Motability good value?

colin13

on my 3rd mobility car and will neverr b without it,,a new car every 3 years,all serviceing ,road tax ,,tyres all included in price,,imo a fantastic deal,,,I did it 3 months after I got HRM so I never got used to the money,,but I have terrible memories of MOT ,servicing buying new tyres,,sitting on fone for hrs getting decent insurance deal etc,,,now I find this a lot better

shegar

wazza wrote: »

You can get a mondeo, focus, mazda 6 and 5, nissan qaishai and some other 'large/mpv' cars for less than £500 AP. Some like an astra there is no AP.

Yes wazza points taken , but its still £500 thats alot of money to lose , but there I suppose if I was given the option of losing £500 or £2000 :eek: Id probaly go for £500.:eek:...its definately a personal choice and it needs a lot of consideration before you part with your dosh.

There again if you have to pay £2000 for down payment why not put that on a car you can buy and pay for and its yours at the end of the HP term.....then at least you would be able to sell it at the end of term and get some of your money back....certain car dealerships will give you one years free insurance to start with ...:) :rotfl:

jetta_wales

I think it just depends entirely on your own personal circumstances, yes you do get to own the car at the end if you buy a nearly new instead but at the end of the you'll get a lot less for it than you'll need to spend again to buy another the same as the last when you first bought it, cars depreciate in value a great deal they're definatly no investment.

If you're a young driver or you have a person driving for you then their insurance is criminaly high so motability is definatly fantastic value then.

Otherwise it's just a case of what you want and how the maths adds up for you. There really can be no right or wrong answere to this one I don't think

Ferret1959

I think the motability scheme is good value but I'm panicking.

I live in Leicester, my girlfriend lives in Manchester, that's a 200 mile round trip twice a week.
Now over the 3 years I've had my car I have done over 80,000 miles.

I told the people at motability I was way over the 60k mileage limit and they said don't worry and they will sort it out at the end of my contract.

I'm not looking forward the a hefty bill for excess miles.

I read it's 5p a mile.

Is there any way round this for me?

Thanks.
Dave.

wonderemxx

We have a motability car for my husband and it is a godsend! we dont have to worry about insurance (we are both early 20's), tax, mot, breakdown etc. we travel around alot due to my husbands sport but we never go over the limit!

ethika

sheeps68 wrote: »

I chose against motability for insurance reasons. Should I improve health wise and no longer qualify for dla if I'd been on motability scheme I would lose my current no claims bonus I currently have.

If your health improves and you no longer need a motability car, the motability insurance company, if asked, will provide a letter confirming the nuimer of years' no claim driving you have clocked up under motability. Many insurance companies will accept this as proof for a level of no claims bonus.

Tally-Ho_2

Ferret1959 wrote: »

I think the motability scheme is good value but I'm panicking.

I live in Leicester, my girlfriend lives in Manchester, that's a 200 mile round trip twice a week.
Now over the 3 years I've had my car I have done over 80,000 miles.

I told the people at motability I was way over the 60k mileage limit and they said don't worry and they will sort it out at the end of my contract.

I'm not looking forward the a hefty bill for excess miles.

I read it's 5p a mile.

Is there any way round this for me?

Thanks.
Dave.

The only way to find out would be to speak with Motability again.

Sadly, it is part of the contract that you are only allowed 60k 'free' miles over the three year period. Having done over 80k miles, as you know, means you are in excess of 20k miles over the 'free' allowance..

So, saying it is 80k miles you have done, that works out at 20,000 x £0.05 = £1,000 you would need to find to pay off the excess mileage. My brother on his last Motability car had done about 2,200 miles in excess and was charged £100 at handback which was a few pounds less than it should have been so there maybe a small area of discretion. However 20k miles is rather a lot over. It might be possible to come to an arrangement with Motability about paying it off, but really it is down to them.

Perhaps if you mileage is going to remain high in the future,, it maybe worth buying a car, either using Motability HP or a cheaper bank loan. That way you have no mileage restrictions, but you do become responsible for arrranging and paying for Insurance, Servicing, Breakdown service and tyres etc.

Just thinking, its a good job for you that they increased the mileage allowance, as up until about two or three years ago, the allowance was only 45k free miles.

Give Motability a ring and see what they say.

Tally

Ferret1959

Tally-Ho wrote: »

(Clipped)

Give Motability a ring and see what they say.

Tally

I have spoken to them(very hard to do having had throat cancer.).

It was them would contacted me telling me about the excess mileage after the car had been serviced.
Two members of their staff told me not to worry but I can't help but worry.

I am having a new car off them in March on the scheme, I can't afford to buy a car.
I'm totally on benefits.

Hopefully I will be able to negotiate a deal with paying them back but it would mean giving up seeing me girlfriend as all my money goes on fuel to see her.

earthmother

We're on our third motability car - and as others have said, wouldn't be without it.

We need an automatic MPV, with adaptions. The Galaxy we currently have is listed at £25,000 to buy new. Add insurance, servicing, repairs, tyres, RAC cover etc, and the adaptations themselves, and there is no way you could get all that for £2500 down and £200 a month on the open market. There's also the fact that we, along with I suspect many others, would not get normal finance anyway.

Yes, it's a shame in some respects that we 'loose' that money every 3 years, but we do get a reliable vehicle every time, and can change it as DHs disability changes, so to us it's worth it.

moredeadthanalive

I had Motability cars on contract lease for 15 or so years. I started with a Metro (which I wrote off) and had Renaults and mostly Vauxhalls. In those days the annual mileage allowance was 12000 and you could get a Vectra sized auto car for about £500 on top of the DLA.

With a family and doing over the 12000 miles a year it was better to buy a new Zafira with the Vauxhall cashback and VAT back and run it for 5 or 6 years. There was only £100's difference in cost but I got to build an NCB and had a car with cruise, and the trimmings I wanted.

I seem to remember that the last Zafira cost under £15000 (after all the discounts). Six years of DLA (average £2000 over the 6 years) is £12000. Servicing and insurance and tyres are say £500 a year which is £3000. Resale cost of Zafira now is about £3000 (guess). And I save on the new hand controls after 3 years (£300). So all in all, buying new was better than Motability 6 years ago.

I bought a VAT free 3 year old Mondeo (where the VAT is on the dealer profit) and had to convert the Zafira from VAT free to normal. The VAT free entitles all work on the car to be VAT free also. Again, the DLA has more than paid for the depreciation and servicing.

Now the Motability mileage limit is 20000, I may consider getting a SMax. Or should I run the Mondeo into the ground. It will probably have another 4 years left before it blows up!!!

I have just checked the prices for a Diesel SMax. £25000 to buy (less VAT and any dealer discount gives about £20000). Three years depreciation is about £10000. Ins and serv is £3000. Total cost £13000 for 3 years motoring!!

Motability - downpayment is £2700 plus £300 for cruise. Total payment over Motability is £7500 plus £3000 = £10500 for 3 years motoring.

So now for a new car, Motability looks best.

For a car you are going to keep, buying second hand looks better value.

I hope this makes sense and I haven't deluded everyone with baffling figures. I am sure someone will let me know!!!