The Real cost of Mobility Scooters

sailorchief

Anyone who is considering getting a mobility scooter is perhaps spoiled for choice and price range. But there are only about a handful of manufacturers out there, 4 or 5 in Taiwan, nothing wrong with that. One in Poland (Karelma) one in Israel and one in UK - Blackpool - which makes the ones like a little car with a hard shell, windscreen wipers and a flashing yellow light on top. If you compare scooters the badges and colour schemes change, not much else.

However - the fastest, biggest, fully suspensioned, 'Admiral' seated 'all terrain' multi wing mirrored so called 'top-of-the-range' scooter will come in a 40 foot container to big comanies in UK from Taiwan, with their colour and their badge on for only about £650 each!! These are then sold 'Directly' to the end user by slick salesmen, often tempting customers by offering one to win in a competition. There are never any prices given, but the 'top-of-the-range' ones are sold by these glossy ad companies for up to £6000. That I feel is disgraceful, and I know to be true as I once was a salesman for them.
Scooters that fit into a car boot are bought new for about £250.

I would advise people not to buy new. Second-hand scooters are OK. A scooter bought new and used for only a year will be worth a max of £500 as a trade in, common problems are easily fixed. Motors needing brushes, controllers needing a new 'pot'. Batteries should NOT cost more than £2/Ah (44Ah battery therefore £88 MAX) I could go on, but always haggle, or if one is advertised in the shop for (say) £2750, offer £2000 and see what happens, walk off if nothing does!

Penny-Pincher!!

I bought mine from Ebay 3 years ago and has been brilliant. Mu mum bought me another recently and I sold my old one on Ebay and did quite well.

PP
xx

lola77_2

Im always worried about ebay you never know whether you gonna get it pieces or not hahah, it can be a mine field.
A lot of mobility companies try and diddle you with their RRP, I bought a scooter last year at the RRP price of just over 2 thousand pounds and found the same one at the B&M Supplies stall at the Southport Flower show for practically half the price, as you can imagine I was a happy lady!!! the man on the stall said this quite common, so im giving the same advice he told me to scouer the interent for better deals first especially if you know the make of the one your after, that way you can see the better deal before you buy.
Plus it means that when you to buy your next scooter you can tell the slick salesman, that you saw it cheaper!! they usually will lower the price to save the sale lol!!!

Lola x

ashby

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

I bought mine from Ebay 3 years ago and has been brilliant. Mu mum bought me another recently and I sold my old one on Ebay and did quite well.

PP
xx

I looked up the price for my powered chair on the internet, then used that to haggle a local dealer down, by three hundred. Chairs tend to be more expensive than scooters as the market is smaller and there are very few available second hand. I had to move to a chair with joystick control as no longer have strength in arms to handle scooter. Totally concur though that second hand is the way to go if you want a scooter. Especially so if you live where there is a large retired population. I bought my previous scooter in excellent condition three years ago and traded it in against the chair for the same sum that I paid back then.

JayWalker

sailorchief wrote: »

Anyone who is considering getting a mobility scooter is perhaps spoiled for choice and price range. But there are only about a handful of manufacturers out there, 4 or 5 in Taiwan, nothing wrong with that. One in Poland (Karelma) one in Israel and one in UK - Blackpool - which makes the ones like a little car with a hard shell, windscreen wipers and a flashing yellow light on top. If you compare scooters the badges and colour schemes change, not much else.

Sorry to nit-pick, but there are other UK manufacturers such as Tramper (based in the New Forest). They're among the more expensive scooters, but the build quality and off-road capabilities are worth it.

Does anyone know of other UK manufacturers? Let's support our British industries if we can.

dazco

I have never read such a load of old rubbish.

Most of what the OP wrote is nonsense and written in cloud cuckoo land.

Anyone can buy a new scooter from ebay or a website that offers silly low prices, but what happens when it breaks down? they will not come and repair it, that's for sure.

As for mobility shops; they are a business and are commited to making money. They have to try and get as much for their products as possible, just like any shop, and if they sold everything at rock bottom prices they would go bust very quickly. Fact.

Then people would moan that there are no mobility shops.

Invasion

I was very lucky to find the exact electric wheelchair i wanted at a local mobility store, with the most amazing service, very friendly, couldn't do enough to help me, that day, the price on the one I wanted had come down £300, I got it for £583 and it's regularly sold for 3 times that price, on ebay and across the web, and you just can't beat great service, and happening across a sale was a huge bonus!

john._6

sailorchief wrote: »

Anyone who is considering getting a mobility scooter is perhaps spoiled for choice and price range. But there are only about a handful of manufacturers out there, 4 or 5 in Taiwan, nothing wrong with that. One in Poland (Karelma) one in Israel and one in UK - Blackpool - which makes the ones like a little car with a hard shell, windscreen wipers and a flashing yellow light on top. If you compare scooters the badges and colour schemes change, not much else.

However - the fastest, biggest, fully suspensioned, 'Admiral' seated 'all terrain' multi wing mirrored so called 'top-of-the-range' scooter will come in a 40 foot container to big comanies in UK from Taiwan, with their colour and their badge on for only about £650 each!! These are then sold 'Directly' to the end user by slick salesmen, often tempting customers by offering one to win in a competition. There are never any prices given, but the 'top-of-the-range' ones are sold by these glossy ad companies for up to £6000. That I feel is disgraceful, and I know to be true as I once was a salesman for them.
Scooters that fit into a car boot are bought new for about £250.

I would advise people not to buy new. Second-hand scooters are OK. A scooter bought new and used for only a year will be worth a max of £500 as a trade in, common problems are easily fixed. Motors needing brushes, controllers needing a new 'pot'. Batteries should NOT cost more than £2/Ah (44Ah battery therefore £88 MAX) I could go on, but always haggle, or if one is advertised in the shop for (say) £2750, offer £2000 and see what happens, walk off if nothing does!

i would never buy from scooter mart as when my dad got one it broke down 4 weeks latter and they charged him £40.00 call out as the batteries was faulty and needed replacing so buyers beware ask if the warranty covers call out and if they replace part with new ones un like what they did to my day and replaced them with second hand ones wich lasted 6 mths then he had to buy new ones and quoted £100 each so i took them to a difrent shop and they was £30.00 each for the same ones i would never recomend this shop again

hayleygreen

Although eBay can bag you a bargain you cannot beat the service, advice and accessories on offer from a mobility specialist. I am from East Anglia and dealt with CollinsCare.co.uk, a Norwich-based firm who offered free delivery for my mobility scooter and insurance policies to guard against fire and theft.

As you can imagine the scooter was a significant financial investment but I felt in good hands purchasing from a local company

SONTRICA

I have to use a mobility scooter I have no chooice in the matter. I do however have a choice in where I buy my scooters from. I say scooters because I have four different ones. (I still have not got a tramper or it would be five.) I have bought three of them from ebay. When they go wrong I take them to garages to fix punctures. that cost me a tenner. Search the internet for new batteries. Took one buggy to a mobility dealer to replace the bushes, that cost forty quid. I do not ever get them to come out or collect, they charge too much. The cost of my buggies on ebay was £150 for an autogo 550. That one cost an extra £100 for some new batteries. They looked a bit like the rechargable ones you use at home. My class 3 electric buggy cost under £300 pounds and worked perfectly for a year then neaded new bushes. Oh yeah that was the one that had a puncture. Now it requirers some new batteries, but I thinck that I will be selling that one because my most resent aquisition is a Trevesso from a Charity shop £1400, which also has nothing wrong with it. I also am the vey proud owner of an Everest and Jennings Safari which is petrol driven. I got that one on ebay too. I have had that one about a year now. I have just had to have some work done on it and that cost £100 including a new engine mounting which as you can imagine is not standard. (My daughter, NCISabbs, has posted a clip on youtube of me in this 'little red buggy'. Sorry not allowed to post links. You sould be able to find it, if you are interested, with the name though.)

I think what I am trying to say is that you can buy second-hand buggies from ebay and other reputable sorces. If you are willing to make a few enquiries and ask around and search the internet when they need fixing. This, I think, is worth it. The Trevesso would have cost £3,999.00 new. (That is the cheapest I have found in a quick search.) The savings are huge if you just look around and do not believe the salesmen when they scaremonger you into their inflated prices. We would not be sucked in for most other products. So why should we for something that is so necessary as our buggies?
Happy searching.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi Sontrica. Can you split your posts up a bit into paragraphs? It makes it much easier to read!! Thanks

You do make some valid points, such as taking the scooter to the repairer rather than getting them to come out. The only problem with that is that if you are like me and not allowed to drive, you don't have much choice!!

dazco wrote: »

I have never read such a load of old rubbish.

Most of what the OP wrote is nonsense and written in cloud cuckoo land.

I disagree. Here's why

dazco wrote: »

Anyone can buy a new scooter from ebay or a website that offers silly low prices, but what happens when it breaks down? they will not come and repair it, that's for sure.

I do like the way you manage to tar everyone with the same brush there. So how many times have you bought a new scooter from a website? Did you read the terms and conditions before purchase and did you try calling them first to see what their repair terms were?

I've had experience of buying goods from online companies specialising in disability aids. I've had to return items and only once have I had an issue with the firm over it.

dazco wrote: »

As for mobility shops; they are a business and are commited to making money. They have to try and get as much for their products as possible, just like any shop, and if they sold everything at rock bottom prices they would go bust very quickly. Fact.

Not true. There are many examples of companies selling products and services at, as you say, "rock bottom prices" and making a very small profit on each of a large number of sales or by making no profit on what they would call a "loss leader", meaning that they sell for no profit or a small loss, to entice you in the door and make money other ways.

Examples would be Budget Insurance, Weatherspoons pubs, Boots The Chemist and all the main supermarkets. The company I bought my new scooter from have several shops in this area, but the MD still goes to local markets with a stall and 6 or 7 used scooters marked down to low prices. He gets lots of introductions from it, despite making no profit from the stall. The profit comes from the after sales service.