I see no sense in price caps although accept that there has to be some sort of limit, but nothing like the current restrictions. The condition has to be that all the additional costs are covered by the specific vehicles AP. That way everyone is being treated equally. Very easy to do as every lease company, bar Motability, does it.
As many know, we used to have considerably more choice, including much bigger / more expensive vehicles – albeit at a cost. The price caps were initiated due to a completely inaccurate article in the Daily Mail which talked about disabled people getting ‘free luxury cars at the tax payers expense’. Rather than correct this nonsense, and state that even someone with a zero AP runabout is paying £10k for it in sacrificed benefits, Motability rolled over and allowed the Daily Mail to win at the expense of the disabled drivers who they are supposed to champion.
As others have said, qualifying disability benefits are not means tested and disabled people should be able to choose cars that they would like and can afford, not just what they need. Being completely honest, those who are against higher price cars being available often come over ‘if I can’t afford it, nobody else should be allowed it’. I think that attitude is very unfortunate. Disabled drivers using Motability should have the same choice as able bodied drivers using other lease companies. IMO the current policy is discriminatory.