Unfortunately dealers can rarely place a factory order immediately that a customer places an order. To do so, they would need to have spare build allocation slots which, whilst not impossible, is unlikely in the current climate. I think that the solution is two fold.
Firstly, the customer needs to insist that the dealer places the order on the Motability system on the day that they select the car. There is no excuse for them not doing this. It takes less than 10 minutes. The Motability system will, more often than not, automatically approve the order instantly. This means that whatever happens going forward (e.g, dealer can’t order the car for months or the car is removed from the Motability scheme) the customer is still guaranteed the car that they have chosen at the AP applicable on the day that they placed the order.
Secondly, customers should specifically ask a dealer where they are with their factory allocations at the point of ordering and ask when they think they will actually be able to order the car from the manufacturer. Hardly anyone does this, because they mistakenly believe that when the ‘order’ is shown on the Motability system that the cat has been ordered. It hasn’t. The actual order process is entirely different and has nothing to do with Motability as it’s between the dealer and the manufacturer. Customers then need to chase the dealer every few weeks until the dealer confirms that they have placed the order with the manufacturer and, when they say that they have, insist on a trackable order number.
As long as step 1 has been followed (dealer registers order on the Motability system) then it doesn’t matter if step 2 happens many months later. Even if the car has been removed from the scheme, it can still be ordered.
If the dealer waits until they can actually order the car from the manufacturer before registering the order with Motability then this is where the problems occur, as Motability will refuse the order and won’t support the customer.