MG Im5 vs Toyota Prado

What's the difference?

The MG IM5 Performance is fast, comfortable, quiet and super refined. Putting some minor spec and active safety niggles to one side, it offers the features, tech and price to match it with its well-credentialled and already popular mid-size EV sedan competitors. Is there room for one more? We think there should be.

While no doubt the hybrid would appeal to some buyers, given the limits in towing capacity and higher fuel consumption, the extra performance doesn’t really make the i-Force Max a compelling proposition for the LandCruiser/Prado. Australian buyers have made it abundantly clear they’re happy with the Prado already on sale, so it’s hard to see the hybrid having too much success here alongside the diesel engine.

Playing spot the straight line on the outside of the MG IM5 is like an automotive design version of Where’s Wally? There aren’t many, in the midst of an unrelentingly curvaceous exterior treatment.

At close to five metres long and two metres wide the IM5 is appreciably longer (+211mm), a little wider (+27mm) and a bit taller (+33mm) than a Tesla Model 3. Think BMW 5 Series in terms of overall size.

And the soft-form shape is functional; the swoopy liftback boasting an ultra-slick 0.24 drag coefficient.

That said, I’m not convinced by the ‘Periscopic’ cameras informing the driver assistance systems from the front guards. They scream tacked-on afterthought. But a touch-only initial opening function for the flush door handles is cool and makes life easier.

The curves continue inside with soft-padded surfaces around the dash and doors, but the straight edge obviously came out for the 10.5-inch central media screen and vast 26.3-inch upper display. There are next to no buttons; even exterior mirror adjustment is directed from the screen to a multi-function steering wheel control.

System software (powered by a Qualcomm ‘Snapdragon’ chip) is lightning fast with a two-finger up and down swipe shortcut function on the central screen for ventilation and other functions.

The interior is light and bright thanks to the enormous panoramic sunroof. It’s been fine in cooler winter conditions during this test but it could be interesting to revisit in the heat of an Aussie summer

There are two interior colour schemes available - the ‘Highland Grey’ of our test car or ‘Dover Beige’ for those brave enough to live life with the threat of scuff marks on your shiny new car’s glamorous but vulnerably light interior.

The Prado and LandCruiser largely look the same, but the 1958 we drove did have a few standout elements from a design perspective.

The most obvious are the retro round headlights of the 1958, which are meant to hark back to the original FJ Cruiser. The retro theme is helped by the round light framing the large rectangular mesh grille with ‘TOYOTA’ in big, bold letters.

Personally, I really like the round lights and think it’s a shame the Australian-bound Prado misses out, purely for the aesthetics.

Inside the cabin also feels like a throwback in time, but not to the 1950s, rather the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with the grey cloth trim. It’s a brave decision from Toyota to ditch a more modern look and feel, but, again, I really like it. It feels hard-wearing and suits the nature of the Land Cruiser in the US market, where it has to woo buyers away from Bronco and Wrangler.

One design choice of note is the US-spec version has ‘LandCruiser’ embossed on the dashboard ahead of the passenger, something else we miss out on here with our Prado.

There’s plenty of breathing room up front and in terms of storage one of the first things worth calling out are the long but relatively narrow door bins. No good for anything above unusually slender bottles, even if they’re lying down.

No conventional glove box in the dash, but there is a large lidded box (cooled and heated) between the seats that doubles as a centre armrest. It’s supplemented by a big stowage area underneath the flying buttress style centre console.  

There are two cupholders in the centre console as well as a wireless device charging pad in front of them with a vaguely phone-shaped oddments bin alongside it.  

Move to the rear and the IM5’s 75mm wheelbase advantage over the Tesla Model 3 is clear. Heaps of knee and headroom for me at 183cm sitting behind the driver’s seat set to my position. 

But… the seat sits low which pushes your knees up into the air to the point where my thighs are not contacting the seat cushion. Even though the rear seat reclines to a certain degree it’s a problem compounded by a chronic lack of room for your toes under the front seat. Awkward.

There are map pockets in the front seatbacks, modest bins in the doors and a fold-down centre armrest with two cupholders. Adjustable ventilation in the rear of the front centre console always makes life in the rear seat more pleasant.

The car also houses ‘Strong Magnets’ at various points around the cabin and boot, with a configurable adapter able to lock a phone or tablet into place for the entertainment of, in our case, back seaters. 

Speaking of devices for entertainment, there are two USB-C sockets and a 12-volt outlet in the front and another USB-C and 12V in the back, so charging isn’t an issue. 

The IM5 is a liftback so the boot aperture is generous and a capacity of 457 litres with the rear seats up is decent for a car of this size, although that’s less than the Tesla Model 3 (594L) which has an additional well under the floor. 

Still, enough room for the largest (124L) and smallest (36L) suitcases from the CarsGuide three-piece luggage set with some room to spare.

The power tailgate can be operated hands-free via the key or an always welcome under bumper kick function.

Volume expands to 1290 litres with the rear seats folded and there’s a modest 18-litre ‘frunk’ under the bonnet.

The bad news is a repair-inflator kit rather than a physical spare wheel, but the better news is the IM5 Performance can tow a 1500kg braked trailer (750kg unbraked).

The IM range also features the ‘MG iSmart’ app allowing remote control of various functions including charging, checking vehicle location and route planning. 

As the entry-grade variant in the US range, the LandCruiser 1958 is more utilitarian than pampering. That translates to a cabin that has plenty of usability, just like the Australian-delivered LandCruiser Prados we’re used to.

There’s nothing overtly different about the US-spec model, with good space and small item storage in the front and decent room in the second row.

The multimedia system is the same as the one used here too, which speaks to Toyota’s strength for consistency of product around the world. It means anyone driving a Toyota - whether it’s in Australia, the US or elsewhere - has a sense of familiarity immediately.

It also helps that Toyota has stuck with a large amount of physical buttons and switchgear (I counted nearly 50) in addition to the touchscreen. While other brands look to cut controls to save money at the expense of usability, Toyota is sticking with what people know and enjoy.

However, the US version of the Prado has the same riser box inside the boot, which limits its cargo capacity in the same way as it has done here. It's still a reasonable size, but the riser does eat into space and compromises practicality.

For a bit of context to why the Prado is known as the LandCruiser in the States, Toyota USA skips the Fortuner for the 4Runner and ignores the LandCruiser 300 Series in favour of the Tundra-twinned Sequoia. That leaves the iconic LandCruiser nameplate unused, so it does make sense to ditch the ‘Prado’ name.

In the US it is positioned as a rival to the likes of the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler, aimed at off-road adventure types, rather than the family market.

We drove the LandCruiser 1958, an entry-grade specification that has a ‘retro’ look and feel and features some unique design elements. It’s priced from US$56,700 (approx. $86,300), which is significantly more than the $72,500 Prado GX that starts our local range.

Despite the retro elements the 1958 variant gets a reasonable level of standard equipment, including keyless entry and ignition, heated fabric seats, climate control, a 7.0-inch digital instrument display panel, an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen, six-speaker sound system and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android auto.

The MG IM5 Performance is powered by an electric motor on each axle - the rear (372kW/500Nm) more powerful than the front (200kW/300Nm), for overall outputs of 572kW (that’s close to 770hp) and 802Nm of pulling power.

The official term for that amount of grunt is… a lot. And we’ll get to what it means on the road in the Driving section shortly.

This is the heart of our review, the unavailable hybrid engine, the so-called 'i-Force Max' hybrid powertrain. This is because the US market has never embraced diesel engines, which are so beloved by Prado owners in Australia, so in the search for greater efficiency, Toyota USA is leaning on hybrid technology.

The set-up in the LandCruiser combines a 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with an electric motor in the bell housing between the engine and eight-speed automatic transmission. The combined output of this petrol-electric hybrid is 243kW of power and 630Nm of torque, which is significantly more than the 150kW/500Nm offered by the 2.8-litre turbo diesel offered in Australia.

The catch is, despite the additional power and torque, the LandCruiser is only rated to tow slightly more than 2700kg compared to the 3500kg towing capacity offered by our diesel Prado.

The MG IM5 Performance features an 800-volt electrical architecture which means the 100kWh NCM battery can accept a DC peak charge of close to 400kW.

Only snag is the highest you’ll currently find in Australia is 350kW. But even at that rate you’ll still be looking at a 30-80 per cent charge in just over 15 minutes. Maximum AC charge rate is 11kW.

Claimed range is 575km (WLTP) which is less than the Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor AWD at 629km.

Over a week of city, suburban and some freeway running we saw average energy use of 20.6kWh/100km which is on the high side for an EV of this size but maybe not for one with this kind of performance potential. 

Obviously one of the biggest reasons for offering/choosing a hybrid engine is fuel efficiency and on that front the LandCruiser runs into the classic problem of big car, small engine. The official combined urban/highway fuel economy figure for the hybrid is 10.2L/100km, which is well behind the official claim for the diesel-powered Prado of just 7.6L/100km.

Drilling in deeper, the LandCruiser hybrid can drop as low as 9.4L/100km on the highway but rises to 10.6L/100km in a purely urban environment, which is typically the opposite to how hybrids excel.

The other major difference between the LandCruiser and our Prado is the size of the fuel tank. The US model only gets a 67-litre tank compared to the 110L offered in Australian models. That, naturally, has a major impact on range, with the LandCruiser hybrid only able to go a theoretical 656km on a single tank, compared to nearly 1300km for the Prado diesel.

First things first, the IM5 Performance is supercar fast. This 2.3-tonne five-seater blazes from 0-100km/h 3.2 seconds and with its dual motors combining to produce 572kW/802Nm, eye-widening performance always resides underneath your right foot.

But it’s not all about straight line speed. Ride comfort is excellent. Underpinned by an all-new platform, the IM5’s suspension is by double wishbones at the front and multi-links at the rear. But the key to its bump and rut smoothing ability is air suspension and ‘continuous control’ active damping.

Fold in double-glazing on the full-length glass roof and side windows, as well as active noise cancellation and you have a serene interior environment at any speed. Also worth noting the front seats are great; as grippy as they are comfortable.

Not only that, despite its relative heft, this mid-sizer steers well, too. Not the last word in road feel but it points accurately and the standard rear steering helps with prompt (but never jerky) cornering turn-in. Flick to ‘Sport’ mode and the IM5 is up for some enthusiastic running.

The rear wheels can turn up to 12 degrees in the opposite direction to the fronts at slow speed, which makes for a usefully tight 10-metre turning circle. But above that, at lesser angles, it adds extra stability and decisiveness in the way the car steers through even tight, twisty sections.

Rubber is top-shelf Pirelli P Zeros on 20-inch alloys (245/40 fr - 275/35 rr) and it grips hard, especially in the wet weather over much of the test period. Braking is solid, as it needs to be, with ventilated discs all around and four-piston callipers at the front. 

No adjustable regen braking but you can feel the ‘Cooperative Regenerative Brake System’ (CRBS) doing its thing when you lift off the accelerator. 

The physical rear view is modest thanks to the slope of the back window reducing its functional area for the driver to that of a 1950s VW Beetle. Even the interior rear-view mirror is tiny and folds up into a recess in the headliner if you’d prefer life without it.

But that’s where a rear camera view popping up on the upper screen display (accessed via the right-hand steering wheel click control) comes in handy. Side camera views are also available as is a 360-degree overhead view, which makes parking straightforward.

If you need more parking help there are various self-parking modes including a nifty ‘Curbside’ function that will realign the car hands-free if you’re parallel parked too far out from the kerb.

In a similar vein, a ‘Rainy Night’ mode projects left and right rear views onto the main screen using AI to enhance clarity and highlight pedestrians and cars.

Overall the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are relatively unobtrusive but we found ourselves switching off the incessant overspeed chime that sounds for 10 seconds if you creep over the indicated speed limit, even when the system has misfired on the correct speed. For example, 40km/h school zones on a Sunday.

The over-zealous driver distraction warning also occasionally issued a visual and audible slap on the wrist when I was looking straight ahead. Tellingly, there’s a specific quick screen for turning both these functions off, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having them in the first place.

We also found the adaptive cruise control to be hesitant in multi-lane environments, reducing speed occasionally because the system seemingly believed a car was set to merge, when it wasn’t.

While it may be a hybrid, the LandCruiser is no urban ‘show pony’ and Toyota USA is adamant that it is tough enough to live up to the reputation of its famous nameplate. It’s built on the same TNGA-F platform as our Prado - as well as the Tundra pick-up and others - so it has the foundations for rugged adventure.

It comes standard with locking centre and rear differentials, rear coil springs, full-time four-wheel drive, a two-speed transfer case, ‘CRAWL Control’, a 2400W AC inverter and standard trailer brake controller, which are all must-haves for anyone planning a serious off-road trip.

While we have little reason to doubt the off-road ability of the LandCruiser, our test drive was limited to the urban jungle of Los Angeles, which allowed us to really focus on the powertrain.

Not surprisingly, given its similarities with other Toyota hybrid set-ups, it felt very familiar, albeit in a very different vehicle than the RAV4 and Camry we’ve driven previously. Despite its big on-paper numbers, there was some noticeable lag on initial acceleration and the engine sounds like a modern four-cylinder - a bit gruff when revved hard.

It certainly has enough performance to pull the LandCruiser along, but it isn’t over-endowed with power and torque. At least not in the way its stats suggest.

For the most part, around town, it did a good job of quietly motivating the big SUV around with a minimum of fuss.

Being a US-specific model there is no ANCAP or Euro NCAP crash testing data, but given the diesel model scored a five-star rating there’s little evidence to suggest it would be any less safe.

All US LandCruiser models come standard with the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 suite of active safety features. This includes pre-collision warning, lane departure warning with steering assist, lane tracing assist, road sign assist and full-speed adaptive cruise control.

The MG IM5 Performance is covered by a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is a plus, but the catch is it’s conditional on authorised dealer servicing. Go elsewhere and the term drops to a more common five years/unlimited km. The drive battery is covered for eight years/160,000km, which is the norm in the Aussie market

Servicing is required every 12 months or 20,000km with charges averaging $586 per workshop visit for the first five years, which is on the high side for an EV, even at this price point, the average bumped up by a more than $1400 doozy at year four.

MG IM models are sold (with service available) through all of MG’s 100-plus dealerships across the country, so no concerns there.

One big plus for the LandCruiser over the Prado is Toyota USA offers two years of free servicing - a nice bonus.

It does have different warranty coverage for different components though, the overall vehicle warranty covers the first three years, the powertrain is covered for five years but the hybrid components are warranted for 10 years.