Buy a Kia PV5 through carwow and, on the presenter's figures, you keep about £18,000 in your pocket compared with a Volkswagen ID. Buzz: £38,000 for the top-trim van he drove against roughly £56,000. Lease the same two and the saving shrinks to £50 a month, £610 against £660. The same pair of vehicles is a bargain or a near tie depending on how you pay, and that gap runs through all five of today's stories. The purchase price is the number every review leads with, and it is seldom the one that decides what owning the car is like.
The sharpest case is a van that cost almost nothing. Rich Rebuilds says it paid about $10,000 for an ex-Amazon Rivian delivery van that the host values at around $100,000 new. Over the second episode, the shop confirms the parking brake wiring is intact, powers both brake motors directly and frees the rear wheels. The van still will not leave park, and the host concludes that the last step sits in Rivian's own software. The low price bought him every part of the van except permission to drive it.
Out of Spec Reviews found a quieter version of the same thing in a Model Y owned by friends of the channel. A year old with under 10,000 miles, it covered 289 miles in a 70 mph test, and the channel estimates its battery has already lost 7 to 8 percent of capacity, worth more than 20 miles at that speed. The new Model Y L beside it went further, mostly because it carries more energy, and the channel says it uses the same Panasonic cell.
Autogefühl drove both of today's smaller cars, and they arrive at the same question from opposite price points. The B03X, from €25,000, spends its budget where a buyer touches it: soft materials almost everywhere, seats the host rates above most premium cars, a passenger seat that folds flat. He also found lane keeping he would switch off and a chassis he rates behind Volkswagen's, the kind of shortfall a test drive reveals and a brochure does not. The E-208 GTi costs €45,000, sits on what the channel calls an ageing platform and, by the host's measurement, covers about 170 miles on country roads. What Peugeot is selling is how the car feels on a wet road. Whether that is worth up to €20,000 over the Leapmotor says more about the owner than the car.
Three answers would change how these cars look a year from now. Carwow's presenter expects PV5 lease rates to fall and tells leasing customers to wait until they do. Out of Spec says GPS tracking is coming to its range tests, ending the speedometer corrections that muddied today's comparison. Rich Rebuilds is now phoning Rivian. Whether a fleet van bought outside the dealer network can get that software fix, and at what price, is the most useful answer any of these videos could produce. It will never appear on a spec sheet.
Kia's PV5 Is a Bargain to Buy and a Near Tie to Lease
Carwow's review asks whether a van can do an SUV's job, and mostly answers yes. The presenter points to acoustic front glass, sliding rear doors, three full-size reclining rear seats and a 1,330-litre boot that took 15 suitcases. The top trim he drove has 160 hp. He timed 0 to 60 mph in 9.16 seconds and stopped from 60 in 35 metres, which he says matches a typical SUV. The video gives Kia's turning circle as 11 metres, DC charging at 150 kW, and a seven-year warranty with eight years on the battery. Range is the weak spot. He averaged 3.1 miles per kWh on the motorway and, from an estimated 67 kWh usable, works out roughly 210 miles. The tests differ, but Out of Spec's Model Y L averaged about 3.8 miles per kWh at 70 mph in story 4, which leaves the box-shaped Kia nearly a fifth less efficient. His other complaints are minor, chiefly gloss black trim that scratched easily and front wheels that spin out of tight bends. Through carwow he quotes £38,000 for the car tested against about £56,000 for an ID. Buzz, or £610 against £660 a month on a lease.
Leapmotor's B03X Spends on the Cabin and Saves on the Chassis
Autogefühl tests the B03X as a rival to Volkswagen's ID. Cross, and host Thomas keeps returning to the cabin: soft-touch material on the dash, doors and even the seat backs, and leatherette seats he rates softer than most premium cars'. He says VW considered and dropped two of its tricks on cost: a fold-flat passenger seat and a flip-up rear cushion. With everything folded he measures almost 2.6 metres of load length. The boot is quoted at 410 litres. His car had the larger 53 kWh LFP battery, quoted at 133 kW peak DC and 21 minutes for 10 to 80 percent. At his lower motorway speed he recorded 14 kWh per 100 km, good for about 380 km or 235 miles, and 19 kWh at 130 km/h, about 280 km. That first figure lands almost exactly on the 237 miles WLTP that Electrifying quoted for the same battery in our September 12 edition. The steering is too light even in its firmest setting, sharp potholes come through, and he calls the active lane keeping unsmooth and not yet trustworthy. The video prices it from €25,000, rising to about €30,000 with the big battery and top trim.
Rich Rebuilds Freed the Amazon Van's Brakes. It Still Will Not Drive.
This is the second instalment of Rich Rebuilds' ex-Amazon Rivian delivery van, which we first covered in our August 13 edition. The host says he bought it for about $10,000 from a buy-here, pay-here lot, marked not for sale, and puts its new price at roughly $100,000. The high-voltage system wakes and the screens work, but the dash shows a park brake system fault and refuses to select drive. With no Rivian service information or diagnostic software, the shop works by elimination. A technician friend confirms the wiring to both rear electronic parking brakes is continuous, though both circuits read about 3.9 volts where he expected to see battery voltage on one wire. The two brake motors measure different resistances, so the host checks his own Rivian R1T, whose rear brakes he believes are the same part, and finds its pair reading alike. He then powers the van's brake motors directly to back them off with a tool the shop 3D-printed. With both rear wheels turning freely, the fault remains, and the park brake release in the van's own menu does not restore drive. The host concludes that clearing it needs Rivian's proprietary software and ends the episode preparing to call the company. For anyone eyeing ex-fleet EVs sold outside the maker's channel, that is the buyer question the video leaves open: a repair can be mechanically finished and still depend on access you cannot buy.
Out of Spec Ran Two Model Ys Flat, and the Year-Old One Came Up Short
Out of Spec Reviews drove a new Model Y L Launch Series alongside a dual-motor Model Y with about 9,000 miles on it at a steady 70 mph from a full charge until neither could hold speed. The regular car, owned by friends of the channel and just over a year old, covered 289 miles and gave up 75.8 kWh. The channel estimates that is 7 to 8 percent short of what these packs hold when new, and says a fresh car would have gone about 310 miles. Host Kyle calls that fade unacceptably high and links it to the Panasonic 2170 cell, which he says the Model Y L also uses. That is his reading of one car, not a measured fleet trend. The Model Y L showed 318 miles on its trip meter and released about 83.3 kWh before shutting down. Its speedometer read roughly 2 percent fast against GPS, so the channel corrects the result to about 311.6 miles, effectively a tie with a new Model Y despite the bigger cabin, and says that once corrected the smaller car was very slightly more efficient. Per the video, the Model Y L costs about $10,000 more. For owners, the speedometer point matters more than it sounds: an optimistic reading inflates both miles driven and efficiency on the trip computer, so your own range sums start slightly flattering before the battery is even considered.
The E-208 GTi Is €45,000 of Fun With 170 Miles of Range
Autogefühl drove the E-208 GTi on damp roads in Scotland. The figures in the video are 281 hp through the front wheels, a 5.5-second acceleration figure, 18-inch wheels, a wider track, uprated brakes and a mechanical limited-slip differential that host Thomas credits with putting the power down cleanly in the wet. Only Sport mode gives full power without flooring the pedal, he says, and it also switches braking to the friction brakes for feel. He finds the steering quick and precise, but the ride stiff, road noise high on coarse surfaces and the driving position cramped for a 1.89-metre driver. The battery is 51 kWh net, with 100 kW DC charging and 27 minutes quoted for 20 to 80 percent. On rural roads at up to 60 mph he averaged 19 kWh per 100 km, about 270 km or 170 miles. The price is €45,000, or €46,000 with a panoramic roof. That is about €15,000 more than the top Leapmotor B03X in story 2, which carries a similar-sized battery and used the same 19 kWh per 100 km at 130 km/h that the Peugeot needed on country roads. Electrifying's own drive of this car was still under embargo when its podcast featured in our September 21 edition.
Bottom line: If you take one thing from today, price the second year before the first. Ask for the lease rate alongside the list price, ask for a battery health report on any used EV, and on anything bought outside a maker's dealer network, find out who can clear a software fault before you pay. On that test the PV5 bought outright is the best deal here. The Peugeot is a toy priced like a tool, and a cheap ex-fleet EV is a bet on access, not on hardware.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.