Foton Tunland vs MG MG5

What's the difference?

Okay, we admit our expectations weren't high.

But in some ways, the 2026 Foton Tunland is so much more than we could have hoped for, with great looks, big space, a well-presented cabin, tight steering and subdued engine noise. In fact, it even shows the established players a thing or two about equipment levels and value for money.

But the ride is too firm, the diesel powertrain needs more muscle and the rattly interior in the V7-C are all areas requiring attention.

Still, this is not a bad effort, and a name change from Tunland to Mars might have better reflected the sheer progress that Foton has made.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

The MG5 works well as a budget-friendly small car, and it’s genuinely good to drive.

Some small let-downs in terms of packaging don’t detract from this car in any major way, but the lack of active safety is a concern considering the features most of its rivals offer.

If it’s on your shopping list, make sure you know what else is on offer in terms of safety before you lock in the MG5 for the savings.

There are two ways of dealing with the elephant in the room here.

Buyers can ignore the problematic ethics of what looks like copying and taking the subsequent controversial front-end styling on face value.

Doing so reveals that the Ford F-150-esque V7 and Ram-like V9 do truly stand out. Beyond just the front-end, both are handsome and well-proportioned. Some may even prefer the Tunland to the originals. There is barely a jarring line to be found.

Good design sells and all this gives the Foton a real leg-up in the market. Plus, with one bold stroke of a pencil, any perceived visual associations with F-150 and Ram is shorthand that the Tunland is much larger than rival mid-sized utes.

This is all strategically brilliant, but is it fair? You decide.

The Foton’s extra size is no illusion. The V7 is 5617mm long (L), 2000mm wide (W), 1910mm high (H) and sits on a 3355mm wheelbase (WB). The V9’s wheel-arch cladding adds 90mm to its girth while the Supreme’s roof rails up height by 45mm.

In comparison, the Ford Ranger XLT’s corresponding L/W/H/WB dimensions are 5370mm/1918mm/1886mm/3270mm, while the regular F-150’s L/W/H/WB are 5884mm/2030mm/1995mm/3694mm respectively.

Crunching these numbers, the Tunland sits nearly midway between Ranger and F-150 in most major dimensions except wheelbase, where it’s about a quarter of the way longer.

This is a similar size strategy employed by the recently released LDV Terron 9 and MG U9 Chinese ute twins.

The extra interior space that endows, along with the clean, uncluttered and largely-intuitive dashboard layout that Foton has created, can only be good news for ute buyers seeking big on a budget. Especially as there’s not much that’s bargain-basement inside the cabin.

The MG5’s styling might be a little divisive, with the overall shape and look of the small sedan sitting somewhere between its direct rivals, like the Hyundai i30 Sedan, and aspirational models like the Mercedes CLA.

In this Essence variant, the grey insert for the grille gives the front a darker, more aggressive look, though the way the grille mesh weaves makes it look a little like moustache hair.

The large ‘intake-style’ design at the sides gives it a sportier look than its outputs have perhaps earned - not to say the MG5 is sluggish - and following those around to the side of the car leads to a fairly minimalistic and tidy silhouette.

Here, probably most notable is the rather tall gap between the tyres and wheel arches.

The rear, with that sloped-up roofline, transitioning into a gentle lip spoiler, flanked by those lights, is where CLA fans might have the most to say about the MG5’s design.

Notably, the exhaust vents at the bottom are fake. The real exhaust exit is hidden well underneath.

Large and spacious, one of the other most impressive things about Foton’s new ute is how mature and sophisticated the interior’s very car-like design and layout are.

Yes, it looks like every other Chinese cabin that has come out recently – there is nothing unique to be found here – but it largely works really well. High points include quite accommodating front seats, an excellent driving position, heaps of storage, ample ventilation and, thankfully, physical buttons to access most of the main functions, including basic climate control, multimedia and vehicle settings.

Negative points include the need to prod the screen to get some of those features to actually operate, including the driving modes, and that led to distracted situations. Not good.

And the Mercedes instrumentation design is an outrageous rip-off. We’re talking near-facsimile here.

Plus, every V7-C we drove suffered from persistent squeaks from the door trim and/or rubbers, leading us to conclude that it has to do with this grade’s leaf spring suspension, as opposed to the quieter V9’s coil suspension. And as there was also some shaking of the passenger seat when empty, we suspect there is too much body flexing occurring here. Clearly more work needs to be carried out, especially as Foton says it's already done thousands of kilometres of Australian road tuning over the past year.

Moving to the roomy back seat, the backrest seems to be at an adequate angle, the cushion feels sufficiently padded, and most of the main amenities are present – cupholders, a centre armrest and air vent access.

There's a little bit of storage underneath the back seat, but there's nothing behind the folding backrest other than access to a jack, which is a little bit of a shame given the size of the cabin.

Still, frustrating touchscreen and wobbly noises apart, all in all, it's is a very well made, nicely presented and fairly high-quality effort from the Tunland.

Further back, we’ve crunched even more numbers.

The V7’s tub is 1577mm long, 1650mm wide and 530mm high, with 1240mm between the wheel arches, compared to the Ranger XLT’s 1464mm, 1520mm, 525mm and 1217mm – as well as the F-150’s 2005mm/1656mm/543mm/1285mm – respectively.

While the Tunland subsequently sits nearly midway between medium and full-sized utes generally, its tub’s dimensions are closer to the former. Still, the Foton is still usefully larger for bigger loads, and is also strong for payload (995kg to 1115kg) and GVM (3305kg to 3335kg) ratings, as well as off-road clearances.

Accessories specialists Ironman will supply items like canopies, towbars and bullbar options.

However, do note that the (assisted) tailgate in the V7-C is not lockable at this stage. A fix is coming soon, apparently.

Lastly, only the dual-cab body is likely for the foreseeable future, though other styles including cab-chassis are offered elsewhere.

Some newer brands to Australia, often MG’s compatriots from China, get some of the ergonomic or tech basics wrong as they focus more on an impactful first impression. Fortunately, MG doesn’t do that, for the most part.

Inside the MG5 is a cabin that looks more expensive than it is, but has some useful features to back it up without the superfluous add-ons.

Aside from the lack of physical climate controls - an annoying cost-saving or interior-tidying trend embraced by brands from budget to bougie - the MG5’s interfaces and ergonomics are pretty sensible.

Accessibility ticks for the steering wheel buttons being few and large enough to use without needing to look, as well as the lack of a panel of buttons and switches in the centre console. Looking at you, BMW.

The screen is also functionally sound, with obvious menu layouts and fairly large buttons as touch points, so it doesn’t feel like trying to operate a tablet while you’re driving.

It does, again, lose points for the climate control situation, which weirdly features a temperature slider as a colour gradient rather than numerical temperatures.

No wireless phone charger means needing space for a plugged-in phone, which the MG5 has just enough of, though similarly ‘just enough’ is the size of the cupholders, which won’t fit a big water bottle.

In the rear, there’s space enough for an adult to sit comfortably behind another adult, though it’s not the place for long journeys.

Strangely, there’s only one central vent control in the rear so only one passenger gets cool air or heat, plus there isn’t a great deal of storage. No armrest or cupholders for rear passengers, either.

Also noteworthy is the single-piece rear seat, which means if longer items need to be transported in the 401-litre boot, the whole rear seat must be folded down and the MG5 temporarily becomes a two-seater.

Under the boot floor is a space-saver spare, though, so bonus points for a more useful addition than a simple repair kit.

MG has managed to cram quite a bit into the MG5 for less than $25K drive-away in its Vibe entry-level variant.

More specifically, you’re forking out $24,990 to head off from the dealership in one, even with its missing active safety features, but we’ll come back to that.

In Vibe specification, the MG5 comes with 16-inch alloy wheels, auto LED headlights, a reversing camera and a tyre pressure monitor, while inside you’ll find a 10.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability (both wired) with four speakers for the sound system, as well as a push-button start, synthetic leather seats and three different selectable steering modes.

Stepping up to the Essence, which we’re testing here, costs $28,990 drive-away and adds a sunroof, a six-speaker sound system, electric seat adjustment for the driver, steering wheel paddle shifters - for a reason we’ll return to - and turns the rear-view camera into a surround-view parking camera.

The Essence is also visibly different on the outside thanks to slightly larger 17-inch alloys, auto-fold (when locked) side mirrors, and a grey grille insert rather than body-coloured.

On that, you can have white or yellow as no-cost paint colours in either MG5 variant, but metallic red, blue, black or grey are all $700 options.

The Tunland’s official combined fuel-consumption average is 8.0 litres per 100km, for a carbon-dioxide emissions rating of 211 grams per kilometre.

Lending a hand here is auto start/stop and battery regenerative energy recovery tech.

So much for the theory. The expected best-selling V7-C 4x4 we drove averaged 10.3L/100km during our drive day. And that's not bad, considering that it had four people and plenty of luggage on board for part of its journey.

The naturally aspirated Vibe's official combined cycle fuel economy figure is 5.7 litres per 100km, while the turbocharged Essence drinks a little more at 5.9L/100km.

For comparison, Toyota claims its non-hybrid Corolla Sedan will sip 6.0L/100km, while a Mazda3 Sedan claims 6.1L/100km. Not bad, then, if you can keep it near MG’s claim.

During our testing, with a mix of city, suburban, highway, and rural driving, the MG5 Essence burned through 95 RON premium fuel at a rate of 9.1L/100km, checked at the pump, though I wouldn't expect this to be representative of normal, calmer day-to-day driving.

Besides the divisive styling, the main difference between the V7 and the V9 is the suspension, and this informs the driving experience somewhat, as both share the same powertrain.

Now, the 2.0-litre four-pot turbo-diesel is exceptionally smooth and well- insulated from inside, while the eight-speed ZF transmission is really slick and responsive.

But this is not a particularly powerful unit. There’s adequate performance, as it does pick up speed fairly quickly, and it does maintain sufficient acceleration for overtaking as long as the stretch of road is long enough, but joining fast traffic or going up hills can be a struggle if you’re in a rush. It's not the worst in class, but not best in class by a long shot.

Probably the biggest surprise, though, is the Tunland’s steering, as it's really well-weighted and progressive, allowing the keen driver to really take advantage of the well-sorted chassis tune’s handling and grip.

Yet the steering is light enough around town, aided by a light driving mode, for easy parking.

The flip side, though, is that the ride can be choppy.

The V7 is the worse of the two, because its leaf sprung rear suspension set-up makes it feel a little bit too firm and bouncy over certain roads, while the V9’s coil-sprung alternative does a noticeably better job of it.

That said, the Tunland is still better than some Chinese utes. But for ride comfort and refinement, the class leaders like Ranger can rest easy.

Finally, the ADAS safety tech has been worked over for Australia, and it's nowhere near as intrusive as it is in a lot of other vehicles. So that's another plus point for the Foton.

That's the on-road driving impressions.

Unsurprisingly, the V7’s ride comfort deteriorated even more off the beaten track, with a jittery patter and some minor body flex causing the door rubbers to squeak. That wasn’t detected in the V9, which clearly handled the rough stuff better.

Overall, though, the Tunland did a good job over a not-too-demanding 4x4 course, aided by decent clearances and the lockable rear (plus V9’s front) differentials, as well as the settled and measured steering.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about the MG5 is that it’s quite good to drive. And not just ‘for an MG’ or ‘for a car from China’. It’s actually good.

The turbocharged engine takes a moment to get going, and the dual-clutch can be a little hesitant off the mark.

The combo of the two means sometimes you need to plan your take off ahead of time - but in its above-3000rpm sweet spot, the Essence has a good bit of urgency to it.

That’s fortunately paired with a combination of comfortable suspension and a composed chassis, with well-weighted steering.

On urban roads and with a little awareness of the slow take-off, the MG5 is capable and well-suited to small roads, though it can be a little frustrating in stop-start traffic.

On the other hand, outside the confines of city driving, the small sedan is more dynamic than you might expect, able to get up to speed and comfortably overtake on highways, as well as handle corners on twisty roads confidently.

Potholes and rough sections of road don’t rattle the MG5 as much as you might expect from a car in this segment, though road noise can be a intrusive on coarse roads - of which Australia has many.

Dare I say it - the MG5 is rather fun.

Here’s the bit that might turn potential owners off the MG5. Or here aren’t the bits, more accurately.

The MG5 comes with a short list of safety features that amount to the minimum standard for a car to be sold in Australia.

That is, six airbags, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), anti-lock brakes (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC).

MG also lists hill-hold under its safety features, as well as its active cornering brake control and auto door unlock and activation of hazard lights in case of an accident.

There are also ISOFIX and seat tether points for the outer rear seats.

The reverse camera in the Vibe is replaced by a surround-view camera in the Essence, though the visual quality of the feed leaves a bit to be desired.

Crucially, it’s missing a host of safety features that would be standard, or at least optional on a rival like the Toyota Corolla Sedan or Mazda3 Sedan, like steering assist, a pre-collision safety system, pedestrian detection, active cruise control and even lane departure alert.

Rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring? Nope.

MG Australia CEO Peter Ciao told CarsGuide not long ago it’s about keeping the price of the car accessible for more customers, which means you’ll have to make your own call regarding whether it’s safe enough for you.

To that, ANCAP hasn’t crash tested the MG5, but if it did we wouldn’t expect it to score any higher than three stars.

While we don’t know how it would hold up in the area of crash protection, it lacks too much of the active safety gear that ANCAP expects of a maximum five- or even four-star car.

Though not quite the 10 years offered by Mitsubishi, Nissan and MG, Foton is swinging big with a seven-year unlimited-kilometre warranty including with roadside assistance and seven years of capped-priced servicing.

Intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, while you can expect to pay around $650 annually (averaged out over seven years) or nearly $4500 over that period of time.

There are currently 22 dealers around Australia, although that will grow over the next couple of months with independent and broader dealer coverage from the Inchcape group that imports Foton vehicles.

Vehicles are serviced in-house at these dealerships.

MG offers a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty on the MG5 as with all its models - even electric cars. That also comes with roadside assist for the duration of the warranty, though only 160,000km is covered by the warranty if the car is used for commercial purposes.

Servicing prices for the MG5 range from $266 or $272 for the Vibe or Essence, respectively, up to $581 or $661 for the most expensive of the seven 10,000km/12-month scheduled services.

The total cost of servicing the Vibe over its seven years under capped-price servicing comes to $2661, or about $380 average per service. For the Essence, that bumps up to $2764 or an average of about $394 per service.