As a genuine M car, the BMW M5 is expected to excel on the racetrack. Our initial prototype test in June confirmed its prowess, despite its substantial weight. However, BMW acknowledges that most M5 owners will rarely push the car to its limits on a closed circuit. "For M5 customers, we know that there is a very small percentage of people who only drive the circuit once," M5 product manager Daniela Schmid told Romanian magazine Autocritica. "Constantly… I'd say hardly anyone does." This implies that the majority of new M5 buyers never take their cars to the track, which is regrettable. We applaud those who do, though.
"For us, it is important that any M model can be used on the circuit," Schmid adds. "If there are customers who want that, they can do it without problems, but that potential is also available to them when they drive the car every day. For this reason, we still maintain the requirement that the car can be used on the circuit, although we are aware that not many customers actually do this." Schmid also disclosed to Autocritica the buyer demographics for the M5. Middle-aged men are unsurprisingly BMW's primary customers.
"The current [buyer] profile would be that of a middle-aged man, although we also have female customers—but most of them are men, entrepreneurs or high-management who have experience with other M models, maybe M3 or M4, and want an M5 as he gets older," Schmid says. The M5's buyer base is constantly evolving. "I think over the last 20 years, the average age of the M5 customer has fallen largely due to Asian markets," Schmid adds. "In Asia, there is an interesting change, there are many young people in IT, software, with a lot of money from a relatively young age. Many have been to the US or Europe, where they got acquainted with the M range, and now they want to buy such a car in their country."
