@Ian I agree that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to buy a brand new car privately that you can otherwise get through the scheme. Although the GLA will cost you over £20k through the scheme, it would cost you more than that to buy and run a new one privately.
However, I never really understand why people always compare Motability with buying a brand new car. There’s no law that says that people have to buy brand new cars and, in fact, in most cases it’s extremely unwise to do so, that’s why the average age of cars on U.K. roads is currently over 9 years old!
If we leave the scheme next time I will buy something like a 3 or 4 year old car that is several classes above what you can get through the scheme. Something like a BMW X5. The current shape X5, which most people spec new to around £80k, can be picked up from a main BMW dealer for around £40k. Whilst that car would have another 15 plus years plus left in it, I’d probably only keep it for about 3 years. The total running costs over those 3 years (depreciation, insurance, servicing, tyres etc) would be no more than running a far lesser car through Motability and could well be even less. I appreciate that not everyone has the finances to do that, but the “worry free motoring’ of a Motability car now comes at an enormous cost – and the AP is only a part of it!