Whilst inflated car prices present problems for those looking to buy used cars at present, they are resulting in very cheap motoring for many. I was talking to a dealer the other day and he told me that he is taking back cars in part exchange from customers at prices that are only a few hundred pounds less than the customer paid for them 2 or 3 years ago! Thinking about it, the two cheapest cars that I have ever run were the two oldest – one that was 8 years old and one that was 7 years old. I sold them both after 18-24 months for more than I had paid for them. Millions of people never spend more than a few thousand on a car, so their total motoring costs are always limited and would never come anywhere near to the £10k (plus AP) that we spend every 3 years on a Motability car. I suspect that a good number of those are the 1.2m people who are eligible to join Motability but choose not to. In the current cost of living climate, I suspect that many people who exist on benefits wouldn’t dream of spending £10k every 3 years on a new car when they can get from A to B at a fraction of the cost. Having a brand new car is a choice, not a necessity.
Youngest is one of those who is eligible for Motability but is quite happy to continue to run his own car that cost him 1k two years ago. It’s suitable for his needs and although he was tempted with getting a Motability vehicle, it didn’t make financial sense to him when his car suited him perfectly.
I’m one of those who before getting Motability vehicles, would run around in sub £1k cars (more often than not sub £500 cars). It was only because it was difficult to get the sort of car that I needed second hand at the time and at the right amount, that I swapped over to Motability. Time has moved on now though and the sort of cars that would be suitable are now getting old enough to be cheap enough (for me), to purchase especially when the advance payments for vehicles on Motability now far exceed what I would be paying outright for a car.
My last owned car was 18 years old, it sailed through the MOT in all the time I had it and then I sold it to my brother. I would have kept it if it wasn’t for the fact that I had to fall into it to get in and then had to be hauled out by others to get out of the begger and my hips and/or shoulders dislocating every time I had to change gear or put the handbrake on.