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So I wanted to share my experience with Motability so far. I haven’t received my Enyaq yet and this is my first car through them. This was all in Q1 so I didn’t have to deal with the post-July changes.
I started by going to an adaptations specialist to figure out what would work best for me. I was pretty thorough here and the specialist was good. I’d recommend doing this if you need adaptations, alongside doing your own research on YouTube.
We looked at a lot of vehicles. I had a car I was selling privately so I had a decent amount of money available and didn’t need to go through the grants process.
The biggest issue was that a lot of cars couldn’t fit a manual wheelchair flat with the back seats up, even before factoring in the features I needed. It got more complicated when I found out I was getting a powered chair from the NHS, which required a 150kg hoist. More on hoists below.
Hoists above 100kg are mostly massive and won’t fit in a standard boot. The only exception I found was the Jeff Gosling 150kg one.
Initially I loved the EV3 GT Line S but it could only handle an 80kg folding hoist. That left me with the Kona, which was the closest alternative, and the adaptations specialist said it should fit my chair with a suitable hoist.
I put the order in with Hyundai. They weren’t great if I’m honest. It felt like they were constantly trying to talk me out of adaptations I actually needed. I did make sure they sourced an in-stock car, which arrived in about two weeks. Worth noting they required a £250 deposit at the dealership I used. The problem came a month later when the adaptations specialist finally got a slot and informed me the Kona couldn’t actually fit the hoist. That was pretty bad news. Hyundai did give the deposit back without much of a fight, but it left me with a very small pool of cars to choose from.
I ended up going for the Skoda Enyaq. The nearest Skoda dealership was a poor experience. We had a booked appointment but weren’t seen until 30 minutes after arrival because they were busy with other customers. The salesperson wasn’t clued up on adaptations at all and kept rushing us. I basically had to take over. They also tried to charge for adaptations upfront as part of the deposit, which I had to correct, and they still required £500. On top of that, they told us there were no cars in my trim in stock, which turned out to be untrue. I would have gone for an in-stock one and saved time.
Customer service since has been awful. I can never get hold of my sales rep and have to rely on Skoda’s live chat for any order updates. I ordered at the end of March and the car still isn’t even fully built. I’ll update this thread once I get it.
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To be frank, I don’t think I’d put up waiting this long with no updates from the salesman and knowing, I’ll have to deal with the dealership for three years. I also disagree with paying deposits, but ou had little choice at the time knowing you were getting a new chair.
Hopefully, you will enjoy the Enyak when it eventually lands & you never know, you might get the updated model at this rate!
I am getting the new model. But literally I am stuck, the enyaq is the only car with the features I need plus can fit on my car whilst being electric.
And I am not in the position to take on more debt as we are looking to buy a house soon so I cant risk a new finance agreement when I already have existing debt
We ordered a Enyaq in June , your right about the salesman as regards disabilities or our needs all they are interested in was a signature, there and then. Fortunately the wife was with me she put a stop to all that, it was agreed they would collect the vehicle free of charge for service or warranty work, after we signed it was you will have to sort those things with the service department. We order our vehicle with the factory retractable towbar, the dealer did not ask for a deposit upfront for the towbar.
Our paperwork from the dealer shows the order £999 and £749 for the towbar, the Mobility on-screen only shows £999 ?, our in a factory order estimated December 2026, dealer video called us last week they have heard nothing from Skoda.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
Our paperwork from the dealer shows the order £999 and £749 for the towbar, the Mobility on-screen only shows £999 ?
Don’t worry. That’s normal. The contract with Motability is for the AP only. Any optional extras that you negotiate are not part of the contract and are between you and the dealer hence why, if you do an early termination, you only get a pro rata refund on the AP and not your total outlay.
It’s probably too late now, but whilst it’s more of a challenge these days to get a deal on the AP, dealers have quite a high margin on optional extras and you can usually negotiate a discount on them. On the last couple of cars where I added optional extras I got 15% discount.
Our paperwork from the dealer shows the order £999 and £749 for the towbar, the Mobility on-screen only shows £999 ?
Don’t worry. That’s normal. The contract with Motability is for the AP only. Any optional extras that you negotiate are not part of the contract and are between you and the dealer hence why, if you do an early termination, you only get a pro rata refund on the AP and not your total outlay. It’s probably too late now, but whilst it’s more of a challenge these days to get a deal on the AP, dealers have quite a high margin on optional extras and you can usually negotiate a discount on them. On the last couple of cars where I added optional extras I got 15% discount.
At least this visit to Skoda went better than last time in early 2020 just before covid, at that time the salesman who thankfully has moved on point blank refused a test drive or even to view inside their Skoda Superb PHEV, we went to Mitsubishi who told us to have the Outlander PHEV for the day.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
Mitsubishi who told us to have the Outlander PHEV for the day.
Speaking of the Outlander, its returning to our shores, along with the L200.
I like the Outlander but did not really like the GKN transmission, much prefer the Toyota CVTe transmission light years ahead.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
We ordered a Enyaq in June , your right about the salesman as regards disabilities or our needs all they are interested in was a signature, there and then. Fortunately the wife was with me she put a stop to all that, it was agreed they would collect the vehicle free of charge for service or warranty work, after we signed it was you will have to sort those things with the service department. We order our vehicle with the factory retractable towbar, the dealer did not ask for a deposit upfront for the towbar. Our paperwork from the dealer shows the order £999 and £749 for the towbar, the Mobility on-screen only shows £999 ?, our in a factory order estimated December 2026, dealer video called us last week they have heard nothing from Skoda.
Would not hold out on pick up and delivery back on service or warranty unless you get it in writing as I was promissed this on a Renault from Glyn Hopkins when service came to book which I gave them three weeks notice they told me we no longer offer this service, so had to go to another dealer to get it done and they did it and washed it. Phoned around lately as motability told me to on Marshalls Skoda and they tell me none of there dealers offer pick up and deliver back service anymore and if you look many more dealers have stopped this. According to Equality Act 20210 it states disabled service like pick up and delivery as long as it is local if not offered is a breach under reasonable adjustment and over the last 20 years I always have this done due to my disability now it is very stressful having on top of vat changes to have to ask before considering buying even to the point salesman ask all sorts of questions as to why you need this over the phone which we should not have to do. One guy said able bodied cannot now have this service why should you in other words? holy moly I do think Motability should step in as a fiat I had I had to ask Motability if a Peugeot dealer could do the service and they agreed and the serviced it washed it no problem except there was a warranty issue which Motability said would have to still go to fiat dealer even though the peugeot dealer had a fiat tech. In the end after 5 phone calls to a dealer 16 miles away fiat of course my nearest they said they would not be able to pick it up so this made car illegal to drive and motability said terminate the car what a sham so next time I want things in writing before I commit.
I am not worried they will have to provide a courtesy car
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
I am not worried they will have to provide a courtesy car
No good as cars do not have disabled adaptations?
A lot of dealers have stopped doing collect and return services. Even if they offer it when you order, it may have stopped by the time that you need it!
If the service isn’t provided at all then I don’t see how it’s discriminatory not to offer it to Motability customers, especially if they no longer employ the people who used to do it.
An option for those who cannot borrow a courtesy car (which some dealerships are also dispensing with!) or demonstrator, is to ask for a ‘while you wait’ service. Presumably if a disabled person can drive then they can drive to the dealership and sit and have a coffee whilst the service is being done?
It is a breach of equality act you can look up search it says so as reasonable Adjustment needed and I have now proved it by a dealer call back from ford as they now agree if I consider a ford Puma a large dealer group success.
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