[Geoff]

I am new to Motability and I am wondering what I should be doing in terms of dealing with dealerships as I see threads about discounts.

Also, will the dealerships accept part exchange for the Advanced payment?
I have a bought outright 66 Honda CR-V in excellent condition so in my mind will the dealerships accept P/E plus write me a cheque?

Topic

[Bowly101]

Hi Geoff,

It’s the same as buying privately I think. Some people have had good success with discounts, some haven’t. I didn’t get anything off my Volvo but some did on the same car. I think your geography has a part to play, and whether you’re dealing with a small dealership or one of the monster conglomerates. Also, I’m sure the car choice will matter too. Some dealers advertise discounts, either direct through their websites or via third party websites like Motaclarity. Certainly it seems like it’s worth asking, and shopping around if you have more than one dealer close enough. There is a sticky link on this forum where people post deals they’ve found. Good luck with your deal hunting!

And yes, they’ll take a trade in and return any funds to you as a bank transfer or cheque, or at least mine did. Just make sure, as you would normally, that the price you’re getting is a fair one.

[Geoff]

Thank you B.

Its good to know what the Dealerships get out of Motability.

Is it just shifting a lump of metal or do they prosper by “selling” a car at full market value.

Like 99.999% of the population, I have a pathological wariness of car sales personnel.
If I know there motivates then I feel comfortable about saying no to any initial proposal they put in front of me.

[Bowly101]

As far as I’m aware the dealership makes a flat rate on the car based on a central manufacturer based price negotiated with motability, which is less than the margin they achieve on a retail sale, but the dealers work on many KPI’s (who doesn’t?!) and these will include initial small profit, volume of registrations, servicing costs, and nice trade in at the end to make a further profit. Certainly they wouldn’t be in it if it had no purpose although it does give them a bit of good PR. In your case, as was in mine, they’ll also make a profit from the turnaround of your trade in. My best advice is not to feel like you’re in any different situation to the normal retail set up. You’re still a very valuable asset to them so they probably won’t want you to walk away. In my case I had the perfect storm of not getting a deal. The car I chose was a bargain of AP vs retail price and they knew it, it was a franchised dealer so benefitted from volume sales, the pandemic was in full swing, and I’m prohibitively far from another dealer. I tried and got no joy, except I did get a bit extra on the trade in (I added an extra to my motability car then told him I’d sign up if he covered the cost by upping my trade in) to the tune of £550 extra on a £10.5k trade in. If your circumstance is different then you may have more leverage to employ against them. I’d maybe be thinking of a pre brexit lease though, even if that means some quick deliberating now, who knows what’ll happen during Q1 2021!

[Author]

Replies