@BionicRusty Having run private cars and Motability cars alongside each other for many years, I think that I can safely say that, in a few years time when you look back, you will find that your ownership costs for your private car will have worked out at considerably less than you are allowing for, especially as you haven’t allowed for the residual value of your Mercedes. Rather than hand back a lease car with nothing to show for it, you will have an asset that’s still worth several thousand pounds. I’ve just changed one of my daughters cars (bought new). Total cost of ownership (depreciation, insurance, servicing, breakdown cover, tyres, road tax etc) has been £1300 a year. The same car though Motability would have cost £3,250 a year (assuming nil AP).
Motability is no longer the ‘no brainer’ that it once was, especially for those who have the means to seek out other options. With the average age of cars on U.K. roads being 8.5 years, you have to wonder why so many people of limited means insist on a new car every three years (although in reality, most keep them for 4 or 5 years) and are happy to sacrifice almost £10k in benefits (or over £16k over 5 years) for the privilege, on top of the eye watering AP’s. Fine if they can afford it, but many do so and then say that they are struggling financially???
People talk about “worry free motoring” as if anything other than running a Motability car is fraught with danger. When I was a youngster, the roads were littered with broken down cars, bonnets up with people trying to make running repairs. How often do you see that now? Very rarely and, frankly, most of the broken down cars that I see nowadays are usually quite new ones, mostly from the Jaguar / Land Rover stable ?