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Eurgh…
That’s the best way I can sum it up, just…Eurgh.
Ever since the new price list went live, and my fiancée and I identified a potential replacement for our extremely delayed Vauxhall Frontera order, I’ve been contacting local Skoda dealerships regarding the Kamiq.
All I want to know is if they have one at the showroom that we can sit in so we all fit, and what the delivery timeframe is once ordered so we aren’t stuck with another “December if you’re lucky” lemon. It’s not much to ask is it? Shouldn’t take long to check? 3 dealerships near to us I’ve contacted yesterday morning. The only one I’ve heard back from (which was today) just continues to string along without actually answering my questions, when they can be bothered to speak to me at all. With 3 autistic children of varying ages, all with mobility issues of varying severity we can’t just trawl showrooms for hours on end. I need the info first so we know its worth making the quite stressful journey to the dealership.
I just want this done, sorted, finalised. To know we have a car coming that we can all comfortably fit in without aggravating our daughter’s chronic pain condition and the 6ft7 teen having to ride Flintstone style with his feet through the floor and head out the roof sometimes before next year.
This was supposed to make our lives easier, to be simple. I don’t mean to bad mouth the scheme at all, I think it’s an amazing thing for disabled people to have access to.
I just want it to be done.
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When contacting dealers don’t be in a hurry coming forward saying you are a Motability customer and only do so when your close to placing an order 🙂
Where in the world are you?
When contacting dealers don’t be in a hurry coming forward saying you are a Motability customer and only do so when your close to placing an order 🙂 Where in the world are you?
Ah, that’s what I normally lead with. We are based in west london
difficult but remember dealerships get little profit from conducting a Motability transaction.
Dealerships , unless needing to up their numbers in order to qualify for more attractive rates from their manufacturer tend not to offer in stock cars to Motability.
The only exception I’ve seen is Stellantis cars, more so Peugeot from certain dealers. The Frontera as far as I could gleen from the Web was, first UK rhd versions were slated for late last quarter of this year.
If Motability gave the dealerships around a thousand pounds for a transaction, I’m sure things would be a bit speedier.
Hope you get what you need soon.
One tip. At the initial stages, don’t mention Motability. Many sales people switch off if you do and can’t be bothered. If they ask directly, I always say “well my wife is entitled to a Motability car, but we are still weighing up options, including buying privately”. That’s technically true in our case, but always throws them. To be on the safe side they tend to treat you as a private customer and test drives etc are more forthcoming. Once we’ve decided on a car and say we want to go down the Motability route, it’s then just a quick admin job for them.
That being said, our local BMW and Hyundai dealerships couldn’t be more helpful, even knowing that we were Motability customers. Loads of updates and multiple 24 hour test drives each, including obtaining specific models from other dealerships for us to try if they didn’t have the particular model themselves. Several VW dealers we’ve used were utterly useless as well as unhelpful though.
EDIT – Got delayed before hitting ‘submit’ so didn’t see that @kezo had given the same advice 😂
Apply for a grant from Motability and get the Santa FE or Sorento
No issue with space etc then as you’ll all 100% fit
I'm blunt and straight to the point and I make no apologies for it!
Bipolar, OCD and a multitude of other MH issuesI live in Surrey so I have a lot of choice for most makes of cars – I tend to be upfront and ask to speak to Motability rep – there have been many who are not upto it – I move on to an alternative dealer.
Usually I have found a guddun and it hasn’t been an issue
When I was making my choice this time I spoke to a Renault rep who promised to ring back – never did – over the years I have had various promises broken and blown them out – but when you do find a good Motability rep it makes life a lot easier.
However if I didn’t live in an area with a lot of choice then I would probably employ your tactic.
Sadly I suspect there are sales reps pushed into Motability and they don’t really want to do it. Linked to percentage and money presumably
Apply for a grant from Motability and get the Santa FE or Sorento No issue with space etc then as you’ll all 100% fit
One of those two would be perfect, or even a Kodiak. We tried the grant when we first signed up, they don’t take family members into consideration apparently, only the applicant themselves, and we were told that there were electric vehicles for zero AP that would suit so we weren’t eligible ( they were referring the likes of the E Rifter etc )
I live in Surrey so I have a lot of choice for most makes of cars – I tend to be upfront and ask to speak to Motability rep – there have been many who are not upto it – I move on to an alternative dealer. Usually I have found a guddun and it hasn’t been an issue When I was making my choice this time I spoke to a Renault rep who promised to ring back – never did – over the years I have had various promises broken and blown them out – but when you do find a good Motability rep it makes life a lot easier. However if I didn’t live in an area with a lot of choice then I would probably employ your tactic. Sadly I suspect there are sales reps pushed into Motability and they don’t really want to do it. Linked to percentage and money presumably
Yeah I think the Motability rep we ordered the Frontera with was like that. Nice as pie at the time, bullswish estimate for the delivery date, leaves me on read on WhatsApp a lot when I make enquiries for updates, and got us to put £99 “deposit” when we ordered (this will be our first lease and we didn’t know that deposits weren’t a thing)
Sorry to hear that – unfortunately even when you find a good Motability rep, often 3 years later they have moved on.
I do find some dealers just take Motability more seriously and ensure they have a good rep and presumably reward them accordingly. – how long before you get your car ?
Sorry to hear that – unfortunately even when you find a good Motability rep, often 3 years later they have moved on. I do find some dealers just take Motability more seriously and ensure they have a good rep and presumably reward them accordingly. – how long before you get your car ?
When we ordered we were told mid August, then within a few weeks that had slipped to mid September, then October/November, now even Vauxhall themselves are stating December, so in all honesty I’ve got new clue when we’ll actually get it. They’ve even taken it off the scheme now (we ordered the hybrid version as we can’t go Electric)
If it was still on the scheme we would most likely have cancelled the order already, but now that it’s gone, if we cancel and can’t find anything that fits us as well as it does, then we can’t reorder it again. So we have to make sure a car absolutely fits us, and has a reasonably short delivery time before we cancel it.
Normally I wouldn’t be so fussy with delivery times, but my current private owned vehicle, a 2007 Toyota prius, is coming up for its MOT beginning of September and it is highly unlikely to pass (previous Cat S, 81k mileage, already had to replace the hybrid battery once) the repairs to get it through it’s MOT are likely to be high, and we just can’t afford that on top of the AP cost and the loss of the PIP each month, it’s too big a hit
There are no Kamiqs showing on Skoda’s stock locator within 35 miles of city hall or Autotrader in London however!
My advice is to visit a Skoda dealership and see if they have a used one in stock, just to give you an answer on suitability. You could also search larger used cared dealerships for this purpose.
Alan Day Skoda (N11 3UT) have a couple of used 24 plate you could look at
Alan Day is the dealership I’ve been emailing today. The first salesperson told me that he didn’t have access to stock levels, that only the sales manager could, and he was in a meeting. Later on another person from the dealership took over the email conversation and let me know they had a demonstrator for test driving and 1.5 Monte Carlo trim showroom model (not on the scheme though) lots of back and forth until eventually he stopped replying around 4ish. Just feeling abit disheartened with it all, I’m not a Del boy wheeler dealer so find all this stuff difficult
Alan Day Skoda (N11 3UT) have a couple of used 24 plate you could look at
Alan Day is the dealership I’ve been emailing today. The first salesperson told me that he didn’t have access to stock levels, that only the sales manager could, and he was in a meeting. Later on another person from the dealership took over the email conversation and let me know they had a demonstrator for test driving and 1.5 Monte Carlo trim showroom model (not on the scheme though) lots of back and forth until eventually he stopped replying around 4ish. Just feeling abit disheartened with it all, I’m not a Del boy wheeler dealer so find all this stuff difficult
I think your main urgency is to view one and in any model to check if suitable – they wouldn’t know who you are when you walk in and if suitable, you can ask about delivery times and are there cars available at the docks!
On autotrader they also have a 74plate SEL
You can then quickly move on if not suitable
I am dealing with Škoda at Ancastor Epsom –
The Motability rep is called Michael – I have found him to be very professional and helpful – not sure if they will have anything suitable- but maybe worth a call – I pick up my Elroq at the end of this month .
If you need to know anything further- feel free to ask – good luck
I am dealing with Škoda at Ancastor Epsom – The Motability rep is called Michael – I have found him to be very professional and helpful – not sure if they will have anything suitable- but maybe worth a call – I pick up my Elroq at the end of this month . If you need to know anything further- feel free to ask – good luck
Thanks Tillyman. Had a quick squiz at their website and only seems to show MG’s under their Motability section so will try to give this Michael a tinkle tomorrow. It’s not too far drive from me, thank you for the heads up
Yes I saw the skoda you mentioned was north London so was hoping it was close enough – the site was Škoda and another that is just being replaced by Mg
When contacting dealers don’t be in a hurry coming forward saying you are a Motability customer and only do so when your close to placing an order
Where in the world are you?Ah, that’s what I normally lead with. We are based in west london
Can only share from my experience:
- I do all the research myself in advance, so do not rely on Motability representative for any help.
- When I call, I always ask to talk to their Motability specialist. If they are busy or out of the office, I ask when it will be a convenient time to call again as well as leave my number.
- If none answers or returns my call, like for example Skoda Guildford, whom I tried to talk to number of times over last weekend, I cross their phone out.
- Specifically to Skoda, you can go to their website and browse the stock, as I did in April 2024 – there was only one Skoda Enyaq in stock and it was with Marshall Oxford, who found 1M of excuses not to sell it to me, then I call Marshall Reading and next day we signed the deal via Docusign, so I only had to go there once to collect the car.
- I would browse the stock and call the dealer who has this vehicle, asking when I can come and see it, not if I can come.
- As my current Skoda is faulty and I have early termination on mechanical grounds approval from Motability, I called at Skoda Southampton and spoken to Mark Younger. He had no Skoda Enyaq Coupe on display, but there was one in their garage behind, so he kindly let me look around. Eventually I have ordered new Skoda Enyaq Coupe with him this April and it was ready for collection in three weeks (a separate item below about why it didn’t go through).
- This weekend I also called Skoda Southampton to see if they could offer the same £1,000 off deal as Skoda Derby had – I would drop my Ombudsman complaint and simply swap the cars for £200 extra, but sadly Mark is on holiday for two weeks and a young person I have spoken to, who said he also deals with Motability customers and advised he will call me back – never did. So again, if and when Mark will move to another dealer, this branch will be off my list.
- Motability took a step back just before me keying the PIN in at Skoda Southampton and were only happy to fully return the money I paid them for my current car, £1,599, but not the difference between this amount and the new Enyaq, plus refused to cover my petrol costs of over £400 when the car was in a garage, so we are waiting for the Ombudsman decision.
Hope it helped a bit.
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 July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Hi kdwolf
Sounds like we work in a similar way – I usually start the quarter before the quarter I can order – lots of research – fussy about who I believe on reviews – short list – then view and sit – if that didn’t tick boxes no point in test drive then – arrange test drives. – often rules dealerships out if they cannot agree sensible test drives ie at least an hour – my route – preferably unaccompanied.
Getting a good rep that genuinely wants to help Motability customers – few and far between , but they do exist.
Good luck with the car and money back – I wish you well 👍
Hi Motomoto
Just checked back – it is a bit confusing- two makes of car under same roof. Although on the map it’s ancastor the contact that was written down for me by Michael is
Allans Epsom 01372743322
Hope it helps – good luck 👍
I was in Vauxhall dealership last week, they had a frontera in the showroom, but the best bit was it was LHD there is no RHD available so Vauxhall sent them this one. You can’t drive it just look at it.
I was in Vauxhall dealership last week, they had a frontera in the showroom, but the best bit was it was LHD there is no RHD available so Vauxhall sent them this one. You can’t drive it just look at it.
Yeah we had similar. One of the dealerships I spoke to back in April/May had one in the showroom we could look at and sit in, but it was left hand drive and from Spain
I was in Vauxhall dealership last week, they had a frontera in the showroom, but the best bit was it was LHD there is no RHD available so Vauxhall sent them this one. You can’t drive it just look at it.
What a sad case of affairs, but I’m not at all suprised with Stellantis, they have ruined Vauxhall.
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