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Unless it’s changed since we got our Tucson last year, you should have at least 12 months of Bluelink PRO free of charge (the exact period depends on when the car was built – mine had 14 months free). After that you can either pay an annual subscription or, as I’m going to do, just let it drop down to the basic service, which remains free. I don’t find it to be terribly good, so don’t want to pay for it!
I’m the only person insured to drive my motability car can I have my brother in law put on the insurance he is 72 has own car etc but just want him on it for odd hospital appointments etc
I got one of my daughters added for this very reason. My wife is the beneficiary but can no longer drive. I’m the only driver but was wanting someone else to be able to drive should I be unable to, such as when I am in hospital. Even though our daughter lives a bit outside the normal distance that they stipulate, there was no problem. Just give Motability a call. The insurer will need to speak to your brother in law and he will need to provide his licence details.
Interesting story/ statement in the above daily rag. Seems to infer the from 1 Oct 2025 Motability AP’s will start from £100 ! End of the zero AP era !
I don’t think that’s likely. “Zero AP” is a big marketing message for Motability. With every quarterly price list or marketing blurb about vehicle choice, Motability always trumpet the fact that “x vehicles have zero AP”. They conveniently overlook the fact that these cars still cost £12,000 over 3 years in sacrificed benefits, so why ditch a strong marketing message for the sake of £100? It would be daft.
I’m not sure this is correct – The e-Puma starts at £66 a week and even top spec is £78….. Are we still allowed a free home charger as a 1st time lease? That’s very sensible given the state of my current motor!!
Why would it not be correct? £66 a week is still over £10,000 for a 3 year lease, for a car that you will never own!
The e-Puma is currently the only car that qualifies for the maximum government EV grant, so it’s also no surprise that there will also be some very keen deals to be had for private buyers.
Unfortunately, with the way that the scheme has declined, and the fact that I’m not keen on an EV, there’s not a cat in hells chance that any of the cars that I would describe as being on a ‘wish list’ would ever appear!
The one car that perhaps has an outside chance of appearing that might tempt me is the BMW X1 23i M-Sport. However, as it’s a petrol 4WD SUV with decent performance, that’s now considered by Motability to be the stuff of the devil, so it’s most likely a vain hope!
https://ebay.us/m/v198OJ which part of those plates are illegal.
They look fine, but I use Halfords as they drill the holes at no extra cost and if the plate cracks (as it did when I did it once🙄) it’s down to them!
@BackCountryBob You just need to call Motability and explain the issues. They will run through the process. You pay an early termination fee (£250?) but get your AP back pro rata (nothing for any optional extras though).
Obviously stick with Motability if it suits, but private running costs aren’t anywhere near as scary as many people think. If you are eligible for a Motability car you will almost certainly be eligible for free road tax – even the crazy new vehicle charges.
As for insurance, you can transfer no claims history from Motability. I got quotes for an £80k car recently and even with only 3 years no claims it was £520 fully comprehensive.
Also, going privately you aren’t forced to have a new car!
I use a different approach, which does not rely upon dealerships and I find to be extremely easy. Basically, I follow these steps;
1) I take delivery of the car with the normal dealer assigned plates.
2) After a period of time (usually when the date prefix is no longer the ‘current’ new reg 😂) I do the online application to assign the private plate (no cost as the plate is on retention – see step 4).
3) I drive to Halfords and when parked in their car park I unscrew the plates and hand them to the technician, so that when they make up the new private plates they can drill the holes in the same positions. I screw the new plates on the car and drive home, storing the original plates in my garage.
4) Just before the car is due to go back, I do the online retention (£85 cost) and the registration number that the car had when I took delivery is always reassigned. As I already have those plates with the correct pre-drilled holes, I just swap them with the private plates at home. Takes 5 minutes.
Total cost of the above is the £85 retention and the cost of the plates, and each process can be done simply at a time to suit me.
Yes mate, though you can only have one VAT exemption on one vehicle in any 3 year period. The motorhome is VAT exempt and fortunately saved us nearly £50K! It really is a fantastic piece of kit. Doesn’t compensate for the life changing injury or the past 10 years of torture fighting the Medical Defence Union. But, a lovely thing to have in your life with a wonderful daughter who confounded medical opinion.
Sounds fantastic. It appeals to me but unfortunately my wife is far too bad now to even entertain one. Even existing at home is beginning to be a real challenge 😞
@BackCountryBob If either of the disabled people are full time wheelchair users, and you need a substantial adaptation, presumably you are aware of the VAT exemption on new private purchases, which covers base price, cost of options and even maintenance costs throughout the entire ownership period?
Very interesting in several respects. Firstly it’s good to read a review after 2 years ownership. Most people review after a few days or weeks, when everything is new and exciting but the long term niggles have yet to fully materialise. Secondly, it’s nice to have a balanced review, as most seem to just focus on the positives. Finally, and most importantly, it sounds like we dodged a bullet!
The CX-60 was on our final shortlist and we liked the interior of the mid range model (less so the top spec one – whilst we like pale interiors, I hated the wood and cloth elements which clashed IMHO). The exterior is bland but the size appealed. We discounted it even before a test drive as the reviews were consistently quite poor. The other thing that irritated me was that some essential option packs, which had been bundled with the car initially, were dropped and the AP without them was excessive for a car that I didn’t consider to be ‘desirable’. I’d pay that for a decent BMW, but none existed (other than the 330e, but that would have cost over £10k with options added).
I’ve seen one or two since and wondered if we made the wrong decision, as the Tucson PHEV we eventually went with is underwhelming, but it sounds as though we made the right decision amongst a mediocre selection!
@C-Jor-El I’m with @Rhodgie on this. You have articulated several reasons why the Ioniq 6 would be unsuitable for you, and that’s before we even get on to whether or not an EV is right for you. Getting money back on the AP is a very poor reason to justify the change and my sense is that you’d soon regret changing the car. As I often say, order in haste, repent at leisure!
You are only a year from changing, so less than that before you can order. I’d just be keeping an eye open for something more suitable that might come onto the scheme between now and then. Whilst the scheme is a shadow of its former self, there are still the odd pleasant surprises that crop up.
As for size, it depends on what you are used to. I’ve had 3 x BMW 5 Series and never found them to be particularly big and it was a very nimble car to drive (other than in snow, when it was hopeless). However, I had a 7 Series once and that was a complete pain to park due to the appallingly narrow parking spaces that we have in the U.K. (my wife was never with me in that car so I wasn’t using disabled spaces).
Keto Could it also be that the government is forcing Motability to push EV’s to increase the government transition figure as Motability leases account for 1 in every 5 new car registrations in the UK. The government could if they wished to, bring the vat exemption in line with that given to privately bought vehicles for disabled people. Its very restrictive. 1. Vehicle must be significantly adapted for the recipients disability. Minor adaptions do not qualify for Vat exemption. 2. The exemption can only be requested once every 3 years. The government would gain perhaps on average £6k plus for every non significantly adapted vehicle. Say 160,000 per year ( from the overall 220,000 leases each year)forc every non significantly adapted vehicles would give Mrs Reeves some £1 billion in extra vat receipts every year.
For VAT exemption on a private vehicle the person also has to be a wheelchair user (and not just an occasional one).
The block VAT exemption is what makes Motability competitive. If they applied the private purchase VAT exemption rules then I’m guessing that the overwhelming majority of current customers would become ineligible. The scheme would collapse.
@pazlaz Whilst your comments about the impact of NI and the living wage are quite correct, your assertion that most Motability Operations staff are at or near the minimum wage is way off. They pay extremely well (far ahead of most other call centres) and have extremely generous benefits and bonuses – all of which we are paying for!
I’ve had the Tucson for nearly two years but I’m needing to do an early termination and I could get the Ioniq 6 for £500 (and £1800 refunded back to me from the AP) and that seems like too good a deal to say no to but there’s a lot of issues I see the Ioniq 6 has that is stopping me (also the fact I’d have to drive down to the dealership to order it and then drive down to collect it and they are 370 miles from me)
It’s only a good deal if the car is suitable for you. Otherwise it could be a very bad move! Unfortunately, too many people don’t research cars properly and early terminations add to the scheme costs for everyone, hence why Motability take a dim view if people do several of them.
I am on the verge of doing an early termination for my Tucson for this car but I’m a bit worried about the comfort of the Ultimate seats and the fact it’s quite low down. Do you all find it easy to get in and out of? I have slightly bad knees and chronic back pain and worry it’ll be a pain to get in and out of and when I did a test drive the firm seat wasn’t as comfortable as my Tucson but I’m not sure if that was just because I didn’t adjust the seat correctly.
Leaving aside the merits of the Ioniq, if you have chronic back pain and dodgy knees I would have thought you’d be daft to move away from an SUV, especially as you need to think ahead as to what you might be like over the next 3 years. If you do an early termination on the Tucson, get a lower car, and then have to do another early termination, you might find yourself in difficulty.
If you want to find out for sure, we had no problem getting 24 hour test drives at our local Hyundai dealership (in fact I had two of them in different cars). That would give you plenty of time to do a long journey, multiple short ones, get in and out of the car lots of times and play around with the seating position.
Out of interest, how long have you had your Tucson? We have a Tucson Ultimate and I found the seats to be uncomfortable at first (the upper backrest seemed to press into my shoulder blades) but, after a lot of tweaking of the electric seats, I have managed to get comfortable in them and now don’t have an issue, even on long journeys. That being said, I don’t think that seats are Hyundai’s strong point. Before getting our Tucson I used to go out regularly in my mates Santa Fe. He had 3 of them in a row and I found every one of them to be ruddy uncomfortable as a passenger!
I’ve got a private number plate that I want to put onto my next vehicle that I ordered yesterday.I was told by the dealer that the new vehicle has to have the original number on it and I have to retain my private plate and change it myself.Now when I had the vehicle I’ve got now it never came with a registration number on it.How do I find out what number I have to put on and how do I do this.Also when do I start doing all this as my dealer is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.
As an alternative, I let the dealership assign a normal registration number and I get the private plate assigned at a later date (usually once the reg is no longer the ‘current’ one 😂). I have adopted this approach with both private and Motability cars and it’s worked really well for me
When I want to get the private plate assigned I drive to Halfords (with the required documentation) and when parked in their car park I unscrew the original plates and hand them to the technician so that they can drill the holes in the same places on the private plates.. I then pop the new plates on before I leave.
The advantage of this approach is that whilst it’s more work up front, it makes it very easy when I’m about to sell the car (if private) or hand it back (Motability). I simply put the private reg on retention and the DVLA automatically re-assign the original reg number, which I already have the original plates for, so it’s a 5 minute job to swap the plates over. Job done. Repeat process with next car!
This will hopefully make the Q4 list very interesting!
We’ll find out in a months time, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Even as a private buyer, looking for just one car, it is currently possible to get huge discounts on new EVs, even those not eligible for the grants. I get a monthly notification of current discounts on selected cars and was staggered to see a number in the 20-30% range and even one at 35%. As the biggest fleet buyer, we can be sure that Motability will be negotiating much bigger discounts than an individual will be able to buying just one car! On that basis, whether a £1,750 grant (which will most likely result in manufacturers just reducing their own discounts by the same amount) will find its way through to APs I’m a little sceptical – but we shall see.
With 36 month only leases I can’t see many people opting for the high end AP.
I would, but only because I’ve never considered lease extensions to be good value, so I always assume that we will only have the car for 3 years anyway.
In the past, the cars with the highest APs were usually the best value cars on the scheme (if you work out the AP plus sacrificed benefits as a percentage of the cars list price). Conversely, cars with nil AP were often the poorest value, as the £12k sacrificed benefits were a much bigger percentage of the cars price.
However, that’s all been turned on its head in recent years, not least with the arrival of some expensive EVs at very keen APs. There are currently a lot of very mediocre cars with very high APs that, once added to the £12k benefits, are not worth it IMHO. If we were changing today we would leave the scheme. Not because of this policy change, but because there isn’t a single car on the scheme that would interest me!
Hopefully that situation may improve by the time we are due to change as I’d rather have a car through Motability, but £12k plus a high AP is a lot of money that I can put towards something better than I can get through Motability. I also don’t feel the need to have a brand new car (which is only brand new for a short while anyway), although if we do go down the new car route we can get the VAT off the purchase price (inc options) and servicing and maintenance costs, which would help.
The normal lease is 36 months, with the possibility of e tending it. Its not a right. Cars lose a lot of money from years 3 through 5 and a So more expensive servicing and tyres. If Motability encounter higher losses, then as a private company , they cannot be expected to absorb them.
Somebody on PIP extending for 2 years is paying £8,000 for the privilege. I’d put money on the fact that servicing and tyres for the average Motability car over those 2 years is no more than £1,000. That leaves £7,000 for depreciation, but I’d also bet that the average Motability car depreciates by far less than that in years 4 and 5, given that the bulk of the depreciation will have already happened before the lease extension. These reasons are why I consider lease extensions to be poor value for the customer and a nice earner for Motability!
As previously stated, if this happens I’m convinced that it’s far more about Motability being under pressure to support the UK car industry, which is struggling as private customers aren’t switching to EVs in the numbers required and people are keeping their cars longer. The average age of cars on U.K. roads has just exceeded 10 years for the first time.
Hopefully Motability will do the correct thing this time (unlike when they attempted to remove 2 year extensions last year) and apply the change to all new contracts, rather than contravene contract law by applying the change retrospectively to existing contracts.
It will be interesting to see whether or not the wording changes in new contracts taken out over the coming months.
Stupid question. If you reject the new terms and force Motability to take back the car, surely that can only result in you leaving the scheme? Im struggling to find a legitimate way that the change to the contract was unacceptable but agreeing to a new one with the same terms you’ve just rejected is ok.
It’s not a stupid question, but I’ll try to explain. As @kezo says, a contract cannot be varied mid term unless both parties agree to it. By changing the contract without consulting us and giving us the option to agree or disagree with it, Motability Operations are themselves breaching the contract, not us. Therefore you wouldn’t be leaving the scheme. Motability would effectively be terminating your lease.
What they should do is to impose the 3 year max rule on all new leases, but this isn’t the approach that they took when they first attempted to remove the ability to extend (in a cack handed, hit and miss manner) a year or so ago. Our request for a 2 year extension was refused, until I pointed out the basic aspects of contract law to them, when they backed down.
All of our current contracts state that we have the ability to extend beyond 3 years and we have done nothing to break that contract. A new contract would be under different rules (3 years max) and therefore you would have to agree to those terms to stay in the scheme. So we would have agreed to the terms of both leases at the times that we entered into them. I hope that makes sense?
2 bits of news today.
The Ford Puma EV becomes the first car to qualify for the full grant.
The loophole that allowed higher priced cars to be included, as long as the entry level car with that powertrain is under £37k has been tightened, and there is now a £42k price cap.
I wonder how robust their implementation will be though? Technically, 2 year extensions were stopped well over a year ago, but depending on who you speak to at Motability have still been possible for some people.
I also wonder if there will still be an exception for those with expensive adaptations?
Either way, it’s an odd policy as 2 year extensions must be highly profitable for Motability, given that they still charge the full benefits for years 4 and 5 and the bulk of the depreciation (the biggest cost with any new car) has already happened by year 3. Running costs plus depreciation in years 4 and 5 will be nowhere near another £8k, which is what they charge us.
I’d put money on the fact that this is more about them being put under pressure to support the struggling car industry, in the same way that they have been put under pressure to push EVs given that private buyers aren’t buying them and government targets aren’t being met.
