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We went to the Motability Big Event in Exeter today, the first time that we have ever been to one of these events. From an adaptations perspective it was useful but far less so cars wise.
We have extended the lease on our 2021 BMW X1 but are looking to change as soon as a suitable car comes on the scheme. Also, we are considering a ‘person hoist’ which would necessitate a new car order.
Quite a few car manufacturers were present but the offerings were underwhelming, partly due to the current poor choice on Motability (especially if you don’t want an EV) but also because each manufacturer only had two or so cars on display. As is often the case with motor shows, the advisors accompanying the cars were pretty clueless. I asked the VW rep if the Tiguan would be appearing next week. No idea. Worst was the idiot on the BMW stall. I asked if the X1 was likely to be joining the scheme. “This is the iX1” he says. I said “I’ve tested one of those and didn’t like. I’m talking about the X1 petrol or PHEV. Besides, this isn’t an iX1”. “It is” he replies, walking to the front of the car which had a plate where the number plate would be stating “BMW iX1”. I knew full well from the steeply raked aft of the car that it was an iX2 so I took him to the back of the car and pulled the tailgate down to show him the iX2 badge! What hope is there when they don’t even know what the cars are? Similar nonsense on the Honda stand. They had a CR-V. I said to the lady there “I always get a bit confused with Honda’s. The CR-V is the bigger SUV and the HR-V the smaller one, right?”. No, she says, it’s the other way around, pointing to an e-Ny1 as if it was the HR-V. Both cars had boot space written in graphics on the side of the car and I pointed out that the CR-V had much bigger capacity. At this point she checks with a colleague and then says that I was correct that the CR-V is the largest car. I wonder how many Motability customers who aren’t as clued up on cars will order a car based on duff info given to them today?
Sadly, we didn’t find a car that we felt that we would prefer over our 3 year old BMW. In terms of interior quality, two or three were heading towards BMW quality but still some way short and lacked in other areas. The Lexus UX had nice looking leather seats but is minsicule. It’s meant to be a competitor of the X1 but looks and feels half the size. The Volvo XC40 was spoilt by a weird rubber dash trim panel with odd carvings in it – plus the odd shaped infotainment, which is small by today’s standards. The boot was also too small. The Mazda CX-5 interior was pretty good, but a bit dated. The leather seats in the Cupra were gorgeous and oozed quality, but I wasn’t overly keen on all the bronze flashes. Subaru had a Forester there which is a good sized car, but the interior feels two generations out of date. The rear seats are horrendous – possibly the worst I’ve sat in. The bench is rock hard and the backrest is way too low. The top of the seats was level with my shoulder blades! Hyundai had the revised Tucson there, in N-Line trim. This car is on our current shortlist but I just can’t get excited about it. Interior quality still feels quite cheap and plasticky compared to many brands and I don’t like the fiddly little switches, which also feel cheap.
The adaptations displays were far more productive. We were able to look at 3 different person hoists and we tried one of them. My wife liked it. It’s a bloody faff but may be a necessity for us as my wife is now struggling to get in and out of the car now. You need a big car for one and, as we know, the choice of those is pants on the scheme. Not that we looked at them, but there was a good choice of scooters and Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles as well. Staff on the adaptations stalls were far better clued up about what they were selling than those on the car stalls.
So, a mixed day but some food for thought none the less. We’ll see what next quarter brings, but if we go down the person hoist route we can re-visit the Mazda CX-60 if it remains and any other larger cars that may appear. Here’s hoping!
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Thanks for the heads up. We’re going tomorrow. The Mrs wants to look at small cars and it’s going to be a good opportunity to look at scooters and hoists before they become essential.
I also have some questions for the Motability staff, around leases of scooters, second chargers and delayed installation and the grants process for driving lessons. It’ll be interesting to see what they have to say.
Im tempted to have a chat with the people on the BMW stand, just for giggles.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Thanks for the heads up. We’re going tomorrow. The Mrs wants to look at small cars and it’s going to be a good opportunity to look at scooters and hoists before they become essential. I also have some questions for the Motability staff, around leases of scooters, second chargers and delayed installation and the grants process for driving lessons. It’ll be interesting to see what they have to say. Im tempted to have a chat with the people on the BMW stand, just for giggles.
I hope that you have a productive visit. Let me know if the plate on the front of the iX2 still says that it’s an iX1 😂
I forgot to say that the talk amongst the dealers was how daft it was scheduling the event literally a few days before the new quarter. There were cars there that may not be on the scheme by Monday and the APs quoted today will mostly have changed. Also, any new additions (Tiguan?) could have been there if it was a week later 🤔
Last year this event was a month later, so 3 weeks or so after the new quarter, I remember because I was intent on going just as I became ill.
Normally for a quarter starting on Monday most dealers would have some idea on the Saturday, I’d expect to start seeing new quarter figures on Facebook tomorrow and Sunday.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Can honestly say I have never been to one of these events and unlikely to, as I can imagine it will be like fighting with the cattle on @BigDaves farm.
Talking to Motability reps face to face will be like talking to a politician promising the world but, seldom does anything ever materialise lol.
Can honestly say I have never been to one of these events and unlikely to, as I can imagine it will be like fighting with the cattle on @BigDaves farm. Talking to Motability reps face to face will be like talking to a politician promising the world but, seldom does anything ever materialise lol.
I’ll soon find out exactly how overcrowded it really is. From photos they shared it didn’t seem too bad but, being a Saturday, I can well imagine we’ll be there for the minimum time to do what’s necessary and out again. Neither of us do well in crowds.
I will be interested to see if those onsite are full of the same platitudes as the poor saps who reply to comments on their facebook page.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Can honestly say I have never been to one of these events and unlikely to, as I can imagine it will be like fighting with the cattle on @BigDaves farm. Talking to Motability reps face to face will be like talking to a politician promising the world but, seldom does anything ever materialise lol.
Whilst there were a lot of people there, it didn’t feel so busy that it was a problem. It’s a big area for people to spread out over. I suspect that the Exeter event is the least busy of the 3.
Most cars I was able to hop in straight away and others I just had to wait a minute or two for someone to get out. There were no queues, other than for the disabled loos. With the adaptations companies we were pretty much able to speak to people immediately.
I would go again, but more for the adaptations than the cars, as there are too few cars and the advisors with them are clueless. Those wanting to look at WAVs would be very well advised to go, as there were lots of them there are very few people looking at them.
There was a stand in the middle with a company doing market research for Motability, but every time I passed it the staff were already occupied (or chatting to each other). I would have liked to register a moan about the over emphasis on EV’s and the excessive APs, but the subjects on their post-it boards seemed to be focussed on ‘soft’ questions that weren’t challenging. I suspect it will be like those pointless results that they quote about 99% of customers being happy with the scheme, simply because they only ask certain questions. They won’t ask questions such as “Are you happy with the choice of large cars?”, “Are you happy with the choice of cars that aren’t either EVs or PHEVs?” or “Are you happy with the size of the advance payments?”. On that last point, in the outdoor car area I overheard a lot of people complaining about the size of the “deposits” (as most people seem to call APs) these days.
We’ve just got back, knackered but we had a great time and learned plenty.
Whilst the numbers probably were pretty decent we never felt like we were fighting for room for anything. Pretty much as GG said, busy but not overcrowded.
There were plenty of cars but not necessarily enough, pretty much each manufacturer had 2 cars, which meant if you were after something both specific and unusual, you were probably going to be out of luck.
I had the opportunity to chat with quite a number of dealerships or manufacturers representatives, all of which were perfectly happy to tell me about the cars and which dealers would have them near me, even if it wasn’t them.
A lot of the cars we were looking at were EVs, we have the charger and the wife doesn’t go far, so it’ll be ideal for her. When speaking to each I asked the range, then challenged the sales person on the real range. Only one got both confused and a little unhappy at the challenge, insisting you’d get the quoted range in summer 🤦🏻. Most would just slash 20% off and go with that, one – the Toyota chap – straight up said it depended on many variables but I’d likely get between x and y in summer and a little less in winter.
I checked out the BMWs and the iX2 miraculously changed into an iX1 overnight which drew a wry smile to myself.
Mrs F liked the Fiat e600 and the Ora, which wasn’t a huge surprise to me.
I had a good chat with the Ford guy who works for the same group as our nearest, and he said to keep an eye out for the Explorer next week with numbers expected on the Scheme on the 10th. Cars should be in the dealerships near me this week. If you’re considering the Mach E, pull the trigger now, it’s going up on Monday to £4,799 he said for the Select plus tech pack. He also said that’d be the right option to go for as the benefits outweigh the £700 for the pack.
Had several chats with researchers, one finding information around what’s be good for future EV support in choosing, taking delivery and ownership stages. I made a convincing point that they’re really missing a value adding step by not allowing some form of online/virtual server before placing the orders. I pointed out that they were already getting returned EVs because the install was denied or non standard and can with an unaffordable non standard fee and returned cars cost Motability money. They’re looking at some interesting options around choosing EVs, including experience days (where I suggested getting scheme members there to interact with potential customers) so they could talk through the FUD they get fed online and an AI supported search/chose for me type function where you could list your needs (high seating, big boot, sits 2 giant kids in back, can fit dog and scooter in boot, comfortable seating) and it returns a list of suitable cars. Whether any suggestions become reality would be anyone’s guess but they’re researching users opinions at these events.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Glad to hear that, like us, you derived some benefit from the day @MFillingham
It’s interesting about the Mach-E in that it’s still the select when there are hardly any of them in the country at the moment with the pack added and Ford’s policy is from stock only. Yet there are loads of the premium in stock which isn’t on the scheme.
Ford are slashing prices on the Mach-E yet the AP is going up for Motability customers. Something just doesn’t add up unless it’s a pure case of greed.
Something hasn’t added up for a while now where the scheme’s concerned. Motability seem to believe, manufacturers producing ICE cars, impacting supply resulting in higher prices of existing models. Yet in the real world manufacturers are comming out with new ICE models and the gap in price between ICE and BEV remain substantial!
Glad the day went well for you @MFillingham
It’s interesting about the Mach-E in that it’s still the select when there are hardly any of them in the country at the moment with the pack added and Ford’s policy is from stock only. Yet there are loads of the premium in stock which isn’t on the scheme. Ford are slashing prices on the Mach-E yet the AP is going up for Motability customers. Something just doesn’t add up unless it’s a pure case of greed.
The salesman I was chatting with was confused too. He said he expected prices to continue downward for us, as has happened with retail sales but the opposite is suggested. He did raise the possibility of creating a space for the explorer with an AP up to around where the Mach E was, as he expected them to be higher than you’d think for its size to start out, while its new. That could all be nonsense though. 🤷🏻♂️
Something hasn’t added up for a while now where the scheme’s concerned. Motability seem to believe, manufacturers producing ICE cars, impacting supply resulting in higher prices of existing models. Yet in the real world manufacturers are comming out with new ICE models and the gap in price between ICE and BEV remain substantial! Glad the day went well for you @MFillingham
You must have seen my theory on using lease companies to expand sales of EVs to hit net zero and emission targets, up prices for ICE, reduce them for BEV hit targets without destroying brand value. Much less damaging to be happy with £150 off per month over dropping the purchase price by £15k and thus pushing that drop onto used car prices. It might just be a theory but the last few quarters have seen prices fit.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
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