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Well there seems plenty on here who are perfectly happy with Motability making it’s millions at the expense of it’s disabled customers who it was set up to look after. So I expect that Motability thinks that it will be able to do what it want’s, without much objection and it is probably right.
From what I’ve gathered on here it would be better to track your car and find the dealership that’s selling it as you will get it for around the same price as from motabillity, but also get a warranty.
Now you can’t buy your car at the end of the lease. Clearly making a mint on selling your car on.
Where have you got this information from?
Motability Operations ask customers very high prices when they enquire about buying their cars at lease end, certainly far more than the prices that they will get by selling to the trade or at auction. The high asking prices (which, unlike cars bought from dealers, are non-negotiable and without any warranty) are to deter people from doing it, as they make a lot of profit out of every lease and they don’t want to lose customers.
I haven’t read that the policy has changed but, if it has, in reality they would be saving people from making a poor financial decision. Those wishing to leave the scheme are still free to do so and will get more for their money by buying on the open market.
I certainly wouldn’t buy one at lease end. Your essential buying a trade car with no warranty @ retail price.
Asked for a price on my then 2017 Skoda Superb SEL and was given a price similar to a 68 plate with about 5k extra miles on. As a cash buyer and no p/x, I could have bought the one on the dealers lot for a better price including warranty and service and drove it home when handing the scheme car back. Rip Off!
Where have you got this information from?
https://www.motability.co.uk/get-support/faqs/can-i-buy-the-vehicle/
Only time i would consider buying my current Motability car (if there remained an option to buy at lease end) would be if it was heavily discounted. Why heavily discounted? well, because i know for a fact that the current driver thinks he’s Max Verstappen and has been giving it some serious welly so its likely to be shot to hell in 3yrs
I agree with Chrisk – if you’re the one using your Motab vehicle then you would know how you treated the car.
In my case, I would buy back my Motab vehicle as I know how I’ve treated it and the fact that it’s been serviced every year.
The faq link given by above poster has been there for some time and I’m assuming you can’t but it back after the lease period is complete as I contacted my dealer a few days ago and he told me that the best way is two weeks before exchanging for new one or returning existing vehicle, just ring Motab operations and ask for a purchase price and it would be less than the dealership price.
I agree with Chrisk – if you’re the one using your Motab vehicle then you would know how you treated the car. In my case, I would buy back my Motab vehicle as I know how I’ve treated it and the fact that it’s been serviced every year. The faq link given by above poster has been there for some time and I’m assuming you can’t but it back after the lease period is complete as I contacted my dealer a few days ago and he told me that the best way is two weeks before exchanging for new one or returning existing vehicle, just ring Motab operations and ask for a purchase price and it would be less than the dealership price.
A few misunderstandings in this post. Firstly, you will struggle to find a car for sale at a main franchised dealer that hasn’t been regularly serviced, so that’s nothing unique. They only sell the best condition examples. Secondly, Motability will only pay for the minimum servicing requirements. To take Volkswagen as an example, during the pre delivery inspection the cars are set up for one of two servicing frequencies. Motability opt for the longer intervals between services. Other cars may have been serviced more frequently.
Next, just because you haven’t had any problems with your car is absolutely no guarantee that by buying it you will continue to be as lucky. When you buy a car from Motability you have no warranty whatsoever, which is a big risk. You only have to look at reliability surveys to see that certain cars are prone to known issues. In some respects, you might be better off buying a car that’s already had that issue and it’s been rectified than continuing to run your Motability car privately keeping your fingers crossed that it never happens to yours.
Your dealer isn’t really giving you the full picture. Firstly, many of us have asked Motability for a purchase price, only to find our cars for sale at dealers a few months later at a lower price. Secondly, even if the car was for sale at the same price (or more), you must keep in mind that you can negotiate with a dealer over the price, which you can’t with Motability. Also, the car will come with a warranty, which purchases direct from Motability don’t. It sounds to me as though the dealer has incorrectly assumed that you will be offered the car at the same price as they will. That’s not the case. The dealer is able to buy the car at trade price, allowing for the fact that they will have to prepare it for sale, offer a warranty and still make a profit afterwards. Motability customers are never offered their car at trade price. They ask retail. The difference is usually thousands of pounds more than the dealer would pay. As several of us have said, Motability ask us very high prices as a way of deterring us from leaving the scheme.
Hi Glosguy
Thank you for going into more detail which makes sense.
So let’s say if I got a price from Motab before the end of my lease and didn’t buy it but found that the car was on sale at my dealer at higher price than Motab, then do you think it’s worth telling the dealer look this is what Motab were offering me to try and get a good negotiation including the fact that I will be getting a warranty aswell.
Thanks
Hi Glosguy Thank you for going into more detail which makes sense. So let’s say if I got a price from Motab before the end of my lease and didn’t buy it but found that the car was on sale at my dealer at higher price than Motab, then do you think it’s worth telling the dealer look this is what Motab were offering me to try and get a good negotiation including the fact that I will be getting a warranty aswell. Thanks
It doesn’t really work like that. Let’s say that Motabilty ask you £12k for the car. They will probably get around £9k trade for it. Prior to resale, a dealer will often need to service the car (if one is due within the next 6-9 months), attend to any bodywork damage, replace any tyres that are within a few thousand miles of needing changing and allow for the cost of providing a warranty. All of that probably adds up to £1k to what they need to recover from the car. They might then stick the car on the forecourt for £12k but will know that most savvy buyers will haggle so, in reality, they might expect to get more like £11.5k. They also have to allow for the fact that they have a depreciating asset. For all these reasons and more (overheads, staff costs, tax etc etc etc) that is why the trade prices are so much lower than retail prices and why Motability will always ask us way more than they will be prepared to sell the car to the trade.
When I left the scheme just over 2 years ago I handed back my vehicle that was 20 months old, I asked for a price to buy it as the reason for return was a problem that I could get sorted if I owned the car but Mota point blank refused to allow me to have done while it was a scheme car.
The price they quoted me was only just over 2 grand less than it’s list price when new, I obviously declined, they then asked me if there was anything they could do to keep me on the scheme!
When I left the scheme just over 2 years ago I handed back my vehicle that was 20 months old, I asked for a price to buy it as the reason for return was a problem that I could get sorted if I owned the car but Mota point blank refused to allow me to have done while it was a scheme car. The price they quoted me was only just over 2 grand less than it’s list price when new, I obviously declined, they then asked me if there was anything they could do to keep me on the scheme!
On the basis that Motability get 20% VAT knocked off and also will have negotiated a discount of probably another 20%, the price that they were asking would have been many thousands of pounds more than they had paid for the car new!
I have asked for a price to buy at the end of every lease we have had with Motability (purely out of interest) and every single price has been thousands of pounds more than the car is worth trade (which is what they are selling it as). However, with our last car they asked whether we were looking to leave the scheme, or buy it but remain in the scheme. This suggests to me that you might get quoted a higher price if you say that you are leaving the scheme. With our current car I might say that we are buying it as a second car but remaining in the scheme and see if the price is still as ridiculously high!
Wouldnt want mine after the way its been driven
Just kidding
In the future motorbility users who for some reason may have wanted to buy an unwarranted car for more than its worth have now been saved from doing so due to motorbility policy change
Bravo imo
Less to no incentive to load the car up with options from now on.
Shame as i was considering grabbing my T6 off them as they (or alternative) is (at time of writing) not on he Scheme
Found our Ateca when looking through autotrader
"the world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams-its heaven and hell "(RJD)
Peugeot 2008gt
Selenium greySomeone earlier in the thread mentioned how it was better to track your vehicle once you hand it back and then buy it direct from the dealer. Can anyone shed any light on how you track the vehicle?
I just looked in autotrader using their filters and found ours, handed back 4th October
"the world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams-its heaven and hell "(RJD)
Peugeot 2008gt
Selenium greySomeone earlier in the thread mentioned how it was better to track your vehicle once you hand it back and then buy it direct from the dealer. Can anyone shed any light on how you track the vehicle?
It’s not easy, but the way that I have found our previous cars was by setting up a Google alert on the registration number. We handed a previous car back in Bristol and I found it for sale at a dealership in Norwich, so they can end up anywhere once they enter the auction market!
Found our Ateca when looking through autotrader
How does that price compare to the price you got from Motability (if you got one)?
"Come on BYD Seal!"A company called Aston Barclay auctions hold regular motability/lease auctions at their site at Prees Heath, Whitchurch SY13 2AE. I think they have a number of sites around the country but it’s at Prees Heath the mobility cars are auctioned.
My X1 was auctioned there, unfortunately I missed the auction and didn’t find out how much it went for but it did end up at garage in London with a sale price of £21K.
Wilsons and G3 also hold weekly auctions for ex Motability cars. Perhaps the biggest auction site for Motability is BCA,who run exclusive Motability sales are held every week. However at most of these events you will need at least elite or silver membership to enter on these days!
We never enquired about buying ours at end of lease
"the world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams-its heaven and hell "(RJD)
Peugeot 2008gt
Selenium grey
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