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Firstly, let me say how grateful I’ve been to have motability over the years. They’ve been a lifeline.
However, whilst I know financial constraints have affected them too, I don’t like or agree with how they’ve become with changes that are implemented instantly.
I’ve always done low mileage and kept my car (bar 1) in the last 25years for 5 years. So when ordering my new caw in September, I took into a consideration of an advanced payment that would last this length, then I start saving for the next one. This is not a decision made lightly and I wouldn’t have made it had I known. I think it’s unfair they don’t put this new rule of “no lease extensions” in place for new agreements made after their decision, so people can spend accordingly.
I’ve also tried to look after my cars, to not only be respectful to the charity for their help on a returning a car they can get more from, but to help with the payment advanced of the next one using the GCB.
This is therefore, a huge blow to realise I will only be allowed to keep my car for 3 years (with a 6month wriggle room whilst waiting for a new car), but they have clamped down massively on their good condition payment & will be a jobsworth about such things.
This meant my experience of collecting my new car yesterday was fraught with issues & stress (which affects my health).
I’d driven to the dealer, leaving the spare key on the kitchen surface, knew when I arrived & promising I would bring it straight back. However Motability refuse to update their system to show they had both keys an hour after once inputted. I couldn’t drive back to get it once the process had begun (as technically I’ve handed the car over, which they do before you start taking the new one & they’d been accurate that at that moment I’d only given 1 key.
Less than 1hour ater they had that key but Motability refused to update their system or allow a good condition bonus because their system said 1 key.
When I phoned them, their response boiled down to “sorry, I know it’s not what you want to hear”, about both issues, despite getting an immaculate car back that had only done 16k in 5years.
The dealership have tried hard to help but the problem was with Motability themselves not budging.
I don’t know when Motability turned into a company that has become a jobsworth organisation but it’s with great sadness I feel the loss of one that used to care & think about how financial implications affect it’s users more than others, when our disability affect how/if we are able to work etc. The new version is a shadow of what was.
I’ve seen posts on here within the last 12 months from those who got their GCB with that 2nd key lost but now….
All I can say is buyer beware, don’t start the handover if you experience this. Go back & get it. Secondly, I wanted to ask if anyone else had this issue?
Thanks
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Even a couple of years ago, i saw on the forum that people were refused gcb for only returning one key. That is why, I zip tied both keys together a few days before handover.
On handover, the garage looks at your old car and ticks the good condition on the computer. It is decided then and there if you get gcb. Only one key, no gcb.
Yes quite recently we have seen people refused extensions over the 3 years, unless its considerably adapted and low miles.
The lease systems and checks have changed. They may change again, who knows.
Your experience just re enforces the current way the system is run. Irs nothing personal, it is what it is.
@TAW As you realised as soon as you arrived that you’d left the key at home, wouldn’t it have been better to have driven straight back home and got it before handing the car over? That would have avoided the issue altogether. A similar thing happened to me recently, when I left my car at a dealership during an 3 day extended test drive. I took the test car back on the final morning and realised that I’d stupidly left the key for the Motability car at home. I had to jump straight back in the test car and make a 35 mile round trip back home to get it. It was irritating but by far the easiest and less costly option.
I have some sympathy with Motability re GCB. Car keys can cost a small fortune these days. Apparently, the key for the new car I am getting is almost £1k to replace as it’s effectively a computer which controls all sorts of functions. Like you, I have always looked after our Motability cars and returned them in excellent condition, but many don’t and yet have still received their GCB with things that IMO are more akin to accident damage than wear and tear.
The removal of the 5 year extension option baffles me. It’s not something I’d ever do as I think it’s a bad deal for the customer, but it’s a very nice earner for Motability when customers pay an additional £8k, over and above the £12k (plus AP) that they’ve already paid, when the cost of depreciation, servicing and maintenance over those extra 2 years will be way less than £8k. I can only assume that, combined with the woeful choice of ICE cars, it’s all part of encouraging people to switch to EVs, given that take up remains exceptionally low amongst private buyers and the government will be pushing Motability to help towards their self imposed targets, which they are failing to achieve.
@TAW….looks like you have been done for the GCB..its one of those things you live and learn from and it cost you £250…..i’ll give you and example of someone i know who has a Kia on the scheme its just coming upto 2 years that they have had the car..in that time it has had ONE wash and that was done at Kia while it had some work done….in the first year that they had the car i noticed the car had had a scrape done down the drivers side of the car from the rear quarter to drivers door…..next time i saw one of them i asked how the damage had been done and she said she had’nt noticed it but would mention to her fella (driver)..next time i saw her she said he knew about it but was not bothered about getting it fixed,i estimate the whole side of the car will need repainting.The paint scrape damage is difficult to see under all the grime and i guess they are hoping the dealer does not notice it when it come to handover and they will get the £250 without having to have spent the £100 excess for the insurance claim.
Thats a shining example between you @TAW who cares for the car ….and they who dont give a monkeys.
In terms of GCB, I know its not what you want to hear…(sorry!) and I am sorry that it was stressful, but all that Motability is doing is properly reinforcing the rules whereas previously they allowed some leeway. The problem is that people hate losing something they had once and its hard to accept.
I am sorry to hear of your experience nonetheless. Must have been very stressful.
In fairness to the dealer & MB they have no idea if you would come back with the key, I’m sure you would but they’ll be many that wouldn’t bother. With the benefit of hindsight, turning around and going back for the key before handing over was the thing to do.
Now the GCB is only £250 I’m not as bothered about it, I certainly won’t be putting extra effort into making sure the car is pristine before it goes back.
If I seem a little strange, that's because I am.
Skoda Karoq SEL.
I believe I may be the person you saw posting here who returned car with 1 key and got GCB.
This was September 2024. Missing key lost 18 months in. We contacted Motability to get a replacement, they refused but said it will not affect GCB and it didn’t, we got full payment, car was otherwise mint, saw it for sale a month later with the dealer describing it as “in stunning condition”.
Seems to me Motability can’t have it both ways, they can’t refuse to provide a replacement under insurance and also penalise you for not having a spare when you hand the car back.
As for keeping 5 years, at the end of the lease, approach Motability and say you don’t have the funds for new car and you need a grant for the AP, but you are happy to keep another two years if they let you. See how quick the grants team extend your lease 😉.
In some respects MB are only looking after their and our interest however with that said and due to pick up a new car next week the dealer rang me yesterday and said they want to hand the car over on the 28th with a 75 plate.
I got in contact with MB and ask them if they were OK with that as a 26 plate in the eye’s a future buyer would have more value in 3 years times when its sold even if it’s still a MY26 car.
They don’t care its not their money but In a roundabout way it us that pay the higher AP’s because of depreciation.
Motability have certainly got stricter over the last year or so and unfortunately, its only going to get worse. What was once a lax approach where one key will do and 2 year extensions easy to come by is no more. I expect the employee’s level of perks hasn’t altered!
Apart from the odd exceptional extension, the only way to be grant 5 years is through the grants team, as @Jojoe points out above.
Thanks for your replies everyone.
@GlosGuy I don’t understand why you think keeping a car for 5 years is a bad deal for the customer though. I understand from the point of view of depreciation but if like me; you’ve done 16k in 5 years & put say 3k advance payment, for me it’s cost effective to get a car which is more comfortable with the higher spec in it & then I don’t have to find that money again for 5yrs rather than 3.
I’m just curious if I’m missing something rather that I’ve not considered?
I’ve actually bought fully electric Skoda this time too.
@Jojoe, I didn’t realise there was a Grants team so thanks. I will definitely ask as nothing to lose & it’s about the comfort I get from the higher spec seating as I live with Chronic pain & ME.Thanks for your reply. I don’t understand why you think keeping a car for 5 years is a bad deal for the customer though. I understand from the point of view of depreciation but if like me; you’ve done 16k in 5 years & put say 3k advance payment, for me it’s cost effective to get a car which is more comfortable with the higher spec in it & then I don’t have to find that money again for 5yrs rather than 3. I’m just curious if I’m missing something rather that I’ve not considered? I’ve actually bought fully electric this time too.
Its upto the individual at the end of the day and there is no right or wrong way however, I agree with @Glos-Guy comment on 5 year lease. For me particularly, it is the extra cost (loss) of sacrified benefits for 2 more years, for which we see nothing in return. At the current rates that adds upto £8013.
@TAW As @kezo has explained, you are paying a further £8k, on top of the £12k that you’ve already paid, but this time for a much older car. Where Motability works best IMO is if you particularly want to have a brand new car every 3 years, but don’t want to take the depreciation hit. Also, the higher the retail price of the car the better value the scheme becomes, whereas it’s poor value for average to lower priced cars, simply because you sacrifice the same £12k benefits over 3 years (I appreciate that APs vary as well, but not solely down to retail price).
The best way to establish the value of a car on Motability is not to look at the AP in isolation (as many do), but to add the AP to the sacrificed benefits and express that total cost as a percentage of the on-the -road price of the vehicle.
As an example, the best value car that we had on Motability was a BMW X1 2.0 petrol 4WD which, at the time, had a rrp of £42k and an AP of £2,249 (after £500 dealer discount that I negotiated). Sacrificed benefits at the time were around £10k over the 3 years, so the car cost us £12,249, which was 29% of the vehicle cost. Someone leasing a small hatchback through Motability at the same time, with say a £25k rrp and zero AP, was paying £10k total equating to 40% of the vehicle cost. A massive difference.
As the bulk of depreciation happens in the first 3 years (hence why we pay so much to lease them), years 4 and 5 cost Motability very little in comparison. Depreciation in those 2 years, plus servicing and tyres will almost always cost significantly less than the additional £8k that you are paying for the privelige of driving around in what is then no longer a new car, but a 4 or 5 year old one. To me, that doesn’t make sense. If we’ve still got to be sacrificing the full value of the benefits, I’d rather be doing that on a new car, not a 4-5 year old one. Yes, it means another AP, but the AP is the smaller part of the cost of running a Motability car compared to the sacrificed benefits. If someone isn’t bothered about having a new car every 3 years, and wants to keep a car for 5 years, as that costs £20k in sacrificed benefits plus AP, with absolutely nothing to show for it at the end, I would argue that it would make far more sense to opt out of the scheme and buy a nice used car.
Personally, I think that with the massively reduced choice of cars and the ever increasing APs, the scheme now only makes financial sense for those who want an EV. Buying an EV privately (new or used) is not for the feint hearted, given the high up front costs, crippling depreciation, lack of demand on the used market, high insurance costs etc, all the worry of which is taken away from you if you get one through Motability.
Cant say I have ever had any of these issues tbh but you have posted so here is my take on things
Tbh I am surprised that you are surprised about things that should never have even been of surprise
As clearly the lease signed was for 3 yrs
You knew that but assumed based on past events that it would/may get extended
It didnt
They dont have to
Gamble of going for a higher comfort AP over 5yrs unfortunately didnt pay off as you hoped it would
Simple case of best not to assume/hope imo
As with forgetting the key
2 lessons now learned imo
Personally I never assume fairness to be forthcoming from anyone/anything
Especially when backs are pushed against the wall
And more so when those backs belong to
The company that runs the car scheme—which in turn is owned by four major UK banks: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest (formerly RBS)
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