Even for people who like to change cars somewhat regularly, or want a new car every three years.. Private leasing in many cases already works out cheaper than MB leases.
Just had ChatGPT compare a Tesla Model 3 RWD Long Range, at national average leasing price, with national average insurance cost, against a MB vehicle at £2500 AP (which, lets be real, is nowadays actually on the lower end).
It works out £2000 cheaper than the Motability lease. Yes, Motability does include tyres and maintenance, but an EV doesn’t actually need maintenance in the first three years other than tyres (£150 a tyre if you want Michelin or Pirelli, £70 a tyre if ching long is good enough). So lets assume 6 premium tyres (because that’s what you get with MB), then you’re at £900 at most. Still £1100 saved.
Yeah, it’s still a Tesla (Tossler), but genuinely, at that price, including Supercharger access at reduced rates, even i could be convinced to drive one, despite how much i dislike the car itself (be it the door handles, the “gear lever” on the touch screen etc).
And while i haven’t checked, if you can get a decent EV for that kind of money, decent ICE vehicles should be very possible too.
In fact, for funsies, i had it run an actual comparison, the Golf 1.5 204 eTSI Match on the scheme is £7000 AP (!!!). That, in 3 years, adds up to £19.500. A private lease including insurance, same timeframe, adds up to £13.6k–£14.3k. If you require £5k worth of tyres and maintenance in three years, i don’t know what to tell you. This is real prices as to what we would pay (my insurance quote, i mean).
Motability should be ashamed to even offer these kinds of “deals” under the “all inclusive cheap motoring” umbrella. This is before they add VAT, and not even considering the fact that a new driver would even have to install spyware in the car and on his phone.
Even on 0 AP vehicles, like the Dacia Jogger 1.0, we’d get away cheaper leasing and insuring it privately (would add up to £10.444 excluding tyres over three years, as opposed to the £13k MB takes).
The one, single advantage that MB has is that you don’t need good credit. Which makes them, in my view, predatory. I’d assume quite a few people don’t have the choice to lease privately (or finance a used car etc) due to their credit score. MB is seriously starting to look like they’re exploiting the desperation of a large part of the disabled community by charging them MORE (despite getting the car cheaper) than they’d pay privately.
Yes, yes. Convenience. Not sure how convenient weekly calls to MB are trying to explain as to why you got a red score by the App for driving the wrong way around through a one way street that it falsely identified as such (happens en masse).
We probably have one of the last decent deals through the scheme, if nothing changes in the future (quite monumentally, too) then this is also our last car through the scheme. And i’d suggest to everyone who is able to, to at least browse the private market for an hour or two to just get an idea as to how expensive the scheme really has become.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.