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My 3 years are up next month but hoping to keep the car another year or so but just encase I’ve been eyeing up the KIA Sportage GT-Line S PHEW (VW’s just too expensive for me for what you get) and came to conclusion that at £2999 AP that has to be the pre-face model but for what you get I think its still a bargain, something we’re not seeing much of lately. I think when the face lift model comes on it will be up in the £5k > £6k AP area for this particular trim and model.
That said this is a bit misleading from the KIA website…
My 3 years are up next month but hoping to keep the car another year or so but just encase I’ve been eyeing up the KIA Sportage GT-Line S PHEW (VW’s just too expensive for me for what you get) and came to conclusion that at £2999 AP that has to be the pre-face model but for what you get I think its still a bargain, something we’re not seeing much of lately.
I think when the face lift model comes on it will be up in the £5k > £6k AP area for this particular trim and model.
If I remember right, forgive me but MB keep changing things, but AFAIK the GCB or whatever they call it today is £250 for the 3 completed years and generally is paid, from my past payments, within a week of collecting the new car. Not sure what they allow for the extended years but my last car was returned at just over 4 years and if I remember right I got an extra £100.
Again things keep changing the past few years but going back to Covid years the dealers were, with MB permission, I believe taking the bonus off the AP but not sure they would do that now.
Hi Glos Guy
I think I’m too long in the tooth now to leave MB but something that put me off going the private way back when (apart from finance) was the adaptions.
In my case they are a steering wheel spinner plus remote controls for controlling the car and also would have been a hoist.
In your case your wife is using a wheelchair but unfortunate for myself back 17 years when it would have been worth my while going private I got the impression that mobility scooters are not considered by HMRC to be mobility devices, I assume because there’s many abled bodied folk who use these to help with walking and not help with a disability. If I remember right mobility scooters and hoist are not as they say, considerable adaptions in the eye’s of the taxman.
I assume that’s because these type of adaptions are easy to removed restoring it to a normal car unlike a WAV type vehicle that is actually altered.
Out of interest what’s your view on this, though of course the rules might have changed a bit since 2008.
I don’t know if it applies to the UK but read a story about all the fake news stories in the US about over 70’s having all sorts of medical checks with the undertone of just getting old folk off the roads there.
I picked up my current car on the 24th of February at my request as to avoid the crowds at the dealership 5 days later, being disabled is not nice being in crowded spaces.
I noticed my handover paperwork was changed from the 1st of March to the 24th of Feb and did think to myself does it have an effect of Motability resale value but they don’t seem to be concerned as dates beside its still a MY23 model.
Tax payers should appreciate that we as Motability customers as well as Motability themselves take the hit for the cars depreciation when they buy all those nearly new low mileage ex-Motability cars.
I’m fortunate not having to deal with DL yet but its only a matter of time before I do with every other person driving these days who think its OK to use their smartphones while driving.
My current car came with mats because of the trim level but last one didn’t.
I find it odd that MB don’t insist on mats coming with their cars as standard, like they do with paint finishes, or at least they use to, because my last car not being supplied by the dealer meant when the car went back 4 years later it had a hole in the carpet where my right foot pivots between brake and accelerator.
Because the car was not a popular model mats where very expensive so I gave them a miss but my car before that with no mats they were cheap because it was a popular model so I paid for them myself. That said I’m sure the dealer would of supplied them had I thought to ask when ordering the car but mats are the least of my worries when ordering a car so gets forgotten.
End of the day GCB was still intact so hay-ho.
I’ve always knew about the spare key but I wonder about the parcel shelf?
The parcel shelf for my cars always spend there whole 3 years of there lives sitting in my attic because there in the way of my scooter but there brand new when I put them back in the car when it goes back. Problem is though, I can’t get into the attic so can’t be sure 100% the shelf doesn’t get damage by a member of my family rummaging around up there.
I wonder if that would come under wear and tear due to disability, its always gone back in the car as it left it on the day of collection but you never know. LoL
I can confirm what BigDave said about damage caused by ones disability or aids as I prematurely wore out the bolsterers in my VW Golf years ago that would have had to be replaced. These were wore and damaged because of the way I had to lower myself into the car.
There was a case, I think in this forum, a few years ago of someone spilling paint on a seat and they lost their GCB on return of the car, if memory serves me right.
I suppose its down to the local depot staff in how they respond to MB customers, I have 2 Kwik-Fits 2 miles away in opposite directions from one another and one is good and one is pants.
You’ll need to get in touch with the installers as the hoist along with the car is covered for breakdowns.
I had to call them once because I had a problem with my scooter not quite reaching the ground on some surfaces so needed to add a couple of millimetres to the loading strap, mobile service team of my installer more or less came around to fix within hours of calling them.
I’ve had my fair share of troubles with K-F garages and after my last visit to such place and all the parking trouble there I decided to go home and book the “At Home service” via my Motability account and it worked a treat.
All I had to do was answer the door when he came the next day and unlock the car so he could check the mileage of the car, tyre changed and on his way in less than 25 minutes.
I left Motability for a year in 2017-18 and used the “Good Driver” 5 year NCD with LV insurers.
To get over what Glos Guy said about comparison sites, I use one, can’t remember what one but doesn’t matter, but use a comparison site, find the best deal for you stating you have 5 years NCD then once your happy with a price keep the link to the chosen insurers open while you give them a quick ring to ask if they will accept the “Good Driver” letter and if they do, press the buy now button and that’s it.
That’s how it worked for me and I don’t recall them ever coming back to me for a copy of the letter so assume its all in the insurers data bases.
In the past I’ve had problems with blown car fuses overloading under powered inverters so I’ve been doing some experimenting the past month with an inverter plus battery set up in my car but its not cheap but reliable.
Charging my folding scooters LiFePO4 batteries is a breeze but its not often I have to do that as I mostly charge at home or in any hotel I may be staying in.
I’ve set my system up mostly for making almost unlimited cups of tea and coffee when I’m on the road.
Not likely to have any problems charging anything with my system charging anything up to 1000 watts continuous.
This is a list of my gear…
1000w Pure Sine Wave Inverter at a cost of £130 though that was an offer price and has gone up a bit now. Beware of cheap inverters as the cheaper ones, too cheap to be good ones, often state 1K watts or 2K watts but that is not its continuous loading but a peak load of a few seconds. Also be wary of the “pure sine wave” statements as often in the cheaper models its not pure but modified.
I’m using a 12v 100ah Lifepo4 battery and generally the cost for these are about £160 but will last forever if treated right.
Last of my setup includes a 600 watt kettle and boils two mugs of tea or coffee in less than 6 minutes using the above gear.
This setup is independent of the cars battery system so no worries about causing problems with my cars electrical system.
The battery and the inverter weigh in at about 10.5 Kilo’s and 2.5 Kilo’s respectively so a bit of a lump to handle but has the added benefit of being able to protect ones self at home in the Winter against Ed Milliband’s madness for if or when the lights go out in future as it can power my TV and lights for several hours during these times.
A bit over the top for just charging scooter batteries maybe but great for a cup of coffee when I’m told a cup of coffee will be around the £5 a cup mark out on the road by the end of this year. 😊🤔😒
I think my petrol Tiguan would be cheaper than an EV to run, more so if you can’t charge at home, if it wasn’t for the amount of fuel duty and VAT I pay when I fill up.
Filled up yesterday for £64 but less taxes would be around £32 without fuel duty and VAT, but someone has to pay for the roads.
Fuel Duty per Litre = 52.95p plus VAT 10.5p total per Litre = 63.54 per Litre.
This does not include the VAT on VAT charge so on £64 that would be another £12.80 in my case but this changes by how much a Litre of petrol is at any given station.
In a bankrupt country don’t expect the free lunch to last much longer guy’s so make hay while the Sun shines.
I’ve got a VW Tiguan and it too came with free subs for three years then its a paid for services. Just for this very reason I, like Oscarmax, use CarPlay via my own data connection and independent of the VW system so try Apple or Android nav systems if you need navigation aids like live traffic.
My understanding of the VW system is that the car remains connected to the VW servers free of charge for the safety things like latest speed limits for ACC and such things but as far as I know the satnav in the car still works without subs but you will not get live traffic updates. Only other thing I can think of is the remote lock and unlock stops working but in the two years I’ve had my car I’ve only used that system just to see if it works and I never needed to find where I last parked the car though again I do have an Apple Air Tag hidden in the car should the car ever be stolen.
I don’t think that I’ve seen age limits on parent & child spaces. If I take my 84 year old mother out, can I park in one as she’s my parent and I’m her child? Asking for a friend 🤔😂
Yes you can but only if you also have your grandparents with you too. 😊
The Radar sensor is set back behind the grill, so its unlikely you have damaged it if only the VW emblem is damaged. A genuine emblem will set you back circa £35, so depends very much money the driving instructor wants to go private?
I thought that maybe VW have changed the design of the sensor so this news item from last year might not apply now…
Two things to add, one, in the case of a no fault accident you shouldn’t have to pay the excess as the other party is at fault. Unless with the new insurers that has change but that’s how it was under RSA.
Two, the new claim, not sure what VW you have but the front VW badge has, in many of there models, a radar sensor in them so could be more expensive that it looks.
I’ve got “Travel Assist” too and also have a steering ball with remote controls and wonder how the systems knows that the ball isn’t my hand.
There is some debate how the system works and think there’s two possibilities, one being sensors in the wheel or the wheel senses if your reacting to the direction of steering.
I don’t think its sensors because it would think the steering ball is a hand so I think it senses if your reacting to the steering direction, remember its an assist and not automatous steering. As you know when driving along a road or motorway you have to correct the steering simply because the systems can’t see, for instants, a pothole so you over ride the system so in turn it knows your in control. It also has a tendency to to drift slightly towards the centre white line and the gutter that sometimes require a manual correction to the steering.
Overall it’s a brilliant system more so for me driving with one hand and driving from Bristol to Newcastle awhile ago was no more tiring for me that driving to the local shops, though I did have to stop for a wee.
Sorry if I’m reading this wrong but If the “emergency driver” counts as one of our permanent drivers what’s the point of an emergency driver?
I haven’t got any other drivers on my insurance so don’t really know the ins and out of it but just seems odd to me.
Another BS thing I heard today, sorry didn’t catch if it was a weekly or a monthly payment but someone who supposedly is a MB customer has bragged they get a free car and, and this is the real turd, they get £80 a week or month for, wait for it, for petrol.
Going back to abuse, I can see how some can game the system by not giving the benefit of the car to the disabled person but what gets me, how do they game getting PIP in the first place.
I say that because of the last time this sort of thing was big news back in 2010-2012 and myself having to take the DWP to court to regain my higher rate after they said I had no problem walking about. I can only assume it’s the work from home brigade doing everything over the phone.
