Let’s be honest – yes I have been a petrolhead all of my life. At 77 my current car is a Mazda cx5 Homura on Motability. Lovely car in all ways. Yes I am a little spoilt in that since passing my test in 1966 I have always owned privately high performance luxury cars – BMW. Alfa, Mercedes, Ford Scorpio Cosworth, Porsche etc etc up until 3 years ago. I don’t expect Motability to offer that level of car but I can’t see why they can’t offer something that goes some way to being able to spoil us a little especially with power and comfort if we are prepared to pay for it with a higher AP? Point to make I will NOT have an electric car! Hybrid maybe I’m looking to sign up for my second Motability car within the next few weeks and have been trawling the garages to see what is currently on offer. I had a look at the Ford Kuga 2.5 and I wondered how many plastic milk bottles make up the interior. It was plastic everywhere. Had a look at the two Honda SUV’s which to me looked like they were developed with the help of Ikea – the rear seat base featured two-fold out metal tubes which reminded me of the old-style camping beds. As for the Renault SUV’s when you closed the doors the car shaked! Then moving onto the ‘Chinese’ imports most of them don’t even have the facility to use the mobile phone hands free using Bluetooth The worst range of vehicles came from Vauxhall. The powerplant is just the same as my old father’s 1972 Viva. Is it that us disabled should have to accept shoddy vehicles because we are disabled? All I can say is that I am thankful that I am now coming close to the end of my driving life.
Have you not kept abreast of what has been going on with the Motability scheme, both politically and in the media over the past six months or so?
Premium vehicles (i.e. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo & Lexus) were pulled from the scheme in late November 2025 along with coupes and convertibles.
The scheme is a hollowed out shell of its former self. For example back in the late ‘noughties’ over 4000 vehicles were offered on the scheme (as of today, less than 800 are offered).
The lack of choice of vehicles is part of the reason some people hereabouts are thinking of leaving the scheme. Personally, I left the scheme a few years ago as it did not offer what I wanted.
It is not that scary ‘off-piste’ and your posted list of previous vehicles shows you have ‘ploughed your own furrow ‘ in the past.
You say you are in the ‘twilight’ of your driving life. Providing you have the necessary wherewithal, do you want a vehicle that will put a smile on your face for a final time, or accept your perceived dull mediocrity of the scheme?