The TikTok account @shoaib.edits15 posted a clip labeled “Part 4” with a title across the top that reads “I Bought Amazons $100,000 Rivian Van for $10,000… Dealer Said It Needed a New Battery.” The caption repeats that line and adds hashtags about the used car market and car repair. The video itself never repeats the price, never shows a bill of sale and never says who bought the van, so the title is a claim to read with care.

What the video does show is a shop bay, a Rivian commercial van with its driver’s door open, and two men going through what the dashboard screen is telling them. A man in a green shirt with glasses and a beard sits in the driver’s seat while a second man talks him through it. The opening line on the screen is a prompt that reads “enter code to drive.”

The van will not move, and the screen explains why in a long scroll of warnings. The men read them off one after another: anti lock braking service, stability control fault, power steering fault, a tire pressure system message, a motor fault detected, and a line that says driving is disabled. The one that comes up most often is a message telling the driver to service the battery system immediately. One of the men says there are a lot of messages on the screen and that he does not know what is going on at this point.

They test the electronics in a way that is easy to follow. If they disconnect the 12 volt battery and everything shuts off, one of them explains, that means the DC to DC converter is not working, which would mean there is still a high voltage fault. They try it, and the same man says that was never the issue and calls it a good way to isolate the problem.

Then comes the stranger part. The screen says no key was found, even though the key is right there in the cabin, and the code prompt keeps asking for a number. One of the men tries a code made of repeated digits and says it is not that. Later one of them says the key does appear to send a signal, which they count as a discovery, and they wonder aloud whether a delivery van like this asks for an employee number or a scan of a code before it will drive.

The video ends on a joke instead of an answer. One of them suggests ordering something online so a delivery driver shows up at the shop, and the other laughs and agrees that is a good idea. Nobody solves the code prompt on camera, and the viewer is left with a van that still will not drive.

Rivian’s own pages give some context for why the van behaves this way. The company says it is set to deliver 100,000 vans to Amazon and that it supplies fleet software, remote diagnostics and mobile service to that customer. Its warranty page says the guide for the delivery van applies to vans that Rivian sells to Amazon or an authorized purchaser for commercial use by a delivery service partner, which is a reminder that these vans were built for a fleet and not for individual owners. The page does not say how a driver starts the van, and it does not say what happens when one is resold.

Safety is the other important point. Rivian’s emergency response guide for its commercial vans says all high voltage cables are colored orange and must never be touched, tells responders to always assume the vehicle is energized, and describes a marked loop that disconnects the high voltage battery. It warns against touching exposed electrical parts or battery components. A shop that works on a battery fault is working around that system, and anyone watching the clip should not treat it as a how to.

Whether the van was really sold for ten thousand dollars, what the dealer actually said about the battery, and what the repair ended up costing are all questions the video leaves open. What it shows is a working look at how technicians chase a warning list, rule out the small battery, and keep running into a security prompt, with a caption that promises a bargain and footage that mostly shows the work still ahead.