Heidi – I’m sorry to hear about your sons problems and can completely understand your frustration and his. I don’t believe that it’s discrimination however, because the issue is not unique to Motability and therefore not unique to disabled people. All lease companies have gone to the bottom of the list at present. With such limited supply, dealers and manufacturers (all of whom have had a torrid few years) are understandably giving priority to the customers from whom they can make the most money – private buyers. That’s not discrimination, that’s business. They aren’t charities after all, they are out to maximise profits.
Your sons problem seems to stem from the fact that the dealer lied about lead times to get his order. We spoke to a Ford dealer last March and he said that any car ordered then would take 10 months minimum. The problem had worsened by July when your son ordered, so to say it would be just 12 weeks was never going to happen.
Although private customers are getting priority it’s not a whole lot better for them either. I have started looking to replace one of my daughters cars as a private customer. The Ford dealer that I mentioned said that the same lead time would apply to a private order and our local Hyundai dealer said that most of their range would be a minimum of 24 weeks, even though they have been less affected by the chip shortage than most manufacturers. We were very lucky and took delivery of a Motability BMW X1 last summer after a wait of less than four months, but the dealer (who I know well) had private customers who were waiting longer than us for the same car.