Thanks for the clarity on the 2-year extension, Glos Guy. Very good to know. Regarding the option of ‘going private’, how would you quantify such an option? Firstly you have the 3-years rental – which is going to be best part of £10k. Then the AP if applicable. Then insurance. Then maintenance, servicing, tyres, etc. To break even on a non-Motability car, the monthly PCH / PCP for the car ideally needs to be around £200 pcm (over 36 months), without any deposit; that’s £7,200 for the car – including finance charges. Granted, a wider choice – and although a viable option for – definitely not for all. It seems that your 2-year extension idea is certainly a favourable option. Yes, Motability will gain financially – but if they don’t, some other banks will. And what will be the overall 3-year gain for the ex-Motability customer?
I don’t intend to get into a long debate about opting out of Motability as it’s not the theme of the thread. Furthermore, there are a number of contributors who refuse to accept that there are viable alternatives and it becomes quite tiresome. For the majority of disabled people who have poor credit ratings, limited finances or live in high risk insurance areas the scheme is unbeatable. That being said, there are twice as many people who are entitled to join the scheme (but choose not to) than there are scheme customers, which says something.
I have run private cars and Motability cars side by side for many years and in our most recent situation I ran a brand new £40k BMW 5 Series for the same overall cost over 3 years as our Motability supplied VW Tiguan. This was due to getting £10k discount (combination of dealer, BMW U.K. and BMW Finance discounts), getting a 3 year warranty, servicing plan and breakdown cover included, fully comp insurance with protected NCD for around £250 a year and the only running costs (other than fuel) were a couple of tyres. As a result of my personal experiences I would have no hesitation in doing as several of our other long time contributors have done and leave the scheme if the choice hasn’t improved significantly by the time we next change, but the motivation would equally be to get something better than we are ‘allowed’ on the scheme. Please note that I am merely answering your question rather than advocating that others should consider leaving. As I said at the outset, for most people the scheme is their best option.