Thank you to all those who have replied, I really appreciate it and you have given me food for thought.
I am 99% certain my son will not get Enhanced PIP next time. His condition is one that is very slowly improving with therapy and various treatments and although he will never be cured, he should be improved enough that he will no longer meet the requirements for the Enhanced Rate. So this is a one time thing for us. Which is why I’m wondering if it would be better to just put the money towards car finance and buy a car privately. I know it doesn’t come with car insurance and all the bells and whistles that Motability does but at least I know at the end that we will have a vehicle that is ours. Of course it won’t be the same vehicle – we won’t be buying a brand new 3008 – but we could still get a nice car that would meet our needs and we have a friend who is a mechanic who repairs and services all our cars for us at a very reasonable price. (I pay cost price for genuine parts and he charges me £10 an hour labour!)
However, Rene, you have made me think about it in a different way. Although we may not be offered a ‘cheap’ price for the vehicle at the end of the lease, it should be no more than ‘fair market value’ which, if you take the amount paid out by us over the 3 years plus the final lump sum, should not come to more than the original purchase price. So effectively, it’s like buying the car on 0% finance over 3 years. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?
Has anybody had the chance to look at the link I posted earlier? Because I’m still not clear about whose decision it is as to whether or not you are allowed to buy your car at the end of the lease. The Nissan dealership told us it’s nothing to do with them – it’s an agreement between Motability and the customer. Yet I’ve read in other places that the dealership has first refusal on it! The Motability website doesn’t mention this, it gives the impression that you will be offered the chance to buy.
Its also worth mentioning that by the time my son’s award ends, we will only have had the car for 32 months so will be terminating early. How that affects the numbers I’m not sure because again, everyone I ask at the dealerships tells me a different story.