With one in six cars registered being a Motability car, they really can’t survive on the small “admin fee” given by Motability to facilitate the transaction.
The admin fee is only a part of what a Motability order is worth to them. Cars ordered for Motability customers can count towards their volume targets, which generate discounts on all their orders plus they count towards volume related financial incentives. That’s why some dealers will offer AP discounts equal to 2 or 3 times the admin fee. Rest assured, they are still making a healthy profit on those cars!
also don’t forget the service side of the dealership business.
I hadn’t noticed any dealerships closing, but this morning when I had to come through Telford, the big Volkswagen dealer which is based there seems to have closed. If I remember correctly the dealership is only a few years old.