@TAW As you realised as soon as you arrived that you’d left the key at home, wouldn’t it have been better to have driven straight back home and got it before handing the car over? That would have avoided the issue altogether. A similar thing happened to me recently, when I left my car at a dealership during an 3 day extended test drive. I took the test car back on the final morning and realised that I’d stupidly left the key for the Motability car at home. I had to jump straight back in the test car and make a 35 mile round trip back home to get it. It was irritating but by far the easiest and less costly option.
I have some sympathy with Motability re GCB. Car keys can cost a small fortune these days. Apparently, the key for the new car I am getting is almost £1k to replace as it’s effectively a computer which controls all sorts of functions. Like you, I have always looked after our Motability cars and returned them in excellent condition, but many don’t and yet have still received their GCB with things that IMO are more akin to accident damage than wear and tear.
The removal of the 5 year extension option baffles me. It’s not something I’d ever do as I think it’s a bad deal for the customer, but it’s a very nice earner for Motability when customers pay an additional £8k, over and above the £12k (plus AP) that they’ve already paid, when the cost of depreciation, servicing and maintenance over those extra 2 years will be way less than £8k. I can only assume that, combined with the woeful choice of ICE cars, it’s all part of encouraging people to switch to EVs, given that take up remains exceptionally low amongst private buyers and the government will be pushing Motability to help towards their self imposed targets, which they are failing to achieve.