Motablity Car and Own Car Question

gbatey

Hi All,

I can't seem to find the answer to this on websites so wondered if any peeps on here know...

My Dad is getting a car through motability this week but he also has a car which he owns outright. His own car has the disabled tax (which was just renewed in October) so we wondered, when he receives his motability car, does he have to tax his personal car straight-away or is there a time-frame he has to do it in as we assume he can't have a motability car as well as his own without paying the car tax on one of them? He wants to keep his own car in case things change in the future (ie Gov stops allowing benefits, cars, etc).

We were going to ring the DVLA after Xmas as we can't seem to find the answer anywhere so any info greatfully received....:)

pauliboo

You are correct that you can only have one car with the disabled tax disc at a time.

Perhaps if you can keep the private car off road you'd be better off declaring it SORN and thus not paying tax on it?

I would suggest using the private car as a part-exchange or selling it and keeping the money in a savings account for that rainy day. Unless the private car is an appreciating classic it will be worth more now than in 3 years time.

gbatey

Never thought about SORN-ing it so thanks for that idea!

Chorlie

Don't see the point of having a private car & motability car, I would of either used the private car as Part Ex on the deposit of the motability car or not had the motability one and used the allowance to keep the private one on the road (insurance, service, mot etc).

Best to SORN it, why have the expense of two cars; but he will loose any no claims bonus he's build up if the private one isn't insured in his name, since the motability car will be on a company type insurance so he can't build up any no claims.

IMHO motability is great if you can't afford a car, run one (Insurance) or can't afford to replace your private car that's really in need of replacement, but its normally cheaper to use your allowance to run a car if you already own one that's trouble & finance free than it is to take on a new motability car.