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Hi
I have been a Motability customer for over 20 years and in most respects have been very happy. Yes you get a new car for 3 years or more and you just need to put fuel in it. Not forgetting the AP and loss of benefit, now paid to Motability. What’s not to like, 3 years worry free motoring, insurance and maintenance/tyres included.
But all that predisposes that you get a car that’s right in the first place. One of the ways you do that is by “Test Drives”.
This is were I believe Motability and Car dealerships lets down Motability customers.
I believe Motability should as part of a dealership being an Accredited Motability dealership, give Motability customers 24 hour test drives. At least that way you can find out if the seats hurt or are comfortable. If the ride makes you car sick, plus many, many other things you should know and be happy with.
You can have the car for 20 minutes is not I believe the right way to test a car.
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What about those of us who can only drive with adaptations? Do you think dealers should have models available for test drives?
I have yet to actually drive a Motability car until I have picked up the one I ordered, and it’s had the adaptations fitted!
^ what he said.
You don’t need to drive a car for 24h to figure out the doors don’t open wide enough. We had our ID3 for an hour, unaccompanied – and we’ll have the GTE on Saturday for an hour too.
Plenty of time to get a feel on how it drives.
MR Mark Winter
Agree with you completely,24 hour test drive should be available if required.If you don’t need it and 1 hour is enough,then good for you but some people absolutely need a lot longer than a short test drive as all our needs are different.
Plus if just 1 person ends up not with a car they would otherwise have to make an early termination on then that’s a win for motability.It’s a no brainer.
I wish my van was dirty
Oh sorry wrong topic I ment to post this on the breakfast time bbc website
Any who the whole scheme is dodgy its a charity no it a business its owned by banks
Yet the daily mail can influence change in policy so you disabled people get back in your box and put up and shut up here pick out of this crap that we have left and some of you will pay more and some of you won’t
Does that sound fair ?
Oh the scheme is amazing so is a Jacob cream cracker when you have been in the desert for a week and its your first mouthful
We had a 1 hour test drive and like the car that much we ordered there and then
as it was in stock so no waiting around for it to be built
now had the Suzuki Swift 3 weeks and it as been brilliant
MR Mark Winter Agree with you completely,24 hour test drive should be available if required.If you don’t need it and 1 hour is enough,then good for you but some people absolutely need a lot longer than a short test drive as all our needs are different.
So what need is there that requires you to test drive the car for 24h, that you can’t figure out within 1 hour? Don’t say “seat comfort”, that’s not a reason – you can judge that within an hour or two.
And after that, i’d like to hear how you’d realise that. Because obviously, people are gonna pissed off majorly if they have to wait 30 days instead of 30 hours for a free slot for a test drive especially on new models, since dealerships usually have one car per model as demonstrator (often not even that, we’re driving 60 miles one way on saturday because that’s the closest dealer to us that has a GTE demonstrator). Assuming of course you’re not the guy paying for the second, third and fourth demonstrator while also somehow increasing the size of the dealership lot to park all those demonstrators, and explaining to dealerships why it’s totally fine to have a demonstrator with 60.000 miles on the clock after one year, while of course paying for the petrol/angry pixies and insurance too.
That being said, dealers do accommodate needs. If you need it for two hours, they usually can wring that out of the cars schedule. We were offered a 30 minute test drive, told them it wouldn’t be enough because we wanted to drive “this route” (our home route), and this is the answer i got.
This is obviously also the reason why we need to drive 120 miles on saturday to test drive the GTE, which we’ll get for 60 minutes unaccompanied. Am i happy about that? Hell no, i could’ve done without that drive there – but it is what it is. Btw: read closely, they have ONE GTE within the group. That’s five dealerships just in a 30 mile radius around us. In some circumstances you might be better off to just order one unseen, have them build and deliver it, and you’ll get to sit in it quicker than if you’d be waiting for everyone to “own” it for 24h.
It just doesn’t make sense.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.There are people that need longer test drives than an hour. It all depends on your health issues and is something you cannot generalise on. Some people have a necessity to drive for longer than an hour and all car seats are not the same with problems only showing after a prolonged period of driving. Better safe than sorry.
Totally agree with Rene. 1 hour should be sufficient. I sit in the car in the showroom first to make sure the seats are comfortable check boot sizes era. The test drive is to see how it performs on the road and it’s suspension era.
Rene why not accept you had your needs for the test drive ( a particular route) but others have different needs from their test drives? Why is your way the correct way and others’ needs seem to be dismissed by you?
What about those of us who can only drive with adaptations? Do you think dealers should have models available for test drives? I have yet to actually drive a Motability car until I have picked up the one I ordered, and it’s had the adaptations fitted!
My sentiment exactly Huffpuffin as I have that problem too though I don’t know what the solution to that is as I would never expect a dealer to provide the car I’m interested in with adaption.
I’m sure Motability would be sympathetic to those that can’t test drive if we we’re to have to change the car after delivery but would be great if there was a way to avoid the distress it causes us and the expense it causes Motability.
The other thing why this will never change is the likes of you and I are a very very small minority in that we drive our cars as disabled persons and need adaption to do so.
it does vary a lot between marques as to what test drive you can get here in derbyshire (chesterfield and area).
i had:
mercedes no chance (basically i think cos i was motability)
nissan heres the keys we close at 6.
mini moved a countryman auto from nottingham and said i could have 24hrs.
bmw come back next week when we move the cars around the showroom we will get the i3 out for you.but they then forgot to charge it.
volvo never really got an answer, basically questioned why i needed a test drive.
citroen and renault an hour accompanied.
toyota an hour.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I missed out, on the mazda cx5 and recently vw passat leaving scheme, due to severe anxiety and panic on day of test drives,couldn’t face driving with a stranger in the car.I tried to explain to both vw and mazda but they didn’t help at all..</p>
nissan went with me, and hyundai, were not going to but i asked him to as i was wanting some explanations on the job as it were as it was a new style of driving(potentially) He had to ask his boss lol
yeah toyota come with you. sure mazda did too
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistHi
One of the reasons I try to get a 24 hour test drive is to test the headlights as to how good or bad they are for night time driving, and needs to be dark for that test.
Rene
I have a degenerative back condition and currently have to do a 270 mile weekly round trip to specialist doctors,so around 3 hours to get there,up to around 3 hours at appointment and some recovery time from 1st journey,then 3 hours home.My back can just about stand up to that amount of punishment.I explained the problem to the dealers i was test driving that I would need a minimum 3 hours in the car and I would drive about 130 miles to simulate a one way journey to my specialist appointment.The test drive was arranged for 2 weeks time,so availability of test cars can,and are,shifted around to suit certain needs of the customer.Ford Puma I tested was excellent and particularly comfortable so I ordered after a couple of days as my back had stood up remarkably well and there were no after effects.Now I know there are people on the Motability scheme that are way worse off medical wise than myself and therefore I believe a 24 hour test drive is entirely necessary for some of those people.In the past I have phoned dealers advertising 24 hour (or more) test drives but they were not available to me as a Motability customer.So,certain dealers can and do make these test drives available so why not make them available to the disabled as long as they are prepared to wait a couple of weeks for the dealership to arrange it all.
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