I would consider leasing away from the scheme, but primarily due to the poor choice that the scheme now offers. There isn’t a single car left that even remotely appeals to us, certainly not enough to pay £12k plus whatever the AP would be for something that would be a compromise. If Motability offered a car that we would be happy with then I’d stick with them as, even with the average £400 hike in APs following the budget, the block VAT exemption should still make Motability the cheaper leasing option.
The stumbling point is new car prices, which are now beyond crazy, primarily due to having to pay thousands more for compulsory ‘safety’ features that many of us would rather not have due to them being so distracting!
A very well know motoring YouTuber has just decided to ditch leasing, having had many lease cars every 3 years, as the car that he had (Range Rover Sport) is now over £100k new and the monthly costs reflect that. Instead, he has bought a Maserati Levante Trofeo with just 21k miles on the clock for just under £60k (the car was over £140k new). It’s an SUV with a Ferrari twin-turbo V8 engine!
I am beginning to come to a similar conclusion, that the smart money goes on the used car market, the biggest cost of any car being depreciation, in particular during the first 3 years. Unfortunately, just as residual values of EVs are in free fall, the opposite is the case with good quality petrol and diesel cars. As modern ICE cars can last well over 20 years without major problems, people are prepared to pay decent prices for them in order to delay the switch to EVs for as long as possible. The car I am considering is still holding on to over 50% of its value after 5 years, whereas some EVs are losing that value in well under half that time!