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Our current car – Renault Austral – is great, and we love it. Unfortunately, it no longer meets our needs. My wife and I both get the higher rate mobility component of PIP. We use mine for the car and hers for her wheelchair.
When we first got the car, we only needed to transport her lightweight manual wheelchair (hoist fitted) and my walker. There is plenty of room in the Austral for those, with part of the rear seat down.
However, my ability to push her basically went away, and she recently got a larger and folding powerchair with her PIP. This means the entire back seat is folded down, and I struggle to also get my walker in. This is not okay and is causing me physical pain.
We desperately need to upgrade to something like the Skoda Kodiaq, or maybe a Chery Tiggo 8.
We’re 22 months into our current lease. Do you think there’s any chance they’ll let us break it and upgrade?
Current: MY24 Renault Austral Iconic FHD. AP £3,995 +£570 for hoist.
Previous Motability cars:
2013 Ford Focus estate petrol auto.
2016 Vauxhal Zafira 1.4T petrol SE Auto.
2019 Ford Kuga Vignale 1.5 petrol auto AWD. (Ext lease to 5 yrs 'cos Covid meant v.low miles)
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I think that you will find them to be quite understanding and I would expect them to agree to an early change. You’d pay a £250 early termination fee but would get a pro rata refund on the AP.
As for your wife’s PIP, is the power wheelchair worth sacrificing £12k of benefits for? That seems like a fortune to me!
Her chair is a £4K, folding, airline-approve chair, and we couldn’t afford to pay it outright. It’s £32/week off her PIP, which isn’t great, but also isn’t all of it.
Current: MY24 Renault Austral Iconic FHD. AP £3,995 +£570 for hoist.
Previous Motability cars:
2013 Ford Focus estate petrol auto.
2016 Vauxhal Zafira 1.4T petrol SE Auto.
2019 Ford Kuga Vignale 1.5 petrol auto AWD. (Ext lease to 5 yrs 'cos Covid meant v.low miles)Her chair is a £4K, folding, airline-approve chair, and we couldn’t afford to pay it outright. It’s £32/week off her PIP, which isn’t great, but also isn’t all of it.
Understood. So they are charging your wife £5k for a £4k chair, which is fair enough if it saves to having to find the money up front, but presumably they let her keep it at the end of the 3 years? If not that’s a dreadful deal and I’d expect better of Motability.
As above, you’ll most likely be fine terminating the lease early on medical grounds and if its your first early termination, its likely Motability will waiver the early termination fee or charge a minimum amount of £50.
@Glos-Guy Its a wheelchair lease and needs to be handed back!!Definitely think they will accommodate you with the early termination under the circumstances. Good choice with the Kodiaq as well. My partner and I have the Kodiaq hybrid, which is slighter smaller boot compared to the petrol version, but we find the boot positively cavernous! (845l for our hybrid, 910l for the petrol) And that’s without folding the back seats down
p.s. if you go with the Tiggo 8 I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on it. It’s on our shortlist for possibilities once lease is up in 2028 as the Kodiaq AP was quite steep but our choice at the time of lease was limited and our time to explore options very short
There shouldn’t be any problem terminating early for the genuine reasons described.
We’re waiting to get my daughters Professional Court of Protection Deputy registered as her Appointee after transferring from another Deputy. I rang Motability as her nominee and explained the circumstances and her change in needs and they agreed in principle to an early termination.
Luckily for us the VW Transporter Shuttle is back on the Scheme today, with a reduction in AP of £500!
Just need someone at the DWP to tick a box and we’ll be terminating the dreadful Mazda CX60 and ordering a Shuttle ASAP. Fingers crossed 🤞
…we’ll be terminating the dreadful Mazda CX60 and ordering a Shuttle ASAP. Fingers crossed
May I ask what was so bad about the Mazda? Just curious.
Ant,
Where to start?
For context, we got one of the first to market before they’d ironed out numerous issues. Newer versions might have significantly improved but,
Suspension set up is dire. Imagine being on a trampoline and double the bounce! Any roller in the road causes head crash and tickle your tuppence.
Reliability is poor. It’s been back for 8 recalls – some DVLA and some Mazda. All necessitating annoying days at the garage.
Transmission us about as smooth as a Turkish wrestlers jock strap. Crash bang wallop – I’ll find a gear in here somewhere? PHEV but very rough transitions.
EV range started off about 5 miles!!! Improved after second software recall and getting better since but 25 miles maximum.
For a huge car cabin is seriously cramped. Must be Japanese biology driven not brick s###house!
Boot small.
Access to Rear seats compromised by wheel arches, so much so daughter cannot use them.
12V battery number 2 on its way out.
Too much power and can’t put it down on the road without scrabbling (and I drive like Reginald MoleHusband!)
£55K car with £9K AP – NEVER BEEN AS DISAPPOINTED IN A CAR – and I had a mini metro!!
Ant, Where to start? For context, we got one of the first to market before they’d ironed out numerous issues. Newer versions might have significantly improved but, Suspension set up is dire. Imagine being on a trampoline and double the bounce! Any roller in the road causes head crash and tickle your tuppence. Reliability is poor. It’s been back for 8 recalls – some DVLA and some Mazda. All necessitating annoying days at the garage. Transmission us about as smooth as a Turkish wrestlers jock strap. Crash bang wallop – I’ll find a gear in here somewhere? PHEV but very rough transitions. EV range started off about 5 miles!!! Improved after second software recall and getting better since but 25 miles maximum. For a huge car cabin is seriously cramped. Must be Japanese biology driven not brick s###house! Boot small. Access to Rear seats compromised by wheel arches, so much so daughter cannot use them. 12V battery number 2 on its way out. Too much power and can’t put it down on the road without scrabbling (and I drive like Reginald MoleHusband!) £55K car with £9K AP – NEVER BEEN AS DISAPPOINTED IN A CAR – and I had a mini metro!!
Wow!
But apart from the above, you quite like it?! 😀
At the time it was THE only vehicle on the whole Scheme capable of towing our 2t caravan. I even paid for the electric Mazda towbar but have never towed with it lol 😆 (px’d caravan for motorhome)
It’s the ultimate Kardashian Mobile – all bling and does nothing that I’d expected. It’s as unloved as Keir Starmer at a Tommy Robinson rally!
I’d rate it 4 out of 10.
We also have an Ioniq 5 which I’d rate 8.5 out of 10.
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