my G90 M5 review 12,000 km (~7500 miles) later…
I recently had the opportunity to do a nice road trip from Ireland into France and drive just under 5000km over there in various conditions, including mountain roads where i spent a week doing spirited driving in mountain passes.
During all this trip I never charged the car, I didn’t even take the charge cable with me, yet the fuel consumption was pretty good and i came back despite the mountain roads at an avg of 10.5L/100km, which put it right between the G80 (~ 8 L/100km ) and G81 (~ 12 L/100km) all of those had 98 octane fuel all the time, which is not available in Ireland but common in France.
Full tank of 95 octane gives me 550 km in ireland and while in france with 98 octane the predicted range was 660 km, all of this with depleted battery (a full battery would add 60-70km depending on temperature).
It’s no surprise the car is able to be a great GT car for long distances but a bit more surprising that it’s less fuel hungry than the M3 touring despite it’s size and mass.
The more interesting part : mountain roads. I’ve taken all my M cars in the Alps at some point (F87, F82, G80, G81, G90) and they all come alive in that environment, and it’s no exception even for this blue whale. I probably never shifted above 4th gear and enjoyed the revving up the V8 to the red line. I was able to go through those tight bends at speed and the lateral grip was surprisingly good. Stopping power was great as well (car has carbon ceramics brakes). Car felt agile and very happy to be driven hard, with the backend ever so playful with the instant torque, still in AWD sport with MDM.
Was the weight a problem ? Not really, you wouldn’t believe it was that heavy because it’s so agile and planted. The turn in is the same sharpness as the other G8x especially with a light trail braking to load the fronts when entering a corner, they are all amazing. Only when you have bumps mid corner while already leaning on the car’s lateral grip, you can feel it gets more unsettled than a lighter car would be, other than that this thing flies through the mountain passes, no issue at all.
The biggest problem i had with it in the mountain roads is just its size, mountain passes are usually narrower roads and if the oncoming traffic is big (truck, busses … ), the margin is pretty small… same with the tight tunnels and bridges.
When i moved to the G90 from G81 I was really worried moving to this car regarding the driving dynamics and i’ve been since pleasantly surprised. I still think I’d prefer driving those F8x cars as fun weekend cars. I was quite sad in how dead the AWD G80 felt when I moved to that despite being much faster, more capable but not as fun or involving unless pushed on a track. I was really surprised to see the G90 is more playful than the G80 M3, probably just because of the lower limit and instant torque breaking traction more easily, never the less it actually requires more driver involvement a bit like the F8x car would when pushed around.
Interior layout is not good (trying to hard to be minimalist at the expense of usability), interior material quality is a step down from the G8x M3. Seats are comfortable and very adjustable, so no back pain or anything.
For a car here that is the same price as an M2 and cheaper to run due to yearly taxes, it’s a quite good value. For other market it’s not as clear cut.