So, in summary, you do not need to be running two cars unless you want to. It’s a shame that so many people misunderstand this as there must be an awful lot of people incurring substantial and completely unnecessary additional costs. A Motability car on its own is costly enough!
TBH, its the abuse some give when they know you are driving the car too, as they clearly dont know whats allowed, I spent ages making sure that I would be able to drive myself, as the wife is mostly house bound / bed bound. I would add, on this, some dealers will visit, some will allow you to collect on behalf of partner if they are unable to due to health reasons at pickup time. It’s not strictly within the rules I dont think, so it’s definitely an ask and see kind of situation. Its a shame really, as covid showed what was possible but seems motability removed the option for a video call etc which would have made many peoples new car experience a lot less stressful.
I’m well past caring about what others may or may not think, and I certainly wouldn’t run an unnecessary second car because of it! I tend not to volunteer that it’s a Motability car but, if it comes in to the conversation then I always make sure that people understand that running a Motability car is far from ‘free’. When I tell people that it costs £12,000 in sacrificed benefits plus (to get anything decent) an AP of several thousands more, with absolutely nothing to show for it at the end of the lease, any initial envy has usually subsided 😂
I don’t know about the situation you describe when it comes to selecting a car or picking it up as, thankfully, whilst my wife can no longer drive and is a full time wheelchair user, I am able to take her out to look at cars when we change. It must be difficult if people can’t do that. However, I do have some sympathy with Motability though. They seem to suffer a high return rate when people order cars that they haven’t properly established whether or not they suit their needs, and the huge depreciation hit of these early returns drives up scheme costs for everyone. I struggle to see how anyone can genuinely establish if a car is suitable unless all users have physically tried it out and the main driver has had a decent test drive of at least a few hours. Obviously none of that can be done remotely.