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Just searching dealers to find a suitable replacement for my expiring Motability lease and am noticing a very distinct sense of discrimination against someone (me) presumably because of my status as a ‘Motability’ lease holder. Staff seem polite but pass me around and mess me about with test drives, appointments and basic, accurate information. I wondered if anyone else had experienced this, if anyone had raised this with Motability and if there could be considerations of a class action lawsuit as this behaviour in my understanding is discriminatory and an infringement of the current law?
Motability is the largest lease contractor in Europe as I understand and has a cash surplus? Maybe they would be interested in addressing this issue?
if you have had an adverse or toxic experience in any dealership please post on this forum. We need to let the Charity flex it’s muscle – if indeed it considers our experience and feedback as important…
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Always positive experiences myself too, in fact I feel I’ve been treated better than most customers in my dealings with the 2 MINI dealerships I’ve got cars from.
My sister has had a different experience with the VW dealerships she has used from being ignored by staff in the showroom to being told she wasn’t allowed to use a certain door at a service department as it was for ‘paying customers’.
Never had any issues like that when going for a mobility car, a brand new bought car, a used car or just to look around to see if a particular car would interest me
I had a similar experience Jonanon, with Volvo Bristol. Not at all interested. By contrast, both BMW dealers near us were superb and we had exactly the same level of service as a private customer.
With the passing you on to other staff, tends to happen often. The one we get a lot is “I’ll pass you on to the motability man” aka another staff member who knows more than the rest on motability
As I recall, Glos Guy, your Volvo dealership were closing down. I doubt their salesmen were very interested in anybody!
As I recall, Glos Guy, your Volvo dealership were closing down. I doubt their salesmen were very interested in anybody!
They were very helpful and friendly and arranged a test drive (even though, as you say, they were due to close later in the year) but cancelled it when it became apparent it would be a Motability order. They also lied to me saying that Volvo had stopped taking orders on the XC40 nationally when that wasn’t true (as you established). To make matters worse, when I complained about them to Volvo U.K. they weren’t interested either! As we know, there are good and bad dealers across all brands.
Honestly I’ve complained about the way I’ve been treated at dealerships it’s ridiculous like do they realise you are not getting it for free? You are paying for it ??? I’ve had some bad experiences with Hyundai in Cardiff both dealerships same attitude different face I’m glad I did report them to motability imagine a motability specialist as they are actually called shout out in the showroom that’s a £45 grand car no it’s not on the scheme honestly a joke
We never had an outright unpleasant encounter. We did notice a few salesmen getting a bit.. less enthusiastic, lets put it that way, once we mentioned that it’s a motability car – but that’s, for us, the exception.
We had two extended test drives no questions asked (we had a Golf GTE available for an entire business day), the only stipulation by them was to put a tenner worth of petrol in it – after we sat in it ready to roll out, she came out and “whispered” to us that we just put a 5er in and that’ll do. Note, i find it reasonable to pay a little for an extended test drive, considering we were allowed to drive up to 400 miles.
She did forgot to mention how to open the fuel filler hatch (it’s electric for some reason in the GTE, weird), so there was a bit of an embarrassing situation when i had to reverse out from the pump to park up and look into the manual, but that wasn’t malice.
All in all, it’s simple. Dealership being douchey? Go to another one. Our local VW dealership was one of those who got “less enthusiastic”, so we visited two others (one 20, the other 35 miles away) – both of which were absolutely fab and indeed will be where we order our car.
So the real question should be “douchebag-salesmen in the dealership?”. And yeah, they of course exist. If you meet one, tell him that you take your business to another dealership and then proceed to do so.
In all the years I’ve had Motability cars the only bad experience I’ve had was with Volvo Preston in complete contrast to the Volvo dealer in Birmingham. I’ve since learned that their service was poor for all customers so it’s not a Motability thing.
Thinking about it, we also had a bad experience with our first Motability car at a VW dealer. They accepted our order but didn’t mention that they didn’t have any available build allocation slots (at the time I didn’t fully understand all the dark arts of how car dealerships work). Consequently it was a month after we ‘ordered’ before the car was actually ordered. At the time I also didn’t realise that AP’s could sometimes be negotiable and I was further fobbed off when I asked about discounts on factory options. I also fell for the usual line that all they make is a small handling fee, which I now know is not true. So pretty much a full house on all the rookie mistakes
Over the years I have learned many lessons. I have managed to get a discount off the AP on every car ordered since, plus discounts on factory options. I never declare that we are Motability customers until we absolutely have to. When pressed I always say “my wife is entitled to a Motability car but we are keeping our options open as to whether we use the scheme or buy privately”. That usually throws them and they generally try to keep you sweet to cover both possible eventualities. Finally, I always specifically ask whether they have any current build allocation slots for the specific model that we want in order to be able to place the order with the manufacturer immediately. When they realise that somebody knows how it all works, it makes it far more difficult for them to blag an answer, especially when I make it clear that I will be chasing every few days until I get an order tracker number! All done in a nice and friendly way.
Never had any trouble with getting a Motability car from dealers. Have had them from Ford, Vauxhall, VW, Mini and Skoda. The latter two were very helpful. I must, however, confirm the finding of others here about Volvo. Never tried them for a Motability car but once tried to look at Volvo as a private purchase. Simply could not get anyone to talk to me. Nasty, rude thugs manning sales department.
I would have liked a test drive in the Corolla but motability salesman said it was to low I had CHR but Corolla was cheaper
My local Honda dealer didn’t want to know, wasn’t rude as such but came close.
Same with Skoda the dealer was very disinterested.
But the worst was Volvo, I had a V 40, the sales team was absolutely terrible but the service department was even worse.
The best is BMW, they have been fantastic to deal with, sales and now service departments.
Just had an interesting phone conversation with dealer. I asked him when my car was ordered n he said the day I put the order. So I asked if he had a order tracking number n he just gave me my motability number. I then asked if the dealership was prioritising private buyers n he said no of course not, then after 5mins of him waffling on n told him in the last few days I’ve been seeing a few new mokka’s on the road when I haven’t seen any before now n he finally said they could possibly be getting retail vehicles out first n said I MIGHT get it in February. ?
Placed an order with VW in Glasgow in Crow Road in April this year.
The dealer hasn’t been in contact with me once to give me any further updates.
Whenever I call them I get told that someone will call me back, but no one ever does.
I raised a complaint with the dealership manager directly about the lack of communication.
His response “If you feel our service has fallen below your expectation you’re more than welcome to cancel the order”
However, when I made an enquiry over the phone pretending to be a private customer, they couldn’t do enough for me.
ive had a number of poor experiences with both motability and private; i must look like someone car dealers dont like lol. but ive had good ones too. eastern/western bmw are terrible, yet western nissan and toyota are top class. any hyundai place ice been in were good too. VW bathgate were ghastly. Mazda at newbridge were great.
im inclined to go in and if the vibe is wrong and there are folk who either cant be bothered to or talk down to me/ worse are rude i just go elsewhere now.
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistMust say always had older Volvos, 2 cars over 30 years (all my own work carried out on them), Since the motability entailment thought we will get a new one, NIGHTMARE…
A year on its due 1st service, they have contacted me, I’m in no rush due to their hopeless service..
If they ask why I’m not booking in, Well I will answer the question how I see fit, if they find it hard to swallow, TUFF I’ll only be telling truth…
Guess people dream of having a new car, well the problems behind it, I didn’t enjoy..
As with many things in life service varies greatly from one place to another, even different branches of the same company or organisation. As customers we have the option to decide if we wish to go elsewhere or raise a complaint, or indeed offer positive feedback for the 5 star experiences. A well known American fast food chain has branches everywhere however the standard of service varies considerably.
Ajn, when they service your Volvo, they will update the software. There have been a number of improvements to the engine management system and one for the transmission since you got your car.
You can take your car to any Volvo dealer for its service of course.
Must say always had older Volvos, 2 cars over 30 years (all my own work carried out on them), Since the motability entailment thought we will get a new one, NIGHTMARE… A year on its due 1st service, they have contacted me, I’m in no rush due to their hopeless service.. If they ask why I’m not booking in, Well I will answer the question how I see fit, if they find it hard to swallow, TUFF I’ll only be telling truth… Guess people dream of having a new car, well the problems behind it, I didn’t enjoy..
Failure to supply a car for a service could invalidate the warranty and is in contravention of the terms and conditions of the lease agreement which could result in motability terminating the lease.
Yes yes yes! I posted a similar discussion a few months back. It’s like they take you for granted. I had a service agent quiz me if I’d definitely refueled the loan car I’d had for a few hours. Passed from pillar to post etc. Worst are the dealers taking motability money, but you can never park as there’s only 1 disabled space and there’s always a car in it, usually not displaying a badge.
Just had an interesting phone conversation with dealer. I asked him when my car was ordered n he said the day I put the order. So I asked if he had a order tracking number n he just gave me my motability number. I then asked if the dealership was prioritising private buyers n he said no of course not, then after 5mins of him waffling on n told him in the last few days I’ve been seeing a few new mokka’s on the road when I haven’t seen any before now n he finally said they could possibly be getting retail vehicles out first n said I MIGHT get it in February. ?
If the dealer isn’t giving you a manufacturer’s order number then that would be a big red flag for me. A Motability order number means next to nothing, it’s purely admin and means that Motability have agreed that you can order the car. The car is only ordered when the dealer places it with the manufacturer and that’s an entirely different process.
Sadly, this forum is full of customers who have been waiting an eternity for cars and in the vast majority of cases a large part of the delay is down to the dealer not having build allocation slots, so they sit on the ‘order’ for weeks or months before they can actually place it. When customers say “I ordered x car 6 month ago”, the truth is most likely that they thought they ordered 6 months ago when, in reality, they did the paperwork with the dealer 6 months ago but the car was only ordered 4 months ago. I have only ever come across one car salesperson who has been 100% transparent about this and I have used her twice. Once for a private purchase and most recently for our current Motability car.
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