With todays tech it amazes me Motability require you to visit your dealer twice to get your car. With Covid having cheated us of the past two years of our lives, and new varients popping up every couple of months, travelling to a car dealership, sometimes miles from home, seems outdated. Motability have many members at major risk from infection and with Covid in particular. Surely they have a duty of care to their customers, who are some of the most vulnerable in our communities, and forcing them to expose themselves to potential severe illness/death they are surely failing in that duty. Many will of course want to test drive the cars they are interested in but surely only one visit maximum is required and none if your happy to choose a car without test driving. There are cars sold online now, with no test drive, and there a number of car manufacturers coming to the UK market with no obvious infrastructure set up at present. By all accounts showrooms will become fewer and fewer so Motability need to move with the times and look at ways to make choosing and delivery of cars safer and easier. As an aside they should also look at ways for your nearest Mtability dealer to service/ repair you car no matter the dealership brand i.e a Seat garage could service a Volvo car if its nearer to you. I know there would be potential warranty problems but surely they could get round them.
Attending the dealership is partially to protect vulnerable customers.
Remember that in effect the ‘first visit’ to the dealership is to ensure the vehicle is suitable/test drive etc. The second visit is where the vehicle is ‘signed for by entering ther PIN– i.e. ‘the contract is made’.
If the vehicle is ‘wrong’ or ‘damaged’ etc, it is somewhat easier (with less pressure on a vulnerable customer) to leave a car dealership without inputting the PIN/sign any agreement etc.
If the salesperson is in/at a vulnerable customers home (normally the customer’s ‘safe place’) and the salesperson is trying to pressure the vulnerable customer to accept the ‘wrong/damaged vehicle, it maybe difficult to get rid of them. The vulnerable customer may feel obligated to enter the pin/sign the agreement and accept the vehicle just to get rid of the salesperson from their home (particularly if the vulnerable customer lives alone and/or is elderly etc).
I think we have all heard about nefarious practices used by some in the motor industry (and other ‘selling’ industries). Reading this forum alone highlights some very questionable tactics used to ‘get a sale’ or ‘offload an incorrect vehicle’ at the dealer’s premises.
Adding even more pressure onto a vulnerable customer by permitting such tactics to be exercised in their own homes should be something no disabled person wants or needs.
Sure, home delivery may be okay for those who can have an able bodied and astute person available to be with them when the vehicle is delivered. However, not everyone is fortunate enough to be in that position. Hence the need to protect the most vulnerable by having a common policy.