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<p style=”text-align: center;”>Hi Everyone,</p>
Apologies if questions like this have been asked before, I’ve terrible brain fog at the moment and am struggling to search.
I’ve just been approved for PIP and have been told I can take advantage of a Motability car. I currently don’t drive and don’t know much about cars but have already (prior to being awarded PIP) put feelers out for driving instructors and what cars I’d like to look at. So all in all, this has come at a really good time.
I suppose my main question is, is paying £240-260 from my PIP a good deal for the car and insurance etc all in? I know if I was buying a car outright there would be a big upfront payment plus insurance, MOT etc but in your opinion would you really recommend it? Especially for learning to drive. My partner will also be using it to transport me, run errands etc before I pass my test.
Currently I’m looking at a Suzuki.
I also wonder if anyone has availed of applying for the free driving lessons and what financial support for a car looks like if you get a grant? Is it a monthly payment?
Apologies for all the questions. There’s a lot going around my head at the moment and I’d appreciate anyone’s experience.
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Hi Sarah. Welcome to the forum. Pretty much everyone on this forum uses the Motability scheme and are therefore quite biased towards it (in a positive way). However, for every person who is a Motability customer there are two others who are eligible to join the scheme but choose not to, either because they source their own car (new or used) or use their benefits for other things, which is quite telling.
If you have a desire to have a fully expensed (except fuel) new car every 3 years then for most people you won’t find a cheaper way of doing so than Motability. However, only you can answer if the cost (£10k in sacrificed PIP over the lease plus Advanced Payment plus the cost of any options you want) is worth it.
As for timing, if you decide to join the scheme I would usually advise against ordering until you have passed your driving test. It could take you 6 months or more until you pass your test, all the time you are paying for a car that you cannot use (you would want to use a professional instructor and they use their own dual control cars). That being said, lead times for new cars are ridiculously long at present and 6 months is not uncommon.
Finally, you will find this forum to be a great source of information, including on choice of cars. I would have to be honest and say that Suzuki cars aren’t the best and the Motability scheme is unique in that you can sometimes get premium cars for the same advance payment as budget ones. Given that you sacrifice the same £10k in benefits whether you chose a Suzuki or a Mercedes, the cheaper cars tend to be the poorest value on the scheme. Obviously it does depend on what, if any, Advance Payment you can afford.
Thank you so much Glos Guy. This has given me a lot to think about! I really appreciate it 🙂
Thank you so much Glos Guy. This has given me a lot to think about! I really appreciate it ?
You are welcome Sarah. It’s a big decision.
To illustrate my point about better value being found with the more expensive cars, let’s take two examples. You could choose a car with Motability that retails for say £16k and pay no Advance Payment at all. However, you sacrifice £10k in benefits to run the car for 3 years, so you are paying over 62% of the cost of the car just to hand it back at the end. Conversely, we chose a BMW X1 with a retail price of £37k. The Advance Payment was £2,749 but we negotiated a £500 discount off this (most BMW dealers will do this), so that car would cost £2,249 plus the same £10k sacrificed benefits, so just 33% of the cost of the car. Easy to see which is the better value!
Generally speaking, if you definitely want a brand new car and your only other option is to lease, you will struggle to beat Motability. Those who benefit most from Motability are those who do higher mileages (Motability allow a generous 20k mikes a year) and those for whom insurance would be very expensive (probably applies in your case if you are a new driver).
It is possible in some situations to beat Motability if you have the means to buy a car privately. I have done it, so speak from experience. We ran a VW Tiguan on Motability and a new private BMW 5 Series over the same 3 years. The BMW was a £40k car (£30k base price plus £10k options including a servicing plan) but I negotiated 25% (£10k) discount as a combination of dealer, manufacturer and BMW finance discounts. I therefore had no servicing costs, the only running costs were 2 tyres (£300), road tax was just £30 a year (it would be more now) and insurance was £220 a year. Allowing for depreciation when I sold the car, it cost me the same to run over the 3 years as the VW Tiguan had on Motability and the BMW was a significantly better car that you can’t even get on Motability!
Admittedly many Motability customers probably don’t have the financial means, credit rating or whatever to entertain this option, so if you want a brand new car and it’s a choice between a PCP lease or Motability then the latter will be the winner. Of course, buying and running a second hand car will cost even less, but comes with other risks.
I’ve just remembered (before somebody points it out) that Mercedes have withdrawn from the Motability scheme, a situation which we all hope is temporary, so in my first reply substitute the word Mercedes for BMW!
Morning Sarah
Are you aware you can search for motability cars here?
https://www.motability.co.uk/products/search/
Daughters motability car Hyundai Tucson Ultimate self charging hybrid Serenity White Moss Grey interior.
My car SEAT Ibiza SE Tec 1.2 petrol TSI 2017.also im sure you wouldnt be allowe to drive it with a provisional. some cars are also age rated as you have to have a named driver. ie some cars can be driven by under25 but most cannot
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistYou can use the car for lessons
You can use the car on a provisonal for extra practice if you have a suitable person with a license that has been held for 5 years and over 21
There are no restrictions to what car you learn in and pass your test in on the scheme unless under 25.
If you don’t have any no claims bonus and are new to driving, I would think the insurance alone would be £1500 a year. In your situation I think Motability is the best route.
If you don’t have any no claims bonus and are new to driving, I would think the insurance alone would be £1500 a year. In your situation I think Motability is the best route.
One top tip for new drivers if they insure their own car is to put an experienced driver (often a parent) as a named driver, even if that person never intends to drive the car. It massively lowers the risk profile. When both of my daughters were new drivers with zero no claims they had quotes for the first year of around £1,500 but with me added as a named driver that dropped by 50% to £750. After the first year that drops again due to the new driver having a years no claims discount and so on.
Especially you’re over 25, it’s absolutely worth it. Lessons can be over £1000 themselves, insurance will cost you a fortune, and it’s a great opportunity for you.
Glos Guy, unfortunately that doesn’t apply when the postcode as opposed to the person is the risk. Insurance for me on my CLK350 was just over £2000. And I’ve been driving 10 years without a crash.
If I changed the address to my mums, it’d be £400 a year. So I’m going for motability.
Hello to every one I am not sure were or how to post as a new topic
My Question .I am my partners carer for the last 16 years I am on social services as her carer I was paid by social services till cut backs 4 years ago . I live 30 miles away and care for her from Thursday evening till Monday morning I pop down through the week for hospital appointments if needed. Having spoken to Motability they advised me to set the ball rolling by going to car dealership who would start the application for the car and then would it will be looked into, as very case is different I am retired and would only do around 30 miles a week at home I wouldn’t object to a tracker fitted to the motabbilty car . Any advice please and thank you
Hello to every one I am not sure were or how to post as a new topic My Question .I am my partners carer for the last 16 years I am on social services as her carer I was paid by social services till cut backs 4 years ago . I live 30 miles away and care for her from Thursday evening till Monday morning I pop down through the week for hospital appointments if needed. Having spoken to Motability they advised me to set the ball rolling by going to car dealership who would start the application for the car and then would it will be looked into, as very case is different I am retired and would only do around 30 miles a week at home I wouldn’t object to a tracker fitted to the motabbilty car . Any advice please and thank you
Hi and welcome. So that your partner doesn’t end up with a car that she cannot use, I think that you (or your partner, if able) need a definitive answer to your question from Motability before you start looking at cars. Your financial position doesn’t have any bearing on this issue if it is your partner who is entitled to join the scheme. If your partner is entitled to a Motability car in her own right then the only question is whether or not they are happy that, even though you live 30 miles away, you will be the main / only driver.
The rules on this were changed some years ago as the scheme was being widely abused and drivers now have to live quite nearby to the recipient (5 miles from memory). There is, however, some flexibility on this, as they agreed to add our daughter who is 12 miles away as my wife can no longer drive and I was worried that if I was ever taken ill when we were away my wife would have no means to get home. They agreed without question.
There’s nothing we can say here, this is down to Motabilities discretion.
I will say though that, if they lay out the rules strictly and have a tracker fitted, you can’t even use the car for shopping yourself (you don’t live at her address, so she wouldn’t benefit from you going shopping on tuesday for yourself). The car is only to be used for the claimants benefit. If i understand correctly you’re driving 30 miles a week when you’re not caring, those 30 miles you still would need to use other means of transportation if you strictly apply the rules.
What you do in the end is obviously up to you, the issue here is the tracker. If they see you drive around 30 miles away from the person you care for, issues might arise. I don’t know how strict they are with that, but they specify that very clearly in the rules for a Motability car, so at the very least they’d have ground to terminate the lease when they find out.
You also can’t object to a tracker being fitted, if they decide that it’s a necessity. The choice there would be either to get a car with tracker, or no car.
Keynote is simply, that the car needs to be used only for the claimants benefit. If you can, in all honesty and without mental gymnastics say that that’s the case, call them and get the ball rolling. If you know that there’s journeys that would only benefit you (from monday to thursday evening, basically), well.. You have to decide whether or not the gamble is worth it – at least if they decide to fit a tracker, which btw isn’t necessarily mandatory according to their language in the description (MAY decide that a tracker is needed).
If they decide a tracker isn’t needed, well.. Where there’s no plaintiff, there’s no judge. If that makes sense.
Glos Guy, unfortunately that doesn’t apply when the postcode as opposed to the person is the risk. Insurance for me on my CLK350 was just over £2000. And I’ve been driving 10 years without a crash. If I changed the address to my mums, it’d be £400 a year. So I’m going for motability.
I appreciate that the postcode is a massive factor and causes huge variances in premium, as you highlight, but my point was about inexperienced drivers being the sole named person on the policy. Regardless of where you live, I’m sure that the premium will be reduced if an experienced driver is added. It may still be very high if it’s a high risk area, but it would be higher still if they were the only driver.
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