Do you want an ex-Motability car?

mezza101

icookalot4u wrote: »

Can you tell me where and when the auctions are held?
I did know a family who wanted to buy their daughters car and where quoted a unrealistic price from Motobility and bought it for half the price at auction.

check out this website; http://www.cityauctiongroup.com/stock/vehicle-search.aspx?mak=all&mod=all&der=all&location=belf&vendor=motability

GlynD

mezza101 wrote: »

check out this website; http://www.cityauctiongroup.com/stock/vehicle-search.aspx?mak=all&mod=all&der=all&location=belf&vendor=motability

That's a very good link. I didn't know such a service existed. Now that's moneysaving!

I'm actually very pleased that a thread I started has led to such a great opportunity for others. I hope you lot will forgive me for feeling just a little self-satisfied?

mezza101

GlynD wrote: »

That's a very good link. I didn't know such a service existed. Now that's moneysaving!

I'm actually very pleased that a thread I started has led to such a great opportunity for others. I hope you lot will forgive me for feeling just a little self-satisfied?

hey you'll be satisfied when you offload that motor for a tidy sum

btw how ya find the auto, heavy on petrol etc :cool:

motorguy

GlynD wrote: »

One of my neighbours recently lamented that he can't get his hands on a good quality ex-Motability car because they go back to main dealers before being sold at auction.

I've got a Motability car as a result of my War Pension so I phoned Motability up to see what the crack was.

It seems that: if someone is returning a Motability car and a friend or neighbour wants it all you've got to do is get the registration number of the car and phone Motability when you know the car is about to be returned. They will offer you the car for a price and include a 12 month warranty. As far as I remember they said the car would be checked and serviced before being sold in this way.

The Motability customer doesn't get any reward for this.

So if anyone wants a Peugeot 207 1.6i Allure automatic with less than 15,000 miles (only 10,000 at the minute) mine goes back on the 29th July.

The car wont necessarily be cheap though. They'll be fully aware you're a retail customer and will be charging close to retail prices.

If it isnt, then the cars all go on to the trade only website with a buy it now price. The best of them are sold this way, usually to main dealers. The rougher or overpriced cars end up being dispersed through auction houses across the UK and again, the best of those will be bought by the motor trade at trade only auctions, before the remaining are dispersed around the rest of the auction houses.

GlynD

mezza101 wrote: »

hey you'll be satisfied when you offload that motor for a tidy sum

btw how ya find the auto, heavy on petrol etc :cool:

I don't get anything from the sale of my car if somebody buys it from Motability. There are no incentives available like that. This was just a genuine moneysaving for others on my part and I'm glad it's led to even better opportunities than the one I suggested.

I have no ideas how heavy my car is on petrol. It's all relative though as I've driven automatics for about 15 years now and they include a Rover 75 (petrol), a Mercedes 320 (diesel), a Chrysler 300C (petrol) and my last car was an Audi TT, 3.2 auto (petrol).

When I was forced to retire for medical reasons I had to economise for a couple of years until all my pensions were sorted out so taking the Peugeot 1.6i auto seemed like a good idea at the time, and it has proven to be a good choice. The Audi was going through about £200 a month on petrol and this one sucks on about £60 a month. I no longer do long journeys so I'm not that bothered about losing the comfort of the big cars.

I've decided to stick with Motability but will get a better car next time round now that I can afford the deposit. Choices at the minute include BMW 3 series, Mazda 6, Mercedes A Class and the Peugeot RCZ. All available to me as automatics. The long term plan is to buy that care at the end of the contract because we do so few miles now. Less than 5,000 a year currently. Mind you my mileage has been dropping for 20 years. My Merc went back to the bank after 3 years contract hire with only 17,000 on the clock. An earlier car, a Cougar was bought at auction with the same mileage by a dealer who phoned me to check if it was genuine.

GlynD

motorguy wrote: »

The car wont necessarily be cheap though. They'll be fully aware you're a retail customer and will be charging close to retail prices.

If it isnt, then the cars all go on to the trade only website with a buy it now price. The best of them are sold this way, usually to main dealers. The rougher or overpriced cars end up being dispersed through auction houses across the UK and again, the best of those will be bought by the motor trade at trade only auctions, before the remaining are dispersed around the rest of the auction houses.

When I did contract hire through Bank of Scotland they would agree to sell any car I was handing back on a caveat emptor basis to any private buyer I put in touch with them at Current Auction Price. One friend was interested in my Rover 75 Connoisseur 2.5i auto. A top of the range motor which I had put 22,000 miles on over three years. Never raced or rallied and in absolute mint condition.

£6,500 is what they wanted for it. My mate nearly fell off his perch.

He didn't buy ultimately because Rover had gone tits up during my time with the car and he thought (wrongly) that he'd have trouble getting service and parts for it. Somebody got a bargain though.

motorguy

GlynD wrote: »

When I did contract hire through Bank of Scotland they would agree to sell any car I was handing back on a caveat emptor basis to any private buyer I put in touch with them at Current Auction Price. One friend was interested in my Rover 75 Connoisseur 2.5i auto. A top of the range motor which I had put 22,000 miles on over three years. Never raced or rallied and in absolute mint condition.

£6,500 is what they wanted for it. My mate nearly fell off his perch.

He didn't buy ultimately because Rover had gone tits up during my time with the car and he thought (wrongly) that he'd have trouble getting service and parts for it. Somebody got a bargain though.

That may well be the case here BUT in my experience, Motability tend to try to get top whack for the car before they then pass it out to auctions.

GlynD

motorguy wrote: »

That may well be the case here BUT in my experience, Motability tend to try to get top whack for the car before they then pass it out to auctions.

You can't blame them for it either.

The purpose of my OP was to advise people how to get their hands on them. Friends and family mostly and avid moneysavers. It seems that many people are uninformed about how this is done. I'm sure many would be quite happy to get Dad's Motability car at a retail price with a 12 month warranty when they know it's a good motor.

I had no idea there was a specific auction list for NI (or anywhere) and that has delighted me because now the readers of the threads will be able to get their hands on ex-Motability cars at a knock down price. That's the real meat of this thread now and as I've said above I'm so pleased this information has been shared.

spacey2012

I am amazed that this benefit of a brand new car to drive around in has survived the cuts.
It has to be because it is a bit of a scam to put public money in to the hands of business directly.

motorguy

GlynD wrote: »

You can't blame them for it either.

Totally agree. Though you would have to weigh up if the car you are being offered via motability is (a) exactly the car you want and (b) possibly available no more expensive elsewhere and with a more suitable spec.

GlynD wrote: »

The purpose of my OP was to advise people how to get their hands on them. Friends and family mostly and avid moneysavers. It seems that many people are uninformed about how this is done. I'm sure many would be quite happy to get Dad's Motability car at a retail price with a 12 month warranty when they know it's a good motor.

Yes. Agreed. As i said they just need to be careful they're getting a 'bargain'.

GlynD wrote: »

I had no idea there was a specific auction list for NI (or anywhere) and that has delighted me because now the readers of the threads will be able to get their hands on ex-Motability cars at a knock down price. That's the real meat of this thread now and as I've said above I'm so pleased this information has been shared.

I think you have to bear in mind that quite a few motability cars are not nursed and can end up being rather shabby and in need of body repairs at 3 years old.

If you are otherwise looking for a three year old car, you'd be as well just to go to a fleet auction rather than 'assume' specifically that a motability car will be better.