Motability vs buying vehicle outright?

Gandalf644

I am toying with the idea of a new car and am attempting to weigh up the pro’s/cons of going down the Motability route versus simply buying outright. Although I have been eligible for years, I have never used (nor even really looked into) the Motability scheme. I have always bought outright and paid for my adaptions.

I spoke with my local adaptation installer and my current adaptions would not transfer across to a new vehicle, so if buying privately I would need to pay for a complete new set of adaptions, which have apparently shot up in cost quite markedly (now over £7k privately). This would be on top of the purchase price of the vehicle.

Hence taking a look at Motability for the first time and to be honest, it seems a little too good to be true?   

The vehicle I am looking at is the Kia Sportage 1.6T HEV Auto AWD GT Line S.

Just to get this right (and verify what the Kia dealership Motability chap stated)  I would currently be entitled to a £750 discount off the advance payment as well as a £600 grant?  I understand the adaptions would be free as well on the scheme. In effect eaving me to pay just a one-off £707 advance payment, plus the circa £84 per week (at source) from April, over a 3 year lease? This also includes insurance, servicing, tyres etc etc?

If so, it does seem very ‘MSE-ish’ versus buying outright, including such as the loss of savings interest, vehicle depreciation, annual insurance, adaptations etc.  I could even bank the proceeds from the sale of my current vehicle (as opposed to trading it in).

Yes, I appreciate I would not actually own the vehicle on Motability and would be subject to 60k miles over the lease, but as I have retired my mileage is less than this anyway nowadays.

Is it really such a ‘no-brainer’ or is there a catch?

Sncjw

I am getting notability car and it is very mse ish 

In total it will cost 10,908 as it will be 75.75 a week from April. All that includes tax, mot ,service insurance tyres windscreen and recovery. Plus if you haven't got electric point and it's your first electric car you get point installed for free. Then if you do happen to loose pip you have the electric point for future cars. 

Also save money on the fuel. Also the 750 payment is taken off any advance payment charges on the car you want. The car I want is 0 so I axtaylly get the 750 paid to me. 

Albermarle

We have used Motability and bought outright, although I understand only a small minority do the latter.
In our case though it is for a WAV ( wheelchair accessible vehicle) . These come 'ready made' - you do not buy a normal vehicle and add adaptions.
The original reason for buying outright was that years ago , you had to hand the vehicle back with the adaptions removed, but that stopped many years ago.
The next reason is that we got offered a very nice one ( Many WAvs are a bit boxy/unattractive) - a converted Toyota Previa people carrier that was only a year old. So we kept that for 15 years !
Finally we discovered that if the disabled person needs transport in the week to day centres etc and they have a Motability vehicle in their name( even if they can not drive it),  then social services get shirty about paying for transport. They want you/carers to use the motability vehicle .
As our vehicle is not in the disabled persons name, they can not insist we use it, and they have to pay for transport. It not just a money thing, it would massively inconvenience the whole family to have be the daily taxi driver ( some of the facilities are a 50 miles round trip) 

I think financially it works out about the same to buy outright/use Motability. It has to or Motability would be losing money. If you keep the vehicle you own for a few years you probably win out as depreciation slows down a lot after 3 years. On the other hand you get a new vehicle every 4 ? years with Motability.
Also it helps if you can buy with cash rather than on finance.

boot73

If I were you, Motability all the way! I was on it for 20 years until the DWP decided I was cured and they took it from me (DLA to PIP) Motability are great and I never had any issues in all those years. 

poppy12345

I've been with motability since 2016 and it's worth it for me. The only thing you have to pay for is your fuel, everything else is included. I can't advise about the adaptions because I don't have any of those on mine. 

wild666

Over three years at todays PIP mobility rate you will give Motability £11,076 and get insurance, servicing and everything else but fuel or charging. 
If purchasing outright you will have to find the insurance servicing and other costs whilst paying for finance to a lender if you pay for a monthly agreement. The monthly payment might be less than the 4 weekly payment for mobility but the insurance might be over a thousand pounds plus per year if you have never had any vehicle insurance, always relying on a Motability vehicle. servicing can run into the hundreds of pounds per year and petrol/diesel another £1000 plus if you use the vehicle a lot, it might be cheaper if you have an EV and charge at home all the time as public chargers can cost 85p per kWh  making them nearly as dear as filling up with 40 litres of fuel on a small vehicle. 

Gandalf644

Thanks all.

The dealer has it worked out based on £84.55 per week (which I believe matches the allowance increase. I wouldn’t get the vehicle until summer anyway as it would be factory built.

I do not need/want a WAV – a standard albeit largish automatc AWD SUV will do fine, hence liking the Kia Sportage. It is large enough to put the wheelchair in the boot for when either the prosthetic is chaffing or its batteries have run down. Plus,the Sportage is compatible with multiplexed hand controls, hoist etc.

 I have no interest in electric vehicles either at this stage, as our house is at the very end of a low voltage overhead wired supply so doesn’t have the current capacity according to the DNO.  Hence would be reliant on expensive public chargers with the nearest  being 11 miles away.

For me, finance isn’t an issue, as outright purchase would come from savings plus trade in of the current 3yr old Tucson.

In reality it  seems a case of the depreciation over 3 years in buying vs giving up the allowance on the scheme with insurance/servicing etc included.The £705 advance deposit is really here nor there to be honest. 

However, where the leasing on Motability seems to have the advantage, is getting the adaptations free of charge vs paying out £7k privately. Albeit it does seem somewhat wasteful as, according to the adaption installer,  Motability don’t allow transfer of adaptations to the next vehicle – thus requiring new adaptions every time.  However as free, that is not really my concern, but does seem wasteful. 

Thans again.

Albermarle

but the insurance might be over a thousand pounds plus per year if you have never had any vehicle insurance, always relying on a Motability vehicle. servicing can run into the hundreds of pounds per year and petrol/diesel another £1000 plus if you use the vehicle a lot, 

With Motability you are insured with a normal insurance company ( currently Direct Line), so should be no problem utilising a no claims discount from previous years ( assuming you have no claims of course), if you were to take out your own insurance. So cost for a medium car , older person should be < £500. Fuel costs are the same with Motability or ownership.

Another point to take into account is that if you buy outright, you can buy a cheaper second hand vehicle, and this would probably be the lowest cost route of all. I think you can buy second hand with Motability but very restricted.

This might work best with larger adapted vehicles which can be very expensive, so buying outright but a few years old, can be a good solution.

Spoonie_Turtle

Albermarle said:

but the insurance might be over a thousand pounds plus per year if you have never had any vehicle insurance, always relying on a Motability vehicle. servicing can run into the hundreds of pounds per year and petrol/diesel another £1000 plus if you use the vehicle a lot, 

Another point to take into account is that if you buy outright, you can buy a cheaper second hand vehicle, and this would probably be the lowest cost route of all. I think you can buy second hand with Motability but very restricted.

This might work best with larger adapted vehicles which can be very expensive, so buying outright but a few years old, can be a good solution.

This is one big reason we've not gone with Motability.  Our most expensive car ever is our most recent one, costing just shy of £4,000.  The only reason it was that expensive is we liked a specific model that's big enough to put my lightweight powered wheelchair in the back without needing to take the wheels off or fold it down and has no lip into the boot, but isn't a large 7-seater. 
Otherwise we'd most likely have spent £3k or less when we eventually needed to change the car, but if it weren't for my wheelchair we'd have paid to have the work done to keep our previous car running (that we bought 10 years ago for £1100 - which at the time was itself our most expensive car yet).

Obviously MOT costs, servicing, insurance, and any work done on it adds extra cost, but over the anticipated lifetime of a car (hopefully 5-10 years) it still doesn't come anywhere near to the kind of overall cost of a Motability car.

But the OP seems to be considering a higher price range and newer cars than ours so my experience is not particularly relevant to them.  I guess I'm just sharing as another piece of info, and for anyone else reading this for whom it might be more relevant.
*and I recognise that not everyone is in a position to be able to get their car serviced and MOTed themselves, so the extra cost to not need that alongside having a new car could of course be worth it to people in that situation.

Pros and cons, much of it just depends on your personal preferences really.

Albermarle

Pros and cons, much of it just depends on your personal preferences really.

In fact you can simplify it to .

If you buy second hand outright it works out cheaper, but you do not get a new vehicle every 3 years ( 5 years for a WAV). 

If you buy new outright, it works out a similar cost. It is difficult to calculate exactly as it mainly hangs on how much the vehicle depreciates. 

Unless you keep the vehicle for many years, then you save money like you do buying second hand.

born_again

Sportage is more than large enough to get a wheelchair in the boot. I have a Niro & can easily fit a wheelchair in laid down.