That’s a good point. I think though that the vehicle insurance does cover the whole vehicle – insurance companies need to have everything disclosed to them when they arrange a policy. It’s how they determine risk. Private buyers would not be allowed by law to undisclosed optional extras on a vehicle when taking out insurance- it’s a specific question that gets asked. This does though lead to a question- if the car was written off, the value as determined by the price of the car with extras is par of the consideration of final payment back to motability… So technically they could be onto a winner value wise! I am not sure if that sits well with me morally. Whilst we can spend money on extras, we lose this if the car gets written off or the motability period ends early- it’s like a dead investment if the intention is to only lease the car and never consider purchasing- which is the majority of us. The flip side to that though is some extras do provide for extra comfort that may help peoples conditions. Heated and massage seats are one example. I couldn’t drive a vehicle without heated seats because of the issues I have with my hips and femur- I would seize up. If I wanted to get that extra and say extend the leas out to 5 years because the vehicle meets my needs, the investment is worthwhile. There is also another scenario where a customer may wish to buy the vehicle at the end of the term and so the extras they opted for initially are even more worthwhile to them for as long as they own the vehicle after purchasing.
Yes, the insurance might well cover the whole car, but you do not have the insurance, only Motability have the insurance and if your car is a wright off, you do not get the insurance, unlike owning the car, you only go back to go (and maybe get your AP on a pro rata basis) and can then apply for a new Motability lease, which will be determined by Motability depending on if and how many accidents were your fault.
Your Factory Fitted extras will only count when your car has ended its lease and it will make the value of your car increase, whether or not you decide to buy it. If you decide to buy it and have spent thousands on factory fitted extras, then that car will be assessed and valued accordingly by Motability, whether they sell it to a third party or yourself, who has already spent the extra thousands on the factory fitted extras, the same as if you do very little millage, then that makes the car more valuable to Motability, whether they sell the car to a third party or to yourself who has kept the millage down.
There is no magical formular as to how Motability make over a million in profit each year and have over a Billion Pound in the bank, while the rest of its customers struggle to meet large AP’s.