BMW M5 CS
Why 5.5: One-year run, universally called the best modern M car — which put collector pressure on a sedan built to be driven. The ones in use embarrass supercars; the rest are appreciating in bags.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The S63 runs a lighter exhaust and less insulation here than in any other M5, and the 4.4 lands a heavy V8 hit. But the turbos are inside the vee, the car weighs close to two tonnes, and BMW augments the cabin through speakers. Capable, not characterful.
8-cylinder · turbocharged · 7,200 rpm redline · rated 6.7 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €133k (2021) → €124k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
The CS swaps the standard car's 3-place rear bench for two individual carbon-backed bucket seats (5 seats become 4) — both are the outer-type ISOFIX positions carried over from the standard M5.
Same F90 platform as the standard M5 — front passenger seat has no ISOFIX.
No middle rear position exists on the CS, so there's no belt-only compromise seat to plan around.
BMW M5 (F90) official Suitable Seats document (base car); M5 CS 4-seat bucket layout confirmed via BMW press material (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
BMW built about 2,500 of these worldwide and priced them like a statement, which guaranteed two very different buyer types showed up on the same order sheet — enthusiasts who had waited a generation for a proper M5 and collectors who read 'limited run' as an investment memo. The wheel-cover-wrapped, plastic-still-on examples that surface at auction are the second group's work; the ones with brake dust and a for-sale ad mentioning lap times belong to the first. Both cohorts are betting the same way on scarcity — they just disagree about whether to enjoy the bet while it plays out.