A Friend of mine has a car on Motability. He's terminally ill rather than disabled and is likely to die in the coming days / weeks.
Its about 18 months old but there are a couple of issues.
Firstly, its the (only) family car and he has 4 school age children - how long after he dies will his wife have before the car is returned? Is there a grace period to enable her to sort anything out?
Secondly, the car has led a hard life.....they were a care free bunch before they needed motability, and as you can imagine, the car has been a low priority. Trundling the kids plus family Labrador around has taken its toll and its akin to being in a mobile skip. Its now got 25K on it, and I'm reasonably sure it hasn't had a service yet either. What are Motability like when you return a car? Is it just like a lease where anything beyond fair wear and tear is chargeable, or will there be some mitigating circumstances?
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I think motobility would be the best to ask about how quickly after death the car has to be returned.
From a friend who worked in a large motobility sales garage, they weren't too bothered. Many of the cars were in a poor condition, it's not uncommon at all. Broken pieces of trim, bits missing etc were common.
If your friend wants to sort this out and get a proper answer, I'd be on the phone to motobility first thing tomorrow on his behalf if they don't/can't do it themselves.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 2 May 16 at 14:52
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It's more of a question of losing the "Good Condition Bonus rather than being charged extra.
www.motability.co.uk/cars-and-wavs/customer-area/good-condition-bonus
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And they do have a certain amount of flexibility as to when they want the car back. Speak to them. It depends on circumstances
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My stepmother was allowed to keep using my father's Motability car for one week after he died.
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>> From a friend who worked in a large motobility sales garage, they weren't too bothered.
>> Many of the cars were in a poor condition, it's not uncommon at all. Broken
>> pieces of trim, bits missing etc were common.
I did 3 years in the car trade... and soon learnt to avoid Motobility stuff.
Many owners obviously didn't give two hoots about them, so I can't imagine your friend will be that out of the ordinary.
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I've bought 4 ex Motability cars (not the Subaru) from Alan J Gimblett Cars near Callington.
I've never had any trouble with either of them.
They were all one-owner low mileage main dealer serviced jobbies of course. I would have no qualms about buying one again.
3 years in the used car game is nothing - stick to what you know best.
:}
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>> 3 years in the used car game is nothing - stick to what you know
>> best.
Smiley noted.
The one and only car I bought as ex-Motability, from auction, looked o.k. at first glance, but cost me £900 to get right with lots of neglected smaller type stuff... so my profit margin went down the pan.
Two other dealers I got to know put me straight... backed up by my occasional auction buying where I'd at least look at the rows of Motability stuff.
So ex-Motability is fine... as long as it's been properly fettled... but they often haven't.
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My brother has an '09 Zafira 1.9 diesel auto ex mobility. Part ex'd his incredibly troublesome Legacy estate for it.
I haven't the heart to tell him that HJ gave that particular engine a poor review. 6 months on so far so good.
It's both slooooow and thirsty. Like the 2.0 petrol Legacy estate!
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>>So ex-Motability is fine... as long as it's been properly fettled... but they often haven't.
I dare say Gimblett's had a tie up with some Motabillity outlet - the majority of their cars ex Motabillity.
I wonder if they've thrown in the towel now - I checked out their website and nuffinks coming up.
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That's the one ~ Thanks!
I kept getting Tamar Organics when I clicked on www.alanjgimblett.co.uk/ for some strange reason
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Motability are very good dealing with customers.If a car is in a bit of a state you might lose the I think the 350 pound.
The car should have had a service usually the dealer gets in touch by phone or letter.
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Thanks for the pointers. Call has been made to Motability and they will be picking it up in 2 weeks - all insured until that point. Very helpful, and means she will have kept the car for about 4 weeks after he died
They also made a down payment on the car so the motability guy has told her that the payment is amortized over the 3 years, so as its 2 years old then she might get 33% of it back
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Motability - Returning car - sooty123
