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I placed an order for my first mobility car which was a bmw 2 series GC, in June 2020 for delivery in december. The delivery date then changed to January, then February and now March. The time delay was not a problem as I have a private car.
The problem – the original sales man placed the order on the BMW system and I had the corresponding BMW paperwork that day, I chose the colour of the car and corresponding leather interior. The AP of the vehicle at that time was I belive £1799 for the M Sport model.
However, that sales man never placed the order on the mobility system and during the covid lock down has left the company. I had an email from a new salesman who stated the vehicle was now in and ready for collection in March but a mobility application would have to be submitted now, as it wasn’t completed at that time. However the AP for that vehicle is now £2799. And they expect that full payment which is £1000 more than when I ordered the vehicle.
Any advice is welcomed.
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If you have the order paperwork from the Dealer, then I’d get straight onto Motability! Looks like this is the dealers problem, not yours, and I would hope/expect Motability to sort it out at the correct AP. You aren’t responsible for the mistake, the dealer is
Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric UltimateCarl,
The AP for a car on the scheme refers to when the car was ordered not when it arrives. I would advise a call to motability and let them handle it. Sounds like the dealer is trying it on which is disgraceful considering you’ve waited so long.
Tell them to stick it saleman not done his job proper,they may say say salesmans fault but it is still the company held responsible,should have been submitted at order point so not valid with motability
As you have a private car you can get a stock car, hope you have not paid the AP
Have you recieved a letter from Motability with your Pin code, if the order had reached Motability, you should have this, as you’d need it to collect the car. Either way, if you have the paperwork from the dealer, it’s their mistake
Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric UltimateThis new sales executive is saying that the original sales man never placed the order on the mobility system, so I have never recieved any pin number as such. What I had was a 4 page BMW order on headed BMW A4 sheets.
He stated if I still wanted the vehicle that he would now have to complete the order with mobility and at todays AP amount!!
I literally have only recieved this email from him this morning and I’m just trying to establish what I should do??
I really don’t feel I should pay this extra £1000 as this is not my fault, but he stated a mobility order was never completed in June.
Phone up Motability, as I said earlier, It’s not your responsibility to complete the order, and as your first car, you were rightly expecting the dealer to do what they should have done correctly
Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric UltimateNeeded to be passed by Motability at the time you should have let them have proof of Benefit,driving licence for copy ,proof of address then sent off and the application has to be approved and a pin number given,none of this application not sent in,you should have had the letter back with pin in 2 weeks, should say motability car on the order form and has to be passed or it would be invalid,we never need to have the car on collection anyway if there was was a problem we do not put the pin in anyway,and you cant anyway speak to Motability first as they would own the car
Hi Carl
Until you enter your PIN from Motability, You are under no obligation what’s so ever. Your first port of call is to ring Motability customer service team, and explain what has happened. They will sort the matter out.
That is all you need to do.
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.Carl, within 15 mins of your query you had the right advice from brilliant people on this forum. Yet you re-posted again asking what should I do? You have no obligation to proceed with this vehicle, however if you do, they should honour the AP at the time of order. I’m sure Motability will confirm this- I presume you have called them by now? Please tell me you have?
As Psuader said you had the right advice from early on. In my experience once you ring Motability they are extremely helpful. I recently had a dealer telling me porkies, rather than get into conflict I rung Motability and they had a word and then put the salesman on the phone to me who had to then back track!!! Call them, if its your word against theirs its difficult to prove, if you have any BMW paperwork then your laughing!!
Psuader, it was a repost in response to the Pin code issue which I was unaware of.
Thank you all for your advice in this matter.
I have just had a lengthy conversation with a wonderful mobility representative. She checked their system and confirmed BMW had not put the application on their systems. Her advice was to reply to the new sales executive stating that the order was’nt actioned correctly by their representative and that the AP at that time should be honoured. The human error was with their employee and not mobility or myself. However, mobility would not intervein in this matter as no application was submitted to them.
I have just replied to the sales exec and asking for the store manager to be consulted and the original AP honoured as it is their mistake.
Awaiting a reply.
Carl you say the delivery date was Jan,Feb and now March,so how was the order not made in that case? Surely you will only get a delivery date if an order has been placed properly.Sounds like you’re getting the runaround to me.
Hi Mike. My original order had a delivery date of 1st December. The original salesman then contacted me in August stating that due to covid the delivery date was 1st January. I wasn’t to bothered with the extra month of delay at that time.
At the end of December, I was contacted by a new salesman who said the vehicle was again delayed and would be available the 1st February. The vehicle has just come in to their showroom this week but then discovered the error by the original salesman (who has now left the company), had never submitted a mobility application.
This is were the problem lies.
The whole experience has left a sour taste in my mouth, I’m increasingly annoyed and disolusioned with this whole experience. I don’t know where the original salesman was just a disgruntled employee or where they can’t really be bothered with mobility customers.
Carl, the dealer has failed and unless they pull out the stops to win your business, I’d walk away and find an alternative. They can’t hold you to an order. All very unfortunate, particularly as most transactions on Motability are friction-less and generally a pleasure. At the end of the day it’s a win win for all concerned normally. So sorry this happened to your first order.
Carl sadly it is very hit and miss with dealerships and being a motability customer. Some are great and treat you like any other customer. But some just act like pure snobs and its like what do you want. And drop the whole sales pitch etc. When I had the bmw 1 series previous to my current car, my local dealership didn’t show a care in the world about my custom. So I went to the next dealership 30mins drive from where I lived and they was amazing, give me the keys to a car to go test drive on my own and just said you got about 30mins so go enjoy the car and if its right for you we’ll go from there.
Hope you manage to get the dealership to honor the original AP but if not I’d just walk away and find another car you like at a decent dealership that either has a car in stock which you can have pretty quickly or place a new order.
Carl, one of the issues, is that this is your first motobility car, so you didn’t know what to expect at the time of order. So buyer beware, the whole order process is now done on line, Covid or not, and you should have seen that that being done, and motobility approving the order, then and there, and a few days later, receive the motobility package. Unless motobility pursue the matter for you, and again you should have paperwork/order that was signed and countersigned, to show commitment, it may be a challenge, but again you did not leave a deposit on order, which I always do, again to show commitment to the order.
At this stage and due to price rises on the GC, unfortunately, it’s not the bargain it once was, if you don’t get anywhere with motobility, I definitely would go to another dealer or even a brand, at the GC’s current ap, a bmw 320 or MB Clk or Audi Q3, a top line, Mini Cooper, are within reach and represent better value for money imho, and that’s from a GC owner, who thinks the car is fab, but wouldn’t bite at the current AP.
Thinking it through, how did they order a car on their system, if not a motobility customer, as a private buyer, with no deposit and no potential way to pay for it, either cash or finance or pcp. Very odd. Just leave it.
Good point Lord Muc!!! I smell something fishy and its not Baldrics apple crumble!
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thanks for all your replys.</p>
I get what your saying about something fishy gojng on, the original salesman was very anti BMW and you could tell he wasnt happy in his job and the things he told me suggested he was fed up and ready to leave the company.So I’m thinking he might have known he was leaving and wanted to leave some carnage behind after he had gone??
The dealership could easily discount to the original order price if they wanted to as a goodwill gesture. If not then it’s either you buy it at the AP now or walk away and wait for another car.
Not very helpful but your options are limited.When you order a vehicle it goes through the normal dealer system and separate motability system to approve the car the dealer is ordering, so it just sounds like the old salesman put it through BMW system to meet his targets but didn’t care enough to put it through Motability because he knew he was leaving and it won’t be his mess to clear up.
Hi Carl. I’m sorry to hear that your first experience of a Motability order has been a poor one. Unfortunately, even ‘experienced’ Motability customers often don’t make sure that an order has actually been placed and are unaware of the tricks that many dealers use. An order form filled in with a dealer is simply an internal note for the dealer (and customer) of what car (and options) the customer wants, but is not a proper order.
The order is only placed when the dealer places the order on the manufacturers order system, at which time a manufacturer (as opposed to dealer) order number is obtained and, depending on the manufacturer, a tracking number is generated. Dealers have build allocations (by month or quarter) of certain numbers of each model of car and are rarely honest with customers if they have used up all of their slots, because they don’t want you to go elsewhere. As a result, a dealer may imply to you that they have placed an order when in reality they just sit on it for a month or two until their next allocations open up, as they physically cannot order before then. That’s why I always specifically ask where they are with their allocations before placing an order and if they tell me they have slots I hound them every few days for an order / tracking number. Some people think you need a VIN, but they aren’t allocated until much closer to build date.
In your case, it’s a shame that Motability have washed their hands of your issue, which is unlike them. If it were me, I would ask to speak to the Dealer Principal (that’s the correct name of the person in overall charge of the dealership) and explain the situation. Include in this conversation the poor attitude of the sales person. A good Dealer Principal will apologise profusely and honour your original AP. They will be giving many thousands of pounds of discounts to retail customers and Motability orders still count towards their dealership and manufacturer bonuses, so a grand is nothing to them. If you still want the 2 Series GC you will be shooting your self in the foot by just walking away, as it will take many months to get another one from another dealer (as you will be starting again) and if the lead time is long your 2 Series GC will be sold to a retail customer in a heartbeat, so the dealer will be quids in. If the Dealer Principal doesn’t help (which I’d be surprised if they didn’t) then escalate a complaint to BMW UK and tell the dealer principal that you will be doing so. Let us know how you get on. It’s infuriating some times when people post problems on this forum, get good advice and then don’t report back on the final outcome!
Thanks gloss guy and azzi for your input and advice. I will certainly take your advice with regards to taking matters further to the dealer principle.
I had another update from the sales exec this morning. He again apologised for the ex-employee, he stated that he could himself authorise a reduction of £500 off the current AP £2799 price, but that still makes it £2299 and not the £1749 that I agreed to in the summer. And knowing that so many bmw garages automatically give a £500 off AP discount, then I do not think this is a satisfactory outcome.
In the email I recieved, he is going to refer this matter to the sales manager who was back in work on monday, who may be able to resolve this matter but was giving no assurances. He further stated they do not make any money on mobility orders so they had little room for manover in the prices. But I think that’s the standard salesmans pitch not to resolve matters!!
I will await a response on monday and if it it not to my satisfaction then I will take gloss guy advice and refer the matter to bmw HQ.
Could have done without all this stress as I have just started dialysis this month and this is starting to make me feel poorly.
Azzy to answer your query, I do hope that they can honour the original AP as a gesture of goodwill. However, if they decide it’s a definite NO, then out of principle I would take my business else where!!
Well done Carl. Sounds like you re making good progress already. I strongly suspect that if you hold your ground and ask to speak to the Dealer Principal and, if necessary, threaten to escalate a complaint to BMW UK (even though you won’t need to), they will honour the original AP. It’s worth mentioning (as you say) that £500 off the AP is a pretty standard thing and that you want them to honour the AP as it was when you placed the order. I strongly suggest that you don’t heed the advice of others to walk away. The only person who loses in that situation would be you. You will end up waiting another 6-9 months if you go elsewhere and will have to pay the higher AP. It would be daft to do that.
Glos guy, I will definitely be taking your advice and asking for this matter to be brought to the attention of the dealer principle. If the outcome is not satisfactory then I’m not sure I have got the energy or health to pursue this matter to BMW UK. You also make a valid point that I will be at the back of another waiting list for a vehicle, I certainly don’t want that. I think if that was the case I would only entertain a stock car and definetly not from this dealer and possibly not even from the manufacturer!!
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