The AP’s for autos are indeed excessive. You can get higher trim levels of cars for a fraction of the price paid by retail customers, yet the majority of the price premium for autos seems to be passed on through very high AP’s. This is wrong on so many levels. Firstly, autos are worth more at resale time, so that should be reflected, but isn’t. Secondly, many disabled drivers need an auto but are financially penalised. It’s all very well mentioning grants but only a small proportion of Motability customers are eligible for them. Given that PIP isn’t means tested, I don’t see why Motability should be. Any driver who, by nature of their disability, has to have an auto, should be able to have one for the same AP as the manual IMO.
I agree.
I have DVLA reportable health conditions, and the DVLA removed the manual part of my licence not that I could drive a manual any more anyway, therefore I have no choice but to drive an auto. I was told 80% of Motability customers have autos. We have had our current car nearly 4 years and have now had to extend the lease another 6 months, never had a grant we paid for our car by part exchanging our own car and got ripped off by the dealer.