One thing that I forgot to mention was that the big advantage of having the disabled person as the registered keeper is that the car then also qualifies for free road tax which, these days – especially with expensive cars – can be considerable. Also, once the car has been purchased VAT free, you get VAT of all servicing and maintenance costs as well.
It all sounds great, but the stumbling point is the crazy prices of new cars these days. The car that I’d like is a BMW X5. I considered one 5 years ago and they were £65k then (inc VAT). Fast forward 5 years and they are now £82k, so add a few options and even with the VAT knocked off they are still £70k. Dealer discounts aren’t great (5% has been suggested) so I still end up at around £65k. I wouldn’t need finance, but would lose interest on savings, so the true cost is even more. Much as I’d love one, I’m just not sure that I can convince myself to sink that sort of money into a car, when the most I’ve ever spent on a car was £30k (which was a £40k car that I negotiated a 25% discount on). Maybe a better solution is to keep the Motability car as a (boring) daily and get an older ‘fun’ car, but I’m not sure what to get. Ideas on a postcard 😂