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I watched this, the guy buys a £200 Mondeo estate and runs it for a year, the idea being he saves his £300 a month company car allowance. Very relevant to Motability customers as lots of us on here don’t do the mileage to need a new £300 a month car every three years. He does the work himself, so the figures will be different if you use a garage. But in general it didn’t need that much in the space of a year. Video is only around 16 minutes long.
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My disabled friend has a Vauxhall well over 10 years old and paid £500 for it and although it’s a diesel and done well over 100,000 miles its a 1.9 turbo ad its still going strong now he goes to see his son quite regularly which is over 250 miles there and back. He told me he had 9 cars years ago on motability and now saves so much money he was fed up with the jealous neighbours where he used to live but now lives in sheltered accommodation bungalow but got used to not being ripped off.
I bought a later top spec Rover 75 v6 with just over 4ok miles on it last year, that was a mates dads pride a joy, garaged fsh etc for £1750 gave it my daughter who’s still using it and had zero issues.
Like this guy he new the history of the car and it was diesel so capable of the miles For £3.5 – 5k you could definately make it work, especially if you or someone you know, knows what to look for, even if it meant the security of an used car warranty.
if you know about cars and can do stuff yourself then yes it makes sense.
i know nowt andd i think i would be back and forth to a garage.
also he could have spent half of what he did as some stuff was personal upgrades rather than needed work.
but even so i wouldnt want to take the risk, although something a bit younger may appeal if it has decent reliability reports although that may mean a rather drab toyota with lots of black plastic lol.
I bought a £2500 2003 VW Passat around 2013 and ran it for 9 years until it failed its Mot with rusted suspension mounts. All it had was 1 service, brakes and disks all round, 2 sets of National Tyres own brand tyres, 1 battery and oil top ups. It was a very well maintained ex under cover police car. I got an A4 folder full of service history.
If I could I would still drive my Defender 90 all the time but unfortunately it’s not to be, saying that I still manage a couple of thousand miles a year.
I’ve tried this and proven one thing, I know F all about cars but have a real talent for picking one ready to die.
The reason I joined the scheme and am looking for ways to stay with it is purely that we don’t have financial reserves should a sudden trip to the mechanic arise, buying nearly new saves a chunk of the depreciation problem while keeping warranty coverage for just about everything that could appear as an immediate expense.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
My father in law never spends more than £1k on a car.
His last one cost him £800. He ran it for 3 years with no problems then sold it for £600.
There is, of course, a middle route. Very cheap cars can indeed serve you well, but might need regular work, which can be stressful for some (even if, including repair costs, it still works out much cheaper). However, with the money that we donate to Motability (£12,000 plus AP every 3 years) you can run an extremely nice and very reliable car and still have a considerable amount of money left over!
Let’s be honest, most folks would prefer a brand new car sitting outside their house.
Very true, but having a new car every 3 years is a luxury that the vast majority of the U.K. population could not afford, or wouldn’t entertain even if they could afford it. On that basis, it never ceases to amaze me how Motability customers who live on very limited incomes (benefits and maybe state pension only, for example) would even entertain sacrificing such a huge proportion of their income for the privilege, especially when so many of these folks cover such low mileages. It’s certainly not how I’d spend my money if I was in that position. I’d be content with an inexpensive used car, as millions of others do. However, we do live in a country where it doesn’t always pay to be sensible with money!
For many, probably myself to some degree, a motability car is not about the money. Anyone who has suffered the fear of putting an old car through a mot when on a hand to mouth existence will jump at the chance to have that removed. Motability is about so much more than pounds, shillings and pence.
For many, probably myself to some degree, a motability car is not about the money. Anyone who has suffered the fear of putting an old car through a mot when on a hand to mouth existence will jump at the chance to have that removed. Motability is about so much more than pounds, shillings and pence.
I understand the sentiment, but you simply cannot overlook the costs. People can’t, on the one hand, claim to be living hand to mouth whilst, at the same time, afford to throw £4k+ a year to lease a brand new car. It’s situations such as this that are causing the backlash against Motability, when those who are not eligible would consider that to be an irresponsible use of limited funds. I doubt that the average MOT failure costs £4k to rectify!
If you have never struggled financially, you simply cannot understand. I remember needing the car to get to my work, mot failure, welding needed – £1000 is the number in my head. I was young, max spend was £250 on a credit card. No overdraft facility. No savings. Rent due. What do you do?
not quite bangernomics but i have looked at available car at 2nd hand around £200-300 per month hp over or 5 years for something that will see me out probabley i am 66 now so i would imagine one more car will do me lol.
For many, probably myself to some degree, a motability car is not about the money. Anyone who has suffered the fear of putting an old car through a mot when on a hand to mouth existence will jump at the chance to have that removed. Motability is about so much more than pounds, shillings and pence.
This is so very true. I remember having a car blow up, took it to the garage who gave me a quote for £1500 plus vat, when I told them there’s no way, they let me px it for a Citroen diesel they were struggling to sell. That car was slow as hell, 0-60 was listed around 16 seconds and that felt optimistic. It wasn’t fantastic but it saved my bacon.
not quite bangernomics but i have looked at available car at 2nd hand around £200-300 per month hp over or 5 years for something that will see me out probabley i am 66 now so i would imagine one more car will do me lol.
My parents bought a brand new Focus at around the same age with the same thought, it died after 21 years of faithful service and they had a Motability car for just over 3 years. To be fair, the last 2 years of the extended lease it went to Tesco and back unless I drove. If you’re looking at second hand, you may find you’re 2 cars away from no longer driving.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I would think a very early Toyota starlet would be very reliable or a very early Corolla ?
Mike to the opposite I see the totally reliable even more than Toyota Yaris hybrid which is built in france by the way is the Toyota Yaris GR which can be had in 8 speed automatic Rank
Make and model
Rating
1
Toyota GR Yaris (2020-present)
100.0% reliable according to what car alas we will never as disabled allowed to have such a car which would cost Motability no costs in unhappy with their cars reliability. Funny enough this yaris is I think made in Japan and looks like to very high standards, what is strange is that disabled that have some wealth are allowed to have whatever they want but alas us under Gov control a sign saying NOT ALLOWED! mind you there are disabled with opposite end that have Porsches and no gov or public can say anything what it would be like to be free to have choice and stick fingers up to Gov and public that would be so life enhancing and knowing you are free to some extent we dream do we not.what is strange is that disabled that have some wealth are allowed to have whatever they want but alas us under Gov control a sign saying NOT ALLOWED! mind you there are disabled with opposite end that have Porsches and no gov or public can say anything what it would be like to be free to have choice and stick fingers up to Gov and public that would be so life enhancing and knowing you are free to some extent we dream do we not.
To a large degree, this is why we are currently considering buying a new BMW X5. The only small positive of my wife’s desperate situation is that her disability is severe enough that we qualify to buy a new car, not just with the Vehicle Excise Duty excluded (which can be up to £5.5k in the first year) but the VAT as well, on the full purchase price, including options, and this VAT exemption extends to servicing and maintenance as well, thus giving us the same benefits that Motability enjoy. As you say, the strange thing is that there are no brand restrictions and no limits on the purchase price, even if it’s over £100k.
Given this governments hatred and resentment of anyone who has done well in life (unless, of course, it’s themselves), I’m thinking that it may only be a matter of time before they decide to place restrictions on this scheme as well. The last government introduced a limit on one car every 3 years, which is fair enough as people were buying new cars, running them for a year or so, and selling them at a profit, but even with a car of the value that we are looking at, the combined effect of all the exemptions, plus current discounts, means that the depreciation over 3 years will be no more than it costs us to run a very modest car through Motability.
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