- This topic has 10 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 1 month ago by
.
- Topic
I love this car but so much hatred on social media of late towards motability since the governments welfare reform leaks and especially towards the higher end car users I am genuinely starting to feel fear of abuse or attack in parking in a disabled bay in a bmw and it’s crossed my mind that maybe I should look for something more discreet.
what a country we live in
- Replies
With respect, that would be daft – for several reasons.
Firstly, keep in mind that only 1 in every 3 people entitled to join Motability actually do so. The others fund their own cars privately or use the money for other reasons. Also, there are over 2.5 million blue badge holders in the U.K. versus 660,000 Motability users. So, less than 25% of cars using blue badge spaces at any time would be Motability drivers. There is nothing on our cars to designate them as Motability cars, so how does anyone know that your car is a Motability car compared to the other cars?
Secondly, whilst the i4 is a nice car, it’s not a high end luxury car. I have parked next to countless top end cars in blue badge bays (top end Range Rovers etc) that are clearly not Motability cars, but are legitimately displaying a blue badge. The sort of brain dead people who think that every car in a disabled space is a Motability car are more likely to frown at the £100k+ Range Rover than your mid range BMW. I had a private BMW 750i M-Sport for a while and used to get some absolutely filthy looks from some people as I pulled into a blue badge bay. You could just tell they were thinking “this arrogant b*stard in his flash BMW thinks he can park here”. I used to enjoy seeing them looking down shame faced when I got my wife’s wheelchair out of the boot 😂
Finally, the uneducated Neanderthal types who slate Motability on social media sites are completely ignorant as to how the scheme works and how much we actually pay to have our “free” cars, but are thankfully a tiny minority of the population. These people wouldn’t be quite so jealous of Motability cars if they had to suffer the disabilities that go with having them.
My advice is don’t read all the tripe on Social Media and carry on enjoying your i4.
I love this car but so much hatred on social media of late towards motability since the governments welfare reform leaks and especially towards the higher end car users I am genuinely starting to feel fear of abuse or attack in parking in a disabled bay in a bmw and it’s crossed my mind that maybe I should look for something more discreet. what a country we live in
Don’t worry about it and simply ignore social media.
I park my own BMW X6 and my Ineos Grenadier in disabled parking spaces using my blue badge and have never had any problem, perceived or otherwise (The only time I have ever raised any query was when I parked a 1970’s Ford County tractor at Morrisons and that was because the warden (who was very polite) had never seen a disabled person driving a tractor)!
I take it by your username you hail from, or live in Darlington? Well, living in the northern Yorkshire Dales (Swaledale), I often go into Darlington and have never had any problem thereabouts.
I am also aware of a few younger injured veterans around Catterick who have bought vehicles such as Porsche and even a Ferrari (with adaptions fitted), so the vehicle is really irrelevant.
Your choice of vehicle should not be dictated by the ignorant and reprehensible thoughts and rantings of others, such as keyboard warriors on social media etc.
The question is of course, how would anyone know your vehicle is a Motability vehicle anyway? You could, like myself and many others, have purchased your own vehicle. It is a matter for you and you only.
As Glosguy above implies, just ignore the rantings of the great unwashed on social media etc and enjoy using your vehicle.
You’ll always get those who think you aren’t entitled to park in a disabled bay, regardless whether you pulled up in Dacia or Rolls Royce. There’s even blue bdge users who think they are more privileged to a space, than other users. I wouldn’t let it worry you.
I second Glos Guys comments. Stay away from these trolls, be it on SM or the reactionary tabloids peddling hate towards the vulnerable people in society. Maybe they should target the people fraudulently using blue badges.
blah, blah, blah
Unfortunately Social media is an echo chamber which projects the image that what is said online is the opinions of everyday people. I echo the sentiments of others and I believe that most people don’t even associate a car displaying a blue badge with it being Motability. Where I live, two thirds of cars displaying aren’t available on the scheme!
Carry on driving and don’t let others put you off.Do what I did and delete all social media. Takes a while to get out of the habit but trust me, your life is a lot easier and happier once you stop reading irrelevant peoples opinions! (Forums like this are great though).
Ditch social media, I’d say.
Although in my experience, I do experience more negativity these days towards folk with disabilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was driven by the rise of social media.
Having said that, I would like to think it wouldn’t affect what car I drove. Nice car the BMW, I have had a few on the scheme over the years and never had a problem.
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
I’d be worried if I had a Tesla with all the morons this country breeds or imports these days. 🤷♂️😊
Overall and generally most folk I’ve come across while unloading my scooter from my £37k car have been very helpful but I always gracefully turn down their offer of help because I like to be independent as much as I can but no matter, young or old folk often ask if I need help so there not worried about what I’m driving and like other have said, there’s cars in those BB spaces that or more expensive and newer than mine.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.