and heated front seats, sat nav, and BMW's connected services, all fitted as standard. Alpina standard touches include tweaks to the sports suspension, auto gearbox, driving modes and steering as well as ceramic-finished controls and floor mats.

There’s a stack of standard equipment for the price, including LED headlights. (image: Dan Pugh)