Thread: Motability

Hi guys,

So my brother just got a new car on the motability scheme...

He had a Hyundai Coupe SIII which he also got from the scheme 3 years ago, was a nice car with red leather interior but the electronics in the car seemed a little cheap and the blue lighting on the stereo didnt really appeal to me.
here you can see it parked next to mine.




so now 3 years have passed and he went for an upgrade as his kids are getting older and he needs more room...

and he got this:




its a 61 plate Nissan Qashqai +2, comes with built in Sat nav, reverse camera, bluetooth, SD card reader and USB and AUX in the armrest. the USB also works perfectly with his iPod and charges it so its a wicked package to have.

i think he had to pay £500 or so to get this spec car but its quiet a car for £500!

They are a lovely car mate, tell your brother I said all the best with it! .. Also did someone spill some purple while painting the brake calipers?lol

Nice one, my mum has one of these in blue, not that spec and not that colour calipers lol, are they factory ??

loving the pink calipers. Really sets the car off

what is the notability?
I noticed alot of garages started doing it near me.

Originally Posted by scott b5

what is the notability?
I noticed alot of garages started doing it near me.

Motability is a government scheme whereby disabled people can have a car instead of claiming certain benefits. They can then use it as part of retaining independence, or get a carer or family member to drive them around. You can accept a car appropriate to your level of benefits, or choose to top it up with your own money if you want something else. After 3 years, assuming you are still on the same benefits, you can get another car.

It works because the scheme operates as not for profit so the lease costs of the cars are less than you'd pay for a similar car on a manufacturer's scheme. They also happen to be the UK's largest fleet operator (fleet size approx 1/2 million cars) and purchaser of new cars (circa 150,000 per annum), and at those volumes, you can get pretty good discounts which again helps to keep the costs down. Mk1 Citroen Xsara Picasso was a previous best leased car due to it's size/cost.

Ol yes the calipers are purple not pink as the car is a midnight black or purple (not sure of the actual paint name) but if has a purple ting to it. My brother painted the calipers and must have spilt the paint while doing it. The motability scheme is really good as he does not need to pay insurance, tax or service costs! It's all covered by the scheme! All he pays for is petrol!!

Question is, what is classed as the minimal disablement to get the benefits of this system, my uncle lost his use of his left arm from a motorbike accident some 20-30 years ago, but he apparently cant get squat to help him, which seems unfair to me as he holds down a full time time, never claimed anything, but really wants to get back on the road to help his wife not drive him everywhere, but cant afford it all.

I see it as a good idea, but you do wonder if there are a fair few people who take advantage of the system, as I recall a neighbour many years ago used to benefit from a system like this, but you'd see them all walking about with no issues whatsoever, always wondered how they pulled a new car out of the hat every few years with no actual employment we knew of to pay for it.

I looked at that car for my wife, and it does look grand, but the interior size surprised me as it was quite small. The sales rep reckoned the Quasquai was based on the internal space of a fiesta, and the Juke on a Ka.

I was looking for something to hold a wheelchair, and the Quasquai wasn't up for the job.

Nice looking motor.

As for those complaining, please guys, not all people who get DLA are cheaters. A few highlighted cases of cheaters has tarred everyone with the same brush. The reason these cases make the news is because they are big stories. If this kind of thing happened every day it would not be newsworthy. Some drivers of Audi's are complete tossers, but that doesn't mean all Audi drivers are.

Motability is a good scheme, for the right reasons. The alternative is to spend billions on improving public transport to enable all disabled users to get from A to B without any difficulty.

Oh, and I forgot to say, it is still a NISSAN!

As with anything with 500,000 vehicles, there is bound to be some abuse. I know there was a bit of a scandal a few years ago with people buying 2 seat sports cars e.g. MR2, MX5. In some of those cases, the individual was very disabled and it was their nominated carer who in effect got the car, so the scheme was being abused in that the vehicle was actually completely unsuitable for the person who got the benefit to even travel in as a passenger. It was simply supplied as a free car to someone in their family to mess around in - which is wrong.

I believe tougher checks have been introduced to try to stop this sort of thing from happening. Ultimately the scheme is designed to get people a suitable family car, so a Qashquai, Picasso, Scenic etc. are all the sort of fair that the scheme users should be buying.

Yh I didnt fully agree to the fact he had that Hyundai because it got more attention than my Audi but then he only had the one kid and his wife also has a run about car so i guess it was kind of justified. Now he has 2 kids who are growing up fast so the family car makes more sense.