He was open about the fact that whilst not making as much on each individual car as he would on a private sale, his manager encouraged Motability sales as they counted towards their sales figures and had an impact on both monthly and annual sales meaning any bonus was obtained in that way.
I’m glad that you’ve posted that as I’ve been saying this for years. It is utter garbage when dealers tell customers that “all they get is a small handling fee”. Motability sales count towards volume based bonus schemes which can, and do, run into many thousands of pounds. Clearly they make more money out of private sales, as most people aren’t confident, hard ball negotiators, so when supply is at a premium these will get priority, but on all but one of our Motability cars we achieved discounts that were bigger than the handling fee and you can be sure that the dealers didn’t sell them at a loss!