2 and half months untill i can order i have evry thing crossed 50 years i have been waiting for a car like this it has liifted me out of the gloom.
jamesg – just a thought if the JCW is your absolute dream car. Because I am impatient and can’t be doing with longer wait times than necessary, I have ordered our last 3 Motability cars several months before our 3 month order window has opened. I have struck up a good rapport with the dealer (VW and BMW in my case) and explained that I’d like to get a jump on the long lead times.
The dealer places an order (a proper build slot allocation, which I ask for a tracking number for – otherwise dealers tell you that they have ordered when they haven’t, as happens continually on this forum) and then when my 3 month order window opens up they simply add it to the Motability system to have the order approved. By this time I am already 2 to 3 months into the lead time. Our current and last cars (BMW X1 and VW Tiguan) both had long lead times when we ordered yet, by doing this, I took delivery of the cars pretty much exactly as our previous 3 year lease ended.
With VW I paid a £500 deposit as a sign of good faith, but agreed with the dealer that if the car was either removed from the scheme or the AP had increased massively before my ‘official’ order window opened, I could back out and get my £500 back. They were completely relaxed as they said they’d keep the car on order as they’d have no problem selling it due to the long lead times. BMW didn’t even ask for anything as a deposit, but I had bought private cars from them so was known by the salesperson.
Although lease cars are at the bottom of the priority list at present, I reckon it’s still worth asking, especially if it’s a car that a dealer can sell in a heartbeat privately if, for some reason (e.g. removal from the scheme), you can’t get it approved by Motability in two and a half months time. Just make sure, as I did, that any deposit is fully refundable in such circumstances so that you are not exposed to any risk.