My experience so far has been so-so.
I’ve done (pardon the pun) a lot of the leg work for motability for my Wife who I care for – We decided after years of struggling to make appointments and endless hospital visits that it was about time that we probably *need* to give up her mobility PIP for a car!at this stage.
All initial enquiries were pretty hard work for the 3 dealerships we had narrowed down – Talking to the ‘specialist’ involved a lot of waiting for a call back that never happened, several days of back and forth calls leaving messages with people who said they’d get the specialist to call back.
Eventually, got to speak with the both Citreon and Vauxhall. Vauxhall are local and Citreon are a bit of a trip away. Both initial calls felt very nonchalant and no particular enthusiasm could be detected. I was surprised they weren’t really interested in telling me about the cars or what’s available, they just wanted me to tell them the model I was looking at and in what spec, even though I had told them I want to see what’s available and we weren’t really sure yet.
I booked appointments to go into both dealerships in the end. At Citreon, the guy on the phone was the most blasé of the two and when I went for the appointment (a bus and a taxi away) I was sat there for 45 minutes before someone at the desk asked if I’d been seen to yet, then got someone from the back who wasn’t the person I had booked in to see. The guy wasn’t an arse, but he wasn’t interested in showing me anything – he was just asking specifically what I wanted. I said I’d seen the C4 on the motability website and then he said ‘oh right ok’ and showed me one and unlocked it and said have a look. He didn’t seem particularly knowledgeable about the car when I asked, but I get the impression I was filling up his time in a way he wasn’t expecting. Even though the C4 is a good car and potentially very suitable, I walked away .
At Vauxhall, i think the chap I deal with has a bit of a relaxed attitude anyway. He didn’t push anything, but neither did he really seem that keen to show us anything. He did however go through what was available and what might be suited.
We weren’t offered a test drive (But I didn’t ask either) Once my wife got into the new Mokka model easily and seemed comfortable we knew that was the one.but had to go away and try and source the £999 upfront fee.
The chap very kindly stayed behind after finish that evening to do the application after we called to say we can go ahead. He made the process very easy and without stress to be utterly fair. But there’s a slight breezeyness to his attitude generally which gives me the overall impression that Motability customers are a big yawn for them to deal with.
I don’t really understand why, it’s still money they are getting and if anything it’s more secure.
bit of a shame generally but at least with Vauxhall I’ve not necessarily got anything to really complain about, just a ‘vibe’