Whatever Motability says, Gary, in practice, what I said stands. A dealer could only succeed in charging a cancellation fee if he could prove he had incurred a loss. As there’s more profit selling a car to a retail customer than to Motability, it’s not likely to happen. I’m not advocating ordering a car thinking there’s no commitment, but in practice, if circumstances dictate a need to cancel, there’s no need for Javert to worry his wife would be penalised.
You are, of course, quite correct in what you say. The wording on the Motability site is just to try to deter people from doing it. The reason that nobody has ever had to pay a cancellation fee is because it would be legally unenforceable. At no stage do we ever enter into a legally binding contract with the dealer as we are not the purchasers. The only legally binding contract that we make is with Motability Operations when we enter the PIN on handover. Some dealers will try it on by trying to withhold deposits (if made) but will always back down when challenged robustly. As you say, they would have to prove that they have lost money which is nigh on impossible as they will always sell the car. In fact, in the current climate, I should think that dealers would be absolutely delighted if Motability customers cancel as they can sell the car to a private customer in a heartbeat and make a lot more profit in the process!