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I will be putting Michelin Cross Climates 2 on when I get the new car. I have done a lot of research and these seems to be the best and from all the posts that I have seen on FB everyone that has put them on rave about them. Tyres are often overlooked as THE major safety feature and help prevent aquaplaning as well, which must be a really terrifying experience.
My understanding from looking into this is that you can fit your own tyres but at your expense to fit AND to repair. In the scheme of things what cost for saving your (or someone elses) life?
There is such a focus on other safety features that tyres are overlooked.
I can’t believe that it doesn’t have a rear wiper (has this already been mentioned?) Seriously, who believes the marketing BS that you do not need a rear wiper due to the design that will keep the rear window clean, this is just dangerous, and what for, to save some money or to make it look “better”? 100% guaranteed that if you are driving on a motorway in this country that rear window will become dirty.
@wmcforum – yeah I made the mistake of looking at what it said on the motabilty site! However, now I know what size the boot actually is …. “it’s a shame the boot is so small”!
Unfortunately the DWP do not tell you of the benefits of going on to Income ESA and many choose Contributions ESA when they would be better off on Income ESA.
On the plus side you will be getting the new model with the new 3.0 software update and side sensors which allows the Park Assist (and other funtions) to work.
@John Imps – I haven’t looked at this closely as it is not yet an option for me and I have just had solar pv installed and waiting for the battery to be installed. As far as I am aware it comes down to the power cable that needs to be bi-direction from your fuse box to the car and back, along with a compatible wall box and a compatible EV.
If you are looking to charge your EV from solar pv then do your sums, and you can only really expect this from March-August, forget about it from Nov to Feb as you will not have enough solar. It depends on the size of your car battery as well and how much your average daily kWh usage is for your home. You will really want your solar to power your home first and then decide what you do with any excess (back to the grid, recharge a battery or charge your EV?).
@Oscarmax, it depends what battery you go for and really where you will be storing the battery, I have a Givenergy 8.2kWh battery on order by the installer, so because it’s a part of my solar pv installation I only paid 5% VAT on the battery (of course that is 0% now!).
I was going to have more batteries installed due to the excess solar that I generate but I am going to wait and see how the V2H develops. Batteries vary in price depending on the kWh they have the Givenergy 8.2kWh is about £2,000 (exc. VAT and fitting) Tesla Batteries (10kWh) are about £9,000+ fitted depending on whether you have the backup system installed as well.
It sounds right to me, if you get 4.1p /kWh and pay 5p / kWh then it will be 9p /10kWh.
You are on a good rate with Octopus, enjoy it whilst you can! At some point it might be worth installing a battery to store your solar or cheap overnight rate, especially for Nov-Feb when your solar pv will not give you as much.
VW and other companies are developing car-2-home for their EV’s, so that you can utilise your car battery to power your home and also sell back to the grid at peak times but re-charge at off-peak, so that might be an option for your next car.
I think Motability need to take the mileage into account more now regarding GCB. We will hand our car back sometime in 2022 and it will only have done about 12,000 miles in nearly 4 years. They should introduce a low mileage bonus on top of the good condition bonus.
Just another side of the argument, without decent, experienced and happy, satisfied staff a company is nothing. There is a shortage of good people to employ at the moment and if you do not keep them happy then they will move elsehwhere for more money and better conditions. It then costs the company more having to find new staff and train them – this then puts other staff under pressure and results in a worse level of service for its customers. You want to retain staff and train them and invest in them and there is a price to pay which seems a lot but in the long term it actually saves you money. I have worked in companies with a large staff turnover and it is a nightmare and a false economy.
Having said all of that it is a very fine line regarding bonuses for staff working for charities and Motability Operations Ltd comes under the auspices of the Motability charity, which oversees it. I think it is for Motability to justify this amount and their reasoning behind it. Would staff have not been as happy if they where given a 10% bonus? The problem with bonuses is that they set a precendence and so if you pay 12.5% one year it is then expected to be at least 12.5% the next year, whereas if you have something set in stone, ie that there will be a 5-10% bonus depending on certain factors then I think that is reasonable.
I went to my local VW showroom to test drive the ID3 and they had only 1 car in the showroom – and that had been sold to a customer. 3 major manufacturers that I know of (Ford, Nissan and VW) have withdrawn cars from the scheme due to the unprecedented times of Covid and hence semi-conductor chip shortages. Part of the problem lay in the supply chain (the “just in time” supply chain) which may be more efficient but it means that parts are no longer stored which allowed for supply problems that may occur. It is also an over-dependence on other countries. I do not think that you can blame Motability for this.
I do think that Motability makes far too much money (at least it seems that way) and that they do not put anything in their Magazine to explaiin what they are doing and why – and they do seem to be losing touch. Having said that we got an ID3 Tour Pro for £1,500 AP – which beat anything else on the market for leasing.
There are still plenty of cars on the scheme. I do not think breaking up Motability will help. You will get what you have in all “privatisation” … confusion. There will be so many different players offering all different schemes, they will probably introduce a daily standing charge and price per miles driven – I don’t know, whatever confuses people and disguises things as much as possible, all in the name of “choice”. There will be no pressure or influence at all that can be imposed upon manufacturers (even less than now) – what influence is one company going to have with 10,000 customers? You will have even less choice.
If you are not happy with the scheme contact Motability and/or leave – that’s your choice. I am keeping an eye on other lease schemes as they do seem to be getting cheaper and this seems to be the way that the market is moving so this will probably be one of the main driving influences upon Motability.
We are also seeing a move towards EV’s (many which seem more expensive, which is due to the manufacturers or lack of more govt support) and what is not mentioned here is the support Motability give towards home chargers, basically, you get a free charger, that is a massive saving (I appreciate some can’t have chargers, so maybe they could reduce the AP for those that get an EV but don’t take up the free charger offer?).
Once the semi-conductor shortage is over (and more companies are predicting Spring next year due to the fact that new factories are now up and running at 100% capacity) you will see cars return. Don’t be fooled by more “choice” being better than what we have now, you will probably end up paying more and having less choice. The Motability scheme supports thousands who are happy with it. It also has a grant facilility that can support those that maybe have more needs or requirements.
I am not going to respond to any comments based upon my post as there are some people on this forum who are incapable of adult discussion.
I don’t understand why VW reduced the AP on motability so much if there was a problem with demand, they must have known in October (as customers where already waiting longer than usual for their VW) when they slashed £3,000 off the AP Tour Pro S which I thought was one of the best deals on motability plus the zero AP for a basic ID3 and a few hundred AP for higher specs.
I know as a lease option these cars are flying and lease companies are ordering thousands – and I believe they get priority over private buyers as well (you get your ID3 quicker if you lease it whereas if you buy it privately you wait an extra 3-4 months).
I would hope in 6-9 months they will return, in the meantime it will be interesting to see how Hyundai and Kia react, if they are able to keep up their supply then they could gain quite a substantial part of the market.
I would phone motability back and continue to phone them to try and get them to understand and if needs be ask to speak to someone higher up.
This is a misleading article. It’s true that software is an issue at times but software is in all modern cars, not just EV’s. Tesla owners can still get into their car and drive it without their phone. In fact the connection with your phone and car relies more on bluetooth and not on an internet connection. Tesla owners also have a key card to gain access, in fact many EV’s have an actual emergency key that you can use. Apps are a problem and our whole society in the industrialised, advanced nations, not just EV’s, is now totally dependent upon software as are many businesses that do not even have a manual backup of any kind to continue doing business if the computers go down.
There is nothing wrong with a well designed touch screen, the problem is with the bad design.
@Wigwam – thats a great point, it took me a while to get my head around 20% VAT for £100 was not £20! I remember having some building work done and asking the builder to knock off the VAT @20% and was expecting 20% off the gross and the builder said that his new accountant had pulled him up about doing VAT discounts this way as it was incorrect and the builder had been losing thousands over the years doing this!
The heat pump @£1,000 as an optional extra for the ID3 will never pay for itself over 3 years (even 4 or 5 years and maybe even longer depending on mileage), even assuming the best possible saving of 20% (which it will not be all the time), I wont go into the figures as many others have done extremely in-depth analysis of this elsewhere. And of course as an optional extra you are also paying the VAT.
There are other benefits of having the heat pump, for example if you suffer from range anxiety or really do need to get every single mile for a round trip without stopping; there are also environmental reasons as the heat pump is more efficient and therefore you are using less energy; it will also give you a more comfortable ride in certain situations. Possibly the greatest way to better efficiency for many EV’s and the ID3 in particular is the software. At the moment, you’re way better off financially keeping your £1,000 and just paying the extra few pence for a few months of the year to top up with the extra electricity.
A lot of interesting and varied views, this is why I think that Motability should send every lease holder a survey every year (and maybe publish the feedback and any actions they are undertaking regarding the feedback).
I am pretty sure though that if they asked the question: “Do you think the AP was too high for your car” that everyone would tick the “yes” box (even me!)
There are currently 120 cars on Motability that do not require an AP, I have looked through them all and there is quite a variety. What do you basically need from a car but to get you from A to B (even for most people on the scheme). There are people that will need specific adaptations and I do not know what the situation is regarding that – although I do know that Motability also offer help in certain instances. There is a variety in car size, car type, boot space, performace etc.
The car that we have ordered has fallen £3,000 from Q3 to Q4 (VW ID.3) and I believe it is incredible value and we get a free 7kWh charger fiited. Now I was looking at the AWD Plug in Hybrid Hyundai Tucson which is about £4,500 AP – but did I really “need” that or did I just “want” it? I could not justify paying £4,500 AP on a car so I looked at the options and instead paid £1,500 AP (which is still a lot).
Motability does have problems and there should be more pressure placed upon it by its members. I believe that we should have more say and that Motability should at least start doing an annual survey of its members. I would be concerned about breaking up Motability, resulting in several smaller leasing companies and the problems that this would bring. However, having said all of that, I do think it would be nice if Motability used a percentage of the cash that they have to subsidise AP’s on specific cars that had certain features that “members” needed that where not available on any of the “nil” advance payment cars available.
@JohntheLeg – had a call from Ohme who have been appointed by Motability to fit their new Home Pro charger (totally unexpected as I was told all along it would be BP), however, it will still be interesting to know how your install goes.
@JohntheLeg – that’s great, can’t get more up-to-date than that, thanks 🙂
PS – You say “replaced” – is that an old model or something?
You will be okay. It is just due to a software update on the VW system that they use. It is not just the ID3 but also some other VW models affected. It will take about 2 weeks for the new system to be put in place – so its an extra 2 weeks delay. The car itself is still on Motability site.
@Capuchin – you do get a free 7kwh home wall charger from Motability – are you able to have that fitted and use it? If so then the VW ID3 has all the specs you want and more. The top range Tour model is about £1545 with many models below that price.
Good points. I do think that all optional extras added should be VAT free as its a Motability car – or maybe just those optional extras that are maybe related to safety and efficiency. Of course if you buy the car yourself from Motability at the end of your lease then it is VAT free!
@Marcus – thanks, just found the heat pump on VW site … £1,000 so yes I think I would give that a miss, not sure I will do enough miles in 3 years to pay for the heat pump in what it will save me.
