Following our disabled son's recent upgraded PIP award we're considering getting a motability vehicle but are aware there are pros and cons. Having checked some of the relatively recent threads here we're still not sure whether it'd make sense for us.

We have 2 elderly vehicles at present (53 diesel & 07 petrol), the elder of which we've been considering getting shot of for a while and the vast majority of our mileage is now taking him to/from college twice a week which is a round trip of 50 miles or so each time (c.4k pa). However as he's recently started living away from home during the week (term time) and will be for the next 3 years, we'd like to be able to take him on trips further afield at weekends during holidays etc. and our future mileage in any new car would reflect this.

IIRC the current rules allow a 20k annual mileage which I'm sure is far more than we'd actually use so I'm wondering if the sums add up overall and what the other main considerations are. My wife would keep her car on which I'm a named driver and I'd retire mine hence saving on tax/mot/insurance at a cost of around £700pa plus any other annual running costs. I believe if we are claim free for the period that ought to be accepted by a future insurer if I were to need to insure a car in my own right again for whatever reason but for how long would that be the case? My last insurance claim was over 12 years ago touch wood... :)

Having had a brief look at what cars are available with only a small initial one off payment, so far we feel we'd be looking at a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso diesel but whether it'd be something we'd want to keep after the 3 years are up I couldn't say. It looks a very nice car but there's always the reliability question. Also, although I like driving mine, life's getting increasingly tough for diesels and who knows what the rules will be like in 2020. For that reason I wouldn't want to buy anything other than a petrol model but these come at a higher initial cost on Motability.

Having said all that, are there any other significant considerations, financial or otherwise, I'm overlooking and would taking up this option probably be a good idea (in the absence of a crystal ball) in our circumstances? We're going to need 2 cars for various reasons so the only other option would be for me to buy another car of similar size (nearly new petrol) and for us to continue using our own vehicles for his transportation.

Thanks in anticipation.

Edited by Mazda-Man on 08/01/2017 at 16:30