Kia PV5 review

In the front: fantastic. The giant glasshouse and squashy captain’s chairs make the first row a very special place to be. One small irritation is you only get a proper armrest on one arm - on the other side it’s part of the door trim and slightly lower down, causing you to feel a little lopsided. And that’s not very captainly.

Material choices are pragmatic: hard wearing and easy to wipe? Yes. Posh? No. Given the PV5 also has to work as a serious van for serious work, that’s fair enough, and it doesn’t bother us too much in the Passenger either, but it’s not helped by the fact that all UK cars will come in a slightly dull, all-blue-everything trim, instead of some of the more jazzy two-tone options offered elsewhere. Maybe Kia thinks we Brits are especially spilly and can’t be trusted with light coloured seats.

And in the back?

It’s fine. Keeping in mind the pricepoint, the 60/40 bench layout and general lack of bells and whistles doesn’t offend - you’ll be too busy reveling in your legroom to moan about not having a heated seat.

What about places to put stuff?

Get ready to be happy. You’d have to live with the PV5 for a few weeks to discover all of its nooks and cubbies. The door bins are enormous, there’s a useful bonus glovebox on the dash behind the steering wheel, and even two large bins under the floor in the front, ideal for smuggling nefarious substances or storing the kids’ muddy PE kits, depending on how your life is going.

How’s the tech?

Unlike other Kias, the PV5’s 12.9in touchscreen uses an Android operating system. This is primarily to benefit commercial users who can install third party apps relevant to their work (a huge win for the PV5 Cargo over its Buzz counterpart). But it also happens to be very easy to get along with - probably more so than Kia’s own OS - so we’re happy. We wouldn’t say no to a few more physical buttons on the dash, but at least we get them on the steering wheel. All in all, it works well.

Give me some boot litreage.

Brace yourself. With the rear seats up, you get 1,330 litres - that’s 200 more than a Buzz but, more to the point, it’s 500 more than a Kia EV9 with the third row folded - and that’s an enormous SUV that prioritises practicality. These MPVs might just catch on some day.

It’s so massive that it almost seems silly not to have an extra row of seating there - but that version will be along soon. In the meantime, the five-seat PV5 is probably the only family car you can chuck a couple of mountain bikes in the back of without so much as popping the front wheels off. Still need more space? Goodness knows why you would, but you can fold the second row seats for an extra thousand litres.