# Mobility car,pros and cons?



## dcj (Apr 17, 2009)

Anyone know much about having a mobility car? Due to my daughters illness we may entitled to one but aren't sure if it we would gain or lose out financially from having one. My wife has taken a year sabbatical from work in order to be with our daughter while she has her treatment and is getting help through Disabled Living Allowance but is about £150 down a month. I've mentioned about getting a Hybrid to save on fuel but we are unsure how to go about things and if so is it worth it?


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## svended (Oct 7, 2011)

My step-father has one. He pays his DLA to mobility and gets the car paid for, for a three year lease, pays no VED, pays no insurance (for two named drivers) and doesn't have to pay for recovery or windscreen replacement etc... All he pays for is the fuel. 
It's a good deal if a car is necessary and will be used often, otherwise your just paying for a car to sit doing nothing when you could of had the money. 
Your local council should have an arrangement with a local taxi company in that you only pay a nominal fee of say £2.50 per fare.


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## james_19742000 (May 8, 2008)

I would recommend Motability, you (or whoever is in receipt of DLA) have to be in receipt of the higher level of the mobility element of DLA, if you are then go on the Motability site and look at the prices of the cars, basically you hand over a large portion of your mobility or all of it on a 4 weekly basis, and as long as you have a minimum of 12 months left on yoru claim then you would be eligible.

Scan through the cars and decide what you want, go to that dealer and see what stock he has or how long delivery would be, you do an online application at the dealer, few days later you get all the details through the post, go to dealer, collect car enter a special PIN number and the car is yours, drive it away!

All of the expenses of the car are taken care of, you just add fuel, even things like oil top up's etc, go back to your dealer and they will do all of that for you, they are geared up for it and Motability woudl rather the car had things like that done than not done, then at the end of the 3 years you either hand teh car back and walk away, or drop it back and collect your next car! 

The road tax is no charge, however, it is DISABLED so the car MUST be used for the benefit of the disabled person i.e. taking the disabled person to a hospital appointment, taking them shopping, or you can do the shopping for them etc as long as it is justified that he disabled person is benefitting from that journey then it's fine, however, I believe there is nothing defined in law, so the use of the car for the disabled person is open to interpretation, but NOT abuse, unfortunately Motability cars get a bad name as people think you get 'given' a brand new car for free etc etc however, you are giving up your entitlement of cash for a car instead, so yes, you are paying for it!

If you are after just a little runaround then I expect you could get a Corsa or something cheaper than a Motability car, but if you want something a bit bigger or more upmarket etc then they do work out very good value.

My wife has a 2013 VW Beetle on the scheme, she loves it, she wakes up in the morning looks out the window and see's her car and decides to get up and go out for an hour, as opposed to waking up and staying bed as she cant manage things that day, so it helps with wanting to get out etc etc

Motability are also very good and easy to deal with, they listen and try to help you as much as possible.

Overall, good value and if you are able to get one then I would recommend it!


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## griffin1907 (Mar 4, 2006)

One thing to be aware of. You MUST only use the vehicle for work and usage related to the person who is entitled to the vehicle. ie you can't take the car on a fishing trip to Wales and leave your daughter at home with the Mrs.

Hope that makes sense, and isn't implying that's what you personally would do, it's just that many do.


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## possul (Nov 14, 2008)

griffin1907 said:


> One thing to be aware of. You MUST only use the vehicle for work and usage related to the person who is entitled to the vehicle. ie you can't take the car on a fishing trip to Wales and leave your daughter at home with the Mrs.
> 
> Hope that makes sense, and isn't implying that's what you personally would do, it's just that many do.


But people do this.
Seem it so many times at a motorbilty dealer, also people lost there cars as they do clamp down on it

( not saying OP is of this category )


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## dcj (Apr 17, 2009)

No intention of abusing the system as I know many do,we only have a smallish car and if we have to take the wheelchair out there's little room for anything else.we had talked about getting a bigger car but fuel costs will prevent that so a mobility car was an option but not sure it's worth it financially.


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## clubber01 (May 29, 2013)

svended said:


> My step-father has one. He pays his DLA to mobility and gets the car paid for, for a three year lease, pays no VED, pays no insurance (for two named drivers) and doesn't have to pay for recovery or windscreen replacement etc... All he pays for is the fuel.
> It's a good deal if a car is necessary and will be used often, otherwise your just paying for a car to sit doing nothing when you could of had the money.
> Your local council should have an arrangement with a local taxi company in that you only pay a nominal fee of say £2.50 per fare.


Free tyres and servicing too


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

dcj said:


> No intention of abusing the system as I know many do,we only have a smallish car and if we have to take the wheelchair out there's little room for anything else.we had talked about getting a bigger car but fuel costs will prevent that so a mobility car was an option but not sure it's worth it financially.


As has been said if you use the car regularly then Motorbility is the way to go. You can find larger cars that still return very good fuel economy with the new wave of efficient engines available within most manufacturers, for example the Renault Scenic is quite popular in the larger class, plenty of space and ease of getting in and out of the car works well with Motorbility customers.


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## griffin1907 (Mar 4, 2006)

We've just brought a Grand Picasso, didn't go out to buy one, we were looking at C4 or C4 Picasso, most of them fall below £140 a year tax (C4 car comes in at £30) and average 50mpg without breaking a sweat. Only reason we got the Grand Picasso was cos it was cheaper than every other C4 variety we looked at and as a bonus had the 7 seats.

I'm be amazed if the C4 range wasn't on Motability and might be worth a look for OP.


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## daz1972 (Dec 4, 2009)

Me and the other half just taken delivery of a Nissan Qashqai 360 through motability, has said previously you have to be in receipt of higher rate mobility we have it for our 3 yr old who has limited mobility at the moment it's a godsend yes it's not free you are giving up your allowance around £220 a month there is no way that would buy us the car and peace of mind we have though, no tax, no insurance, no breakdown cover, no servicing costs to worry about all taken care of. We also have a blue badge we don't take the mick with it we use it when needed hosp appointments etc. Some of the looks we get though when jumping out of the car and parking in a disabled bay.


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## 11alan111 (Dec 29, 2011)

i thought about getting one as the wife is entitled but if you work out what you spend on tax insurance and running costs you are worse off having a car


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## daz1972 (Dec 4, 2009)

You don't pay for tax, insurance etc it's included as part of the motabilty scheme basically you give up your allowance roughly £220 a month and just put fuel in the tank.


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## svended (Oct 7, 2011)

As above. Other than the allowance, the only thing you pay is the fuel.


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## 11alan111 (Dec 29, 2011)

daz1972 said:


> You don't pay for tax, insurance etc it's included as part of the motabilty scheme basically you give up your allowance roughly £220 a month and just put fuel in the tank.


what i meant was work out what you would pay on your own car then work out how much you recieve in benefit ie it doesnt cost £220 a month to run a car


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## Guitarjon (Jul 13, 2012)

Mum has one for dad. They needed something big enough to fit a wheel chair in. They had a golf estate now have a touran thing. Be aware some larger models require deposits, I know pretty much any vw with an engine larger than a 1.2 does and sized bigger than a polo but I guess their deals change all the time. If they had gone for a different brand there may have been no upfront deposit. 

It really has given my dad more freedom now as he can't walk and wouldn't go anywhere without his chair.


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## Guitarjon (Jul 13, 2012)

As already mentioned they pay for tyres too. My mum got a screw in hers and they replaced it. Like for like.


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## daz1972 (Dec 4, 2009)

11alan111 said:


> what i meant was work out what you would pay on your own car then work out how much you recieve in benefit ie it doesnt cost £220 a month to run a car


The way we looked at it is i now have a £22000 Qashqai in my garage which i just put diesel in now and again that's it, there is know way i would have been able to afford a car like this without having to find a sizeable down payment to bring the monthly cost to £220 then add insurance, tax, breakdown, servicing, replacement tyres etc it's a no brainer for us we need the car to ferry the little one around hosp appointments, nursery run however everyone circumstances are different if you feel you wouldn't get the use from a car stick with receiving the allowance every month.


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## Stufat (Apr 30, 2013)

I don't really see any cons in the whole motabilty scheme. Were waiting for our 4th to arrive (1 was written off after 9 months)
The mrs had a flat in her last mini countryman, she phoned mini, they sent a low loader, took her and car to nearest mini dealership, changed tyre, valeted car (I don't mind them doing hers, saves me a job) and plied her with coffee and biscuits for 2 hours. Eventually they presented her with a bill for 350 notes, she reminded them again it's motability so free and drove on out with nothing to pay


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