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I can understand your frustration @glos-guy ! However, as you said back when, the petrol model suits your usage better than the 40d diesel would. Just don’t be tempted when you see the 40d in the flesh today, unless you are absolutely certain it is right for you. It is a princely sum to be spending on something you might regret later. Re storing the vehicle, they were/are happy to do this on the proviso that it didn’t span either their quarterly sales period (which coincidentally runs to the same quarterly dates as the Motability scheme) or a registration plate change. I presume this is for accountancy reasons.
Wise words @BigDave. Having seen the 40d this morning we are now very happy with our colour combination choice of Manhattan exterior and Silverstone interior. The paintwork really sparkled with lots of colour flecks in the sunshine and looked very upmarket and distinctive. The 40d actually sounded really nice when the salesperson drove it around to us and, if we hadn’t been too late to add the Comfort Pack (with heated steering wheel) to the car, I might have been tempted to say “sod it, I’ll have this one”!
None the less, in spite of the delay, we are sticking with the M60i. Aside from the very noticeable performance difference and the exclusivity factor, if I’d gone for the 40d X5 it would have irked me that for the exact same cost I could have got the X7 40d, which would have come with about £6k extra kit as standard. However, I dislike the look of the X7 and it’s just way too big for our needs. The price gap between the X5 M60i and X7 M60i is vast though, so that issue now doesn’t arise!
We’ve resolved the registration issue. If the car arrives no later than mid July I’m taking delivery immediately. If it’s the back end of July or August we are delaying registration until 1st September. Although the vehicle will have my private ‘X5’ number plate, so won’t have a 26 or 76 plate physically displayed on it, the later reg will probably add a couple of grand to the value at resale, so worth holding out for.
Here’s a couple of shots of the 40d today. Our M60i will look slightly different in that it will have gloss black M mirrors, quad exhaust, a different front grill and the all important M60i badges 🤣 . The biggest difference though is obviously under the bonnet!
Oh dear. Our new private car can’t come soon enough. I’m done with all this anti-Motability hatred and the stigma of having a Motability car
@glos-guy Have you got a build or delivery date for your X5 yet? My X6 is due to arrive at the dealership on a transporter today. Albeit, as agreed, they are not registering/pdi’ing it yet as I don’t want to collect it until I get back from the USA towards the end of next month (No point in having it sat taxed and insured in one of the farm sheds for six weeks)! It might as well be stored it their compound untaxed and at the dealership’s risk should anything untoward occur. I have the Grenadier to truck around in so there is no rush – great things are worth waiting for!
It’s been a bit frustrating @BigDave as deciding on the M60i has resulted in a much longer wait. Apparently, because it has a BMW M division engine (and probably also because it’s right hand drive, whereas 99% of V8s will be left hand drive), BMW Munich have to ‘slot’ it in to the regular production run. This has given me a build date in June and a delivery date of the last week of July.
Conversely, we are about to go and view today the 40d that is in our exact spec (which they configured for me before I decided on which engine to go for) as it was already in their order schedule but could still be reconfigured. So annoyingly, if I’d decided on the 40d I’d be taking delivery this week!
Interesting about your delaying registration. I said to the dealer that if it was going to take until August I would want to delay registration until 1st Sep to get the 76 plate, but they are saying that they have a strict policy that you have to take delivery within 10 days. I haven’t gone into battle on that (yet) as they have been brilliant and I am still hoping that my build date may move forward.
In reply to: More concrete news on the July 1st changes
It is legal and it’s not discrimination. Motability Operations is, and always has been, a commercial business, not a charity. They also happen to pay all of their employees (not just the CEO) way above what other call centre operations pay their staff (plus gold plated benefits), even though they are a monopoly and don’t face the competitive pressures that other businesses face. It’s easy money for them. Whilst it might be immoral, especially as their revenue comes from disabled people, it’s not illegal
Whilst the recently announced changes make the scheme far less attractive than it was, all customers still benefit from full VAT exemption on the core lease. Disabled customers buying privately can only get the VAT knocked off if they are full time wheelchair users and need a permanent and substantial modification. Therefore, if there is any discrimination, it is in favour of Motability customers, not against them.
We are leaving Motability, but not because of the changes announced yesterday, as none of those would affect us (the addition of VAT on APs from July would though). Our decision was already made based on poor choice (we aren’t interested in EVs or Chinese cars) and the fact that we don’t want to be limited to what Motability will ‘allow’ us.
If there has been a change that is discriminatory, it’s the removal of ‘luxury’ brands from the scheme. Disabled customers who prefer these brands are no longer allowed them, even if they are willing and able to pay the extra cost of leasing them. There is zero financial sense to this decision. It is purely about optics. I sit uneasy with that, as it adds to the stigma being created by politicians, the press, social media and the great British Public about the ‘type’ of people who have Motability cars, so we are taking our money elsewhere and buying a very nice BMW which, thanks to what this government has done, everyone will know is not a Motability car 😂
In reply to: DLM forces us off motability, where to next?
@kezo Your point 4 is an interesting one. When I spoke to Motability about our early termination they mentioned things that had to be returned and they didn’t mention adaptations. As it wasn’t mentioned, my thoughts are that as Motability don’t sell or provide second hand adaptations, and we paid a chunk of money towards them, they wouldn’t be that bothered if we retained the bits that we can and, if they are bothered, we wouldn’t be due any good condition bonus for them to deduct it from anyway
I’m always moaning at MB about having to pay for new adaption every 3 years but from memory from many years ago they did tell me I could pay the installers to take them out for private use but you can’t have them put in another MB car because the, then RSA insurance, think its an unknown risk because they don’t know how much wear and tear they have had. This of course is for adaption that control the car and not for things like hoist and such.
On Ebay (last time I looked), there were so many adaptions of various sorts, but mainly hoists, my impression in the main, was they could only have come from 2 places:
A: Somebody removing them, when their lease cars were returned to Motability, as a back hander or;
B: The lease customer removed them prior to returning the car.
@Glos-Guy you could leave the chasis fixing plate and just take the hoist out yourself, it will be cheaper😂😁Ah! understand now:-) Dare I ask which model your looking at?
I think I may have mentioned to you before that I’ve always fancied a BMW X5. The plan was to buy one when I retired. I even own a private plate which is X5 followed by my initials 😂. However, when we dropped down to one car (when my wife could no longer drive), she was keen that we stuck with Motability but, like me, she now feels it’s not for us anymore.
I’ve been looking for around 6 months for a used current generation (pre facelift) X5, but they hold their values very well and even a good 4 year old example, with sensible mileage and all the kit I’d want, is still in the £40-50k range at BMW dealers. As I wasn’t getting anywhere on the used front, I did some research and went to see my BMW contact armed with all my info.
There are now only 4 engine options with the X5 and they all get great reviews, so choosing is difficult. The 30d and 40d diesels are probably the most sensible ones to get, but my wife isn’t keen on a diesel and we don’t really do the mileage to warrant one. As the vast majority of X5s are bought as company cars, the 50e PHEV is the big seller due to the lower company car tax rates. As you know, I’m not a complete convert when it comes to PHEVs, but the 50e has a combined power output of 489 bhp, helped by a straight six 3.0 petrol engine and the real world EV range is at least 50 miles, which would suit our needs far better than the Tucson, which runs out of puff before we complete our weekly journeys. With the VAT and VED exemptions, and the level of additional discount that we are discussing, we could be looking at a car that would retail at £90k (with options) for £62k. I’m having one on a 24 hour test drive in a few weeks time.
The spanner in the works is that I was drawn to a gorgeous blue colour (Marina Bay Blue) in the showroom on an XM (ugly car). This colour is reserved for BMWs full blown M cars and the M lite versions, including the twin-turbo 4.4 litre V8 X5 M60i (523 bhp), which is the same engine (in a lesser tune) as in the X5M Competition. That model has as standard a number of options that I’d be adding to the 50e and there are even bigger discounts to be had on it, plus a massive VED saving, so a car (with options) that retails at £106k could potentially be mine for £67k, which is just £5k more than the 50e. It would cost me £100 more a month to run (which I could live with) but I wouldn’t ever have to plug the ruddy thing in and, as the dealer said to me, “it’s a car that sounds like a car”! Both cars are the top insurance group (50) but, oddly, the M60i is £50 cheaper to insure (£635 versus £687 for the PHEV). Even though my BMW dealership is huge, they’ve never had an M60i (they only represent 1.5% of the current generation X5s on the road) so they are going to try to get one through the BMW Experience programme for me to try for a few days (apparently they have to pay to have these rarer cars delivered from BMW, but they are happy to do so).
I appreciate that these are eye watering sums of money, and way more than I have ever paid before (or wanted to pay now) for a car, but being able to buy a new dream car (in the case of the M60i) with a near £40k discount is very tempting, particularly as the depreciation would be covered by what we would save by opting out of Motability (sacrificed benefits plus AP). BTW, both prices include quite a few options and a 5 year BMW servicing plan, as well as the usual 3 year warranty. I’m beginning to think that I’d get more pleasure from that money than leaving it in savings which Rachel from Accounts will do her very best to chip away at.
It may all come to nowt, as I may not like either car when I’ve had a day or two in them (it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened – two days in different iX1’s being just one example) but it will be a fun way to while away the worst months of the year. The other option is a Porsche Cayenne, but I can’t seem to get as enthusiastic about them, even though it’s probably a more sensible buy. They will hold their value even better than the X5, but there’s no upfront discounts with Porsche, so it’s horses for courses.
As you like your cars, I’ll post a YouTube review of the M60i. I’d be adding the air suspension that he raves about!
In reply to: Motability question? We can answer it.
I’ve got a private number plate that I want to put onto my next vehicle that I ordered yesterday.I was told by the dealer that the new vehicle has to have the original number on it and I have to retain my private plate and change it myself.Now when I had the vehicle I’ve got now it never came with a registration number on it.How do I find out what number I have to put on and how do I do this.Also when do I start doing all this as my dealer is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.
As an alternative, I let the dealership assign a normal registration number and I get the private plate assigned at a later date (usually once the reg is no longer the ‘current’ one
). I have adopted this approach with both private and Motability cars and it’s worked really well for me When I want to get the private plate assigned I drive to Halfords (with the required documentation) and when parked in their car park I unscrew the original plates and hand them to the technician so that they can drill the holes in the same places on the private plates.. I then pop the new plates on before I leave. The advantage of this approach is that whilst it’s more work up front, it makes it very easy when I’m about to sell the car (if private) or hand it back (Motability). I simply put the private reg on retention and the DVLA automatically re-assign the original reg number, which I already have the original plates for, so it’s a 5 minute job to swap the plates over. Job done. Repeat process with next car!Good call too. Although in my case I simply tell the new dealer to apply my personal number plate and they do the rest. I know there’s an option on Motability website to remove personal number plate, but never used it.
Sent from a mobile device.
Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 PHEV July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)In reply to: Motability question? We can answer it.
I’ve got a private number plate that I want to put onto my next vehicle that I ordered yesterday.I was told by the dealer that the new vehicle has to have the original number on it and I have to retain my private plate and change it myself.Now when I had the vehicle I’ve got now it never came with a registration number on it.How do I find out what number I have to put on and how do I do this.Also when do I start doing all this as my dealer is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.
As an alternative, I let the dealership assign a normal registration number and I get the private plate assigned at a later date (usually once the reg is no longer the ‘current’ one 😂). I have adopted this approach with both private and Motability cars and it’s worked really well for me
When I want to get the private plate assigned I drive to Halfords (with the required documentation) and when parked in their car park I unscrew the original plates and hand them to the technician so that they can drill the holes in the same places on the private plates.. I then pop the new plates on before I leave.
The advantage of this approach is that whilst it’s more work up front, it makes it very easy when I’m about to sell the car (if private) or hand it back (Motability). I simply put the private reg on retention and the DVLA automatically re-assign the original reg number, which I already have the original plates for, so it’s a 5 minute job to swap the plates over. Job done. Repeat process with next car!
In reply to: Here we go again.
To be honest I surprised why Motability vehicle are not all fitted with trackers and or Motability on the no plates, there has to be a way of stopping all this abuse, as previously with all this publicity genuine disabled people will suffer.
Both suggestions would be highly problematic.
The cost of putting trackers on all vehicles would be phenomenal (easily over £100m) and that cost would have to be paid for by scheme members through higher APs. On top of that, Motability would need to employ hundreds more staff to monitor them (again, extra cost, passed on to scheme members) and what would they be looking for? Short of movements that clearly indicate a taxi, they would have no way of knowing what the car was being used for, who was in the car and whether or not the disabled person would benefit.
As for marking the car in some way to designate it as a Motability car, that would be the tipping point for many legitimate users to leave the scheme (my wife included). Aside from being a generally bad idea, it would create no end of problems. You only have to glance at some of the comments online from the ignorant Neanderthals who weigh in every time the scheme is mentioned to know that marked cars would become targets, as would the people in them. I’d suggest that there would be targeted vandalism (especially against the better cars like BMWs) from the green eyed mob who would love the car but not the disability that goes with it. Someone with an i4 posted the other day that they now felt uncomfortable enough as it was parking in a blue badge bay (incidentally, you can always tell if an i4 is a Motability car as it will be the 35 model – 90% of private buyers get the 40 and 50 models 😉). Also, Motability would be inundated with disgruntled workmates ‘reporting’ able bodied colleagues who turn up at work every day in a Motability car. These people would have no idea that if the benefit recipient can’t work and their partner is the breadwinner, then the partner using the car for commuting every day is perfectly within the scheme rules.
For the above reasons, and others, neither idea makes much sense. I’d argue that if Motability removed cars from 5,300 people last year due to abuse, then they are already doing a great job in that regard. By far the bigger problem is people getting the qualifying entitlement who shouldn’t, and last weeks announcement is the first step in addressing that, although I’m surprised that they didn’t tighten up the mobility criteria of PIP as well as daily living. The ‘ability to follow the route of a familiar journey without assistance’ question remains an obvious area that many will exploit and is difficult to disprove, but that’s a government issue and nothing to do with Motability.
In reply to: I ordered a car that was not as I was expecting
Every car ive had on motorbility since 2001, i test drive before order and really test drive on collection day,which to me is far more important due to that being the car i will have for 3years.Surpsies me that people test drive then order ,then look round it on collection day but dontt re test drive it.
I’m staggered that any dealership allows this. As @Injector says, in order for you to be able to drive the car it has to be registered. From that point, and certainly once you drive it, it becomes a pre-registered used car which the dealership could make a loss on. The only exception would be if they allow you to run it on trade plates but, in that scenario, they would only let you drive it for a few miles, which would tell you nothing. Whenever we have picked up a new car (private and Motability), we look over the car in detail before accepting it. Once we have said that we are happy with it, the sales person contacts their department that registers cars and it is immediately registered. If, for some reason, we rejected the car, they wouldn’t do this and they would sell it to someone else as a new car. Are you saying that you ‘test drive’ the car before you input your PIN?
In reply to: Personal Plates…
The process that you have been through will automatically amend Motability’s records and the insurers. I phoned both just to be sure, but they said don’t worry it happens automatically. After 5 days the online account still showed the private plate (which I had removed, but the process is the same) so I called Motability and the lady I spoke to sent a chaser to the relevant department and it changed later that day.
I was also concerned about being stopped by the Police, but apparently their systems communicate with the DVLA and will know that a change is in progress. Besides, normal police cars tend not to have ANPR, it’s just the cars they use for motorways / armed response etc, so your chances of it ‘pinging’ are very remote and even then they would only stop you if they had nothing to do, which is almost never these days!
In reply to: Dealership not registering private plate
Yes, my dealer hinted at similar when I placed my XC40 order back in December too.
When I signed up for Mercedes CLA this week the salesman wasn’t too sure but that was because he was new to the job and1st day of doing Motability. I phoned Motability in front of him to check and they said no problem at all and also (I didn’t know this) that so long as you have a plate on a retention certificate you no longer have to ask Motability whether you are allowed to do this as they’ve removed that age old restriction from the scheme. Any customer can now put any plate they want on their car so long as it’s not rude. 😁😜 As above, easy to do yourself but yet another thumbs down to Volvo for playing silly beggars.
My Mercedes Salesman checked with his manager and he confirmed no problem for Mercedes to register a new Motability car on a private plate. 👍
In reply to: Problems with Europcar
I got nowhere with europcar, couldn’t get through to the garage that delivered the original car and they haven’t called me back. I managed to get hold of the garage at the airport but they had nothing available, when I called and they knew it was a Motability customer the girl on the phone had to go and as their Motability expert what was available!! So that was a swift no. I called Motability and direct line said it was down to europcar and the terms and conditions don’t guarantee a suitable car! I’m sure if I was a private customer and they gave me a car that was faulty and assault me they would be falling over themselves to help and a suitable replacement car would have bean found within the day.
It Grey and in the northwest, so a different car but a 21 plate with 60000 miles
Hello,
New to the forum. I just wanted a place to muse the potential of purchasing my motability car.
It is the first time I have considered this, but I wanted to an impartial view to weigh up the pros and cons and to check if I had missed anything.I have had my current car, a citroen c4 grand spacetourer (picasso) for 5 years now. It is an 18 plate car. It has done around 16k miles total in that time (covid having a slight impact). No “out of the ordinary” issues in that time. It is the low spec option of the car with no bells and whistles. Nor does it have any accessibility specific modifications.
One reason I am potentially considering a purchase is the flexibility of this car. Entry is not too low or too high (easy to get into). Where as many current options are either SUVs with high cills or smaller cars. But, that is only one consideration. Not a deal breaker. But, a car similar to this style (MPVs) are no longer really available on motability.
Anyway, that is the context, here are the numbers.
Car: Citroen C4 Grand Spacetourer (Picasso)
18 plate – 16k miles – no issues
Motability Purchase offer price: £13,200 (I don’t think they are flexible on their offer)
Additional info: one or two dents, one insurance claim (prang, my fault).Now, I have factored in the following costs for a further 3 year private ownership:
Annual Insurance: £984
Annual Service: £300
Annual Misc Repairs: $25
MOT: £54
Tax: £180
Known One-Off costs: Tyres x4 – £450
Additional One off costs buffer £400Estimated Cost Over 3 years of ownership (approx): £5100
Including purchase cost: $18300
Approx Motability payment over 3 years: £8640Total Cost: £10,060
Car value after 3 years (pessimistic) £6000
Total cost (if car is sold) £4060.
Now, I appreciate that is a rough calculation and guesses. If I have missed anything, or you think the numbers need adjusting, let me know.
This is obviously set against the Motability option of a new car:
Down payment: £500 (max)
3 years of Motability payment: £8640Total: £9140
Additional factors, I know the current car history no issues thus far and no sign of issues. It offers good level of accessibility and flexible options (size etc) that is no longer really offered.
Motability benefits: Peace of mind and all inclusive solution.
I appreciate any thoughts on the above.
Kind Regards
Ben
In reply to: 54% increase in fuel can you run your car
I wonder if a lot of people will leave Motability when their lease expires and do as millions of others do and run a cheap second hand car? Even with zero AP, a Motability car costs £10k over 3 years or £16k over 5 years, which is a huge outlay for anyone, but especially if money is tight. I know plenty of people whose expenditure on private cars is way less than that and they don’t even contemplate buying or leasing brand new cars because they simply can’t afford them. I guess it will boil down to where having a brand new car ranks in peoples priority order of where they spend their money. For millions, especially in the current climate, it’s right at the bottom of the list, if at all.
Most of us couldn’t be without a car, but do we really need a brand new one, especially if we don’t need adaptations? I’ve run several quite old private cars over the years and by comparison to what we pay for our Motability car they were a fraction of the cost to run. It’s nice having brand new cars, but it comes at a big cost, even through Motability.
In reply to: Private Plate
Loads of posts on this topic @DumfiesDik. Simply use the forum search engine located on the right habd side under the off topic badge. Entering “Private plates on motability cars will get you this. Click link.
https://forum.whichmobilitycar.co.uk/forums/search/private+plate+on+their+Motability+car/
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.Topic: Private Plate
Has anyone stuck a private plate on their Motability car?
Was it a simple process and how much did that cost??
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
RPI vs CPI inflation the gap only gets bigger and bigger 1/4 by 1/4 and the tiny rise the pip allowance will get in 2021 is not keeping up with Ap’s also and there’s not much Mb can do about that at all..
Yes, this is mainly thanks to the decision of then Chancellor, Gideon Osborne, back in the ’emergency budget’ of 2010 to change benefit increases from RPI to CPI. In the very early years there wasn’t much difference between the two (CPI and RPI), but as time has gone on, the difference between the two has widened markedly and will continue to widen year on year given RPI is much closer to ‘real’ inflation. So, when you take Motability’s more or less set formula when working out the advance payments: Vehicle plus other costs over 3 years including real inflation – (minus) allowance received over 3 years including CPI rises + (plus) expected return on sale of vehicle = Advance Payment. The advance payment is the only variable which Motability can use to price in real inflation. Thus, there will always upwards pressure on the advance payments so long as CPI trails behind real inflation, compounded year on year. I sometimes think Motability get a lot of stick when the real villain of the piece was the then Chancellor changing benefit/allowance rises from RPi to CPI over 10 years ago. Its effects are now beginning to bite very hard indeed.
BigDave – You forgot two critical components in your calculation of AP’s and those are the net profit that Motability Operations makes on each and every lease, which is substantial (it was exposed in the review of them a few years ago and discussed at length on here) and the cost to provide their gold plated salaries and benefits packages to their staff, which are completely out of kilter with any other commercial organisation that I know. They still provide a defined benefit pension scheme and several other perks and benefits that the vast and overwhelming majority of organisations were forced to ditch many years ago. I know someone who works for them, is not in a senior position yet has just received a bonus of several thousand pounds. ALL of this is paid for by disabled customers through their surrendered PIP and AP’s. I think it’s morally wrong. They should be a ‘not for profit’ organisation, with pay and benefits that are comparable with charities. That way all AP’s could probably be at least £1k lower.
Glos Guy,
Also knowing someone who works for Motability Operations, I would not say their package was excessive or ‘gold plated’. It is more in line with other ‘government contractor’ private companies of a similar size and turnover (which indirectly all taxpayers pay for). Thus, staff receive the remuneration package commensurate with working for such a large organisation If benefits such as private health insurance were not offered, staff (particularly senior staff) would leave very quickly to go to other companies that do offer it within the overall package.
Having recently taken early retirement from my ‘second career’ day job, I can say that defined benefit pensions are not the holy grail’ that they are often portrayed as. Albeit I had enough service and seniority to be on a ‘final salary’ basis, most now are based on a ‘career average’ salary base as operated by Motability Operations.
Interestingly you compared Motability Operations to charities – have you seen some charity’s senior execs salary and remuneration packages? Now they do make one’s eyes water.
Yes, Mike Betts (the former CEO of Motability Operations) was employed on a very very generous remuneration package which I doubt the new CEO is in receipt of after the spotlight was shone during the commons select committee inquiry. However, I do not recall the committee rebuking Motability for the t&c’s of lower grade employees.
Their contact centre advisors for example, are currently recruited on a starter salary of £26k, rising to £30k pa, with remuneration ‘perks’ (phi etc) worth roughly £2k pa, which isn’t an excessive salary in this day and age. Particularly as they are given resolution authority and management far in excess of most other contact centre employees.
Infact most quality graduates looking at career opportunities would not get out of bed for less than £30k to £35k, bearing in mind nowadays they have RPI based student loans and tuition fee debt to pay back as well as live a little. More senior and technical staff accordingly demand a much higher remuneration package commensurate with their knowledge and experience. A view put forward more than once when I was recently interviewing candidates to fill my own role once I had retired (I wish I had been a bit like Oliver Twist and had previously asked for more)!
It boils down to the simple fact that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Motability Operations have to pay a remuneration package at least as good as other companies, else they will lose the calibre of staff they wish to recruit and retain. If they don’t, the quality and customer service will suffer accordingly.
Mutability Operations us a Private company abd, by law, has to bake a profit. it buys the cars, it doesn’t lease them, it buts them tgen leases them to Motability customers. They have to have a large profit to buy these xars in the first place and are subject to what they can sell them for at the end of the lease and if yiu have seen the mess some cone vack in, they have to cover those losses. As a public company, they pay their staff the going rate. It’s still within the pay tgat public companies and trades Unions pay their Cheif Executives and yiu shoukd look at the actual costs of local government senior officers. one thing I do think Motability the Charity shoukd do, is put the contract out to tender as it’s a closed contract
I’m afraid that you are factually incorrect in a number of respects. No private company has to make a profit ‘by law’. If that was the case, many thousands of companies in the U.K. would be operating illegally! Profits are, of course, desirable and required by owners (usually shareholders) but as Motability Operations derives all its income from state funded benefits, which are voluntarily surrender by the disabled people in receipt of them, I maintain that it is morally wrong that their business model results in such a big profit per lease.
Secondly, they don’t need ‘profit’ to buy cars, they need cash flow, which comes from the incoming PIP benefits and AP’s. They also need an operating surplus to aid buying but keep in mind that profit is what’s left after ALL of the things that you describe have been taken into account. They obviously need to cover all their costs, but they don’t need to be building up millions of profit that is over and above all their costs, yet that is what they do.
The next incorrect statement is that they pay the going rate for a public company. Firstly, Motability Operations is not a Public Company. I am also not talking about the CEO. I’m talking about ALL of their staff. Their pay levels, even for the most junior staff, are generous and their benefits package is another level altogether compared to what 90% plus of private sector companies provide nowadays. How many private companies still provide defined benefit pension schemes plus private health insurance plus bonuses etc etc etc? Very few. And, I repeat, that this is all funded by benefits surrendered by disabled people, very few of whom will enjoy such benefits themselves.
Don’t get me wrong. Motability is a great organisation and provides a great service for disabled people who, in most cases, would not be able to fund a new car. However, it is a fact that AP’s would be considerably lower if Motability Operations caught up with the times and reduced their remuneration package to something more ‘normal’. I don’t see why they need a gold plated package for every member of staff and I strongly feel that, given how they are funded, it is immoral that they do so. I do agree with your last comment though, that the Motability contract should not be a monopoly and should be put out to tender. No other company entering the market would be offering all their staff anything like the pay and benefits that Motability Operations have built up over the years and it should therefore follow that AP’s would drop. Any tender process would need to be robust though, ensuring that a key objective was that the customers should get a better deal than they do presently. It wouldn’t be difficult.
Search Results for 'private plate on their Motability car'
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). I have adopted this approach with both private and Motability cars and it’s worked really well for me When I want to get the private plate assigned I drive to Halfords (with the required documentation) and when parked in their car park I unscrew the original plates and hand them to the technician so that they can drill the holes in the same places on the private plates.. I then pop the new plates on before I leave. The advantage of this approach is that whilst it’s more work up front, it makes it very easy when I’m about to sell the car (if private) or hand it back (Motability). I simply put the private reg on retention and the DVLA automatically re-assign the original reg number, which I already have the original plates for, so it’s a 5 minute job to swap the plates over. Job done. Repeat process with next car!
Viewing 18 results - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)