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I would imagine many of the cars the members of this forum have are well looked after and may also be quite low mileage, and so are the ideal cars that other members on here may ideally like to purchase given the opportunity / circumstances if you have to leave Motability for example.
Would it therefore be a good idea to have a specific topic / thread for end of lease cars that were going to be handed back to Motability and then disappear into the ether?
If we had a dedicated thread, people could get a valuation at lease end and, when handing the car back, they could then upload a picture of their car, with the mileage, any damage / issues / scratches etc., the dealer and location where it was handed back to and the price (and date) Motability offered it to them for.
Anyone leaving the scheme for whatever reason would then have some immediate car options available to them, along with some valuable insight into the car they may like and where to start their search.
Just a thought…
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A nice idea, but unfortunately, It would not work as Motability usually sell it to dealers on their own trade site or put it to auction, so we do not get to know where it is going to or at what price they will get for the car.
The only price that we get to know as an offer, is the price they are willing to sell the car to us, at which is usually only the forecourt price, which you could buy at any dealership.
Motability claim that they sell the car at the same price as they offer it to us. They seem to fail to see how ridiculous that statement is, that the dealer would pay Motability the the same price as they would sell it for on their own forecourt. She claimed Motability only offered us the option to buy as a goodwill gesture. Not an offal lot of goodwill it has to be said. Of course they don’t want us to buy the the cars, they want us to lease another car from them and help contribute further to their 1.7 Billion in the bank.
They also will not let you get a price if you might want to extend the lease and will not let you extend your lease if you have had a price for the car. You cannot get a price for the car until 12 weeks before it is due back.
I once offered to buy a Rover 75 2.0 Diesel Connoisseur SE Auto (a year after Rover went bust) and was willing to pay £7,000 for it, but they wanted £9,300, as they were, as she said “very desirable cars”, presumably why Rover went out of business, as they could not meet the demand for their cars. I later found out that they sold it at auction for £7,000 the exact same as I was willing to pay.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.
The vast majority get sent off to auctions specialising in ex Motability cars.
Our last car was an Audi Q3, we handed it back with 15500 miles on it. It was immaculate with no scratches or dents and unmarked alloy wheels.
Even that wasn’t retailed. I eventually found it at a non franchise used car dealer near Marlow, about 150 miles away from where we returned it.
2024 - BMW i4 Grand Coupe eDrive 35 Sport
2020 - Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription
2017 - Audi Q3 TFSi Sport S-TronicThanks for the feedback guys.
Sat in my car thinking of this earlier today I was convinced it was a great idea that could help some people. Not to worry, totally understand the issues, and happy I was able to express it to the forum.
Topcat, please don’t be put off thinking up idea’s, who knows sooner or later you may come up with something that works and will help many people, that nobody has thought of.
The only thing we can be sure of, is that the people who don’t put in the effort of thinking up things that may help other people, will never come up with anything.
1.7 Billion in the bank?? Comon…thats rubbish.. An its a fairy story like someone would want to biy a Rover 75…
I know my last car cost MB about £26k ex VAT (KIA Caren’s trim 3) and after my 4 years use of the car was on a forecourt for £18k with 21k miles on the clock. I would guess that would be a nice little earner between MB and dealership that bought it. My second MB car from 2011 cost about £23k ex VAT (Seat Leon SE) and was on a forecourt for £8k with 16k miles, a bargain but I bet they would of wanted £11k for that at least, though I add it was a diesel-gate car that might have driven the asking price down for a non MB customer. Even today the car is still on the road with 105k miles on the clock on it’s last MOT.
I didn’t bother asking MB how much they would want for these cars at the end of my leases, except one I bought, but at a guess I would say about £19k with zero warranty for the KIA going by how much I paid for the previous car I had to that one.
When abled bodied Joe’s have a car on lease there always, AFAIK, given a buy out price to buy the car at the end of the lease at the start of the lease so shouldn’t we get the same even if they are over inflated.
Callmehohn said
“They also will not let you get a price if you might want to extend the lease and will not let you extend your lease if you have had a price for the car. You cannot get a price for the car until 12 weeks before it is due back.”
This isn’t accurate. I contacted for a price within the 12 weeks of lease end and they where happy to give me a price to help me decide whether I wanted to buy or extend. I extended without issue.
They gave me a choice. If I asked for a lease end price the price offered would need to be accepted by me 30 days before lease end. (they said if I did this then extended the offer would expire and I would have to wait 6 months before I could request another)
My other option was I extend and ask for a price when I place an order. Then when the dealer gives me a delivery date I could ask for a price and buy within 30 days.
The price I was given was £2k less than the offer from motorway to buy the car so there was potential to gain a nice lump sum.
I’m currently on an extension and intend to ask for another price when I get a delivery date.
Callmehohn said “They also will not let you get a price if you might want to extend the lease and will not let you extend your lease if you have had a price for the car. You cannot get a price for the car until 12 weeks before it is due back.” This isn’t accurate. I contacted for a price within the 12 weeks of lease end and they where happy to give me a price to help me decide whether I wanted to buy or extend. I extended without issue. They gave me a choice. If I asked for a lease end price the price offered would need to be accepted by me 30 days before lease end. (they said if I did this then extended the offer would expire and I would have to wait 6 months before I could request another) My other option was I extend and ask for a price when I place an order. Then when the dealer gives me a delivery date I could ask for a price and buy within 30 days. The price I was given was £2k less than the offer from motorway to buy the car so there was potential to gain a nice lump sum. I’m currently on an extension and intend to ask for another price when I get a delivery date.
OLPK, I was saying precisely what I was told by the Motability Adviser only last month that If I wanted a price for my car which the 5 year lease was up on the 4th October, then after getting the price, I could not extend my lease. If I wanted to extend my lease (which I did) then I could not get a quote for my car until the 4th January 2024, 12 weeks before my further extended lease runs out.
I think this is a prime example of how poorly Motability is run, when it is just your luck who you are talking to on the phone as to which version of information you get told. I can accept if Adviser’s might not know everything of the top of their head, but if you are not sure what you are telling the customer, you should seek further advice. This was a huge decision for both of us and we both have the right to be told the proper and same information.
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