Not sure where this fits in best! Buying a car as a disabled person.

[oldmann55]

I decided to post my story here, (as well as on a forum for disabled drivers elsewhere).

I am, as I have already mentioned, disabled and I use a contract lease car supplied through the motability scheme. For those of you who don't know how that works, if someone is sufficiently disabled to qualify for the State Benefit called Dissability Living Allowance with the "higher mobility component" they can elect to use the "mobility component" to lease a car (or a wheelchair etc) from a Government run charity called motability. The car is leased for 3 years, and if still entitled at the end of this period can be traded in for a further car. Whilst there have been a few cases of people abusing the system, on the whole it works well.

Anyway, I needed to have a lease car to replace my old and decrepit Rover 600. I bought the Rover on ebay to tide me over for a couple of months, until I could find the right motability car for me again. That was over 2 years ago, and my £99 ebay rover is still going strong! It's due an mot at the end of the month, so its got to go..

My shortlist of suitable cars, within the motability scheme, which I would be comfortable with was the Chevrolet Tacuma, Ford C-Max, Chevrolet Lacetti estate and the Skoda Roomster. I also went to see Hyundai and Toyota to see thier offerings...

The Hyundai dealer gave me a lot of untrue information and committed the aweful sin of doing down the other cars I wanted to see, so I decided to reject them without further ado. The Ford, while OK did nothing for me... if I was given one to drive, I'd drive it, but I sure would not buy one! Sadly the Skoda dealership in Chichester are not motability accredited, but they were very helpful when I said I would just like to see the roomster, and they advised me of other Skoda dealerships who could help me.

As I needed to take care of some business in London I decided to go to Allams in Epsom and Phoenix in Croydon. I booked an appointment at Phoenix, but just turned up on the off chance at Allams. Geoff, the Skoda and motability guy at Allams, was very helpful indeed, understanding fully my need to check out all the cars on my list. He offered to get the Roomster that I was most intereted in from the storeage lot, while I went to Phoenix.

I got to Phoenix and the guy I was meant to be seeing was "not around at the moment" so I decided to wait for another salesman. there were at least 4 other salespersons sitting around, drinkiung coffee and discussing (loudly) their sexual conquests from a "Friday night out" I had my wife with me, and there were several families with kids in the showroom, all of whom could hear the gorey details! One of the sales guys eventualy came over to ask if he could help, but wanted to have me wait again, as he was not the motability man. I asked him a couple of simple questions about the Tacuma, including if the rear seats can be removed, he said no. Then as I decided not to wait any more suddenly one of the other salesmen remembered that he was motability.... This guy was, I assume, Arthur Daileys grandson.... need I say more? (turns out the rear seats on the Tacuma can be removed).

We then left Croydon for Epsom, arriving an hour late for our test drive. I fully expected to be told that it was no longer possible today, and it would have been my fault. Geoff the Allams guy was busy with another customer, but the sales manager (sorry name forgotten) asked us if he could offer a hot drink, and somewhere to sit while he checked the car before he could take us on the test drive. All in all we were made to feel important to the firm, and nothing seemed to be too much trouble. The guy who took us on the test drive apollogised for not knowing the answers to all my questions, but promised to, and did, find the answers on our return. At no time did any of the staff from Allams "knock" any other dealership, or make or model of car! Though we had intended to mull over the results of our car hunt, and place an order sometime this week, we decided that there was no contest, so we ordered the Roomster there and then!

Skoda and the dealerships that I deal with can be assured of my continuing custom in the future as long as they continue to treat us in this honest and fair manner.

To sum up: Ford C-Max, nothing special, Hyundai in Bognor, not impressed, Phoenix in Croydon, arrogant staff, illinformed and unhelpful, poorly placed cars in the showroom (we could not open the back doors of the car we were viewing as it was parked hard against the wall, and the boot was full of jackets and other items) Spashotts Skoda in Chichester, Very helpful, inspite of knowing that I was not going to be able to purchase my car from them. Allams of Epsom, what can I say?.. "I'll be back Geoff!"

[miff13]

Nice to hear that some places still value their customers, unfortunately it's less and less common as most places seem to take the view that another mug will be along soon enough.

Never been in a Roomster, but if the quality of my Octavia is anything to go by you won't regret it.

Welcome to Briskoda

p.s I had a Focus c-max loan car for 3 months whilst I was waiting for my Octavia. The only nice thing I can think to say about it is that it was enormous inside.

[runboy]

Nice to hear there are some good dealers out there. Welcome to the forum and Skoda ownership!

[Wardy]

A good dealer review

Glad to hear you've found something suitable, and that it's got the right badge on it

Steve

[octav.ed]

good report m8.

dealers seem to b getting more bad press recently this post is positive at least.

every 1 has an off day, but 4 r 5 on same day is unacceptable... :thumbdwn:

[Angry Dog]

Its reasons like this that say to me that Skoda really need to start taking themselves seriously.

Good cars, good dealers, what more can you ask for?

Glad you got sorted out with the right car

[Aspman]

My Mum gets a motability car and they just picked their new one on Friday. They have quite a long list of requirements that sound trivial but are hard for them to get (must be higher then average but not too high, passenger armrest, lost of room in the boot for dog+cage, space in back for Gramps, not too much of a deposit etc etc).

They also looked a the Roomster (everything they wanted but Mum didn't like the style of it), C-Max (liked it but Dad had a bad experience of Ford in the past and the C-Maxs get some bad customer reviews), Kia Carens (ok but didn't like it that much), Volvo V50 (loved it but door was too small).

They settled on the new Picasso C4 that they'll get from Duthies in Montrose.

Generally they found all the dealers helpful.

Hope your Roomster works well for you.

I've never understood why salesmen are rude (never had a rude saleswoman yet). Customers remember.

[oldmann55]

Thanks for all your comments, I now have the Roomster and very pleased indeed. On the way home I took a long detour, just to be able to enjoy the feel of this well balanced, fun to drive car! The steering is positive and the engine responsive. There is room enough for my family and the dog too, the flexible seating arrangements mean that even my oldest sons airsofting and camping gear will all fit! (Believe me there are not many cars I can fit a 6 foot police riot shield into!)

Oh and the other car we looked at?.... I got a call a few days later, they seemed to be unable to grasp the concept that a disabled person can actually think for themselves. I was advised by them that the car, (a tacuma) was out of production, and there are "only 400" left in the country, I should hurry and sign the papers before they all go. Why would I want to buy a car that's no onger being made? But thats another story!

[KenONeill]

Makes no sense to me either. Neither does calling a car the "Tacuma", because whenever I hear that name I think of that suspension bridge that got hit by wind on its resonant frequency and tore itself apart.

[andy2407]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review oldmann.

Pleased to hear you are enjoying our new car.

[Tink]

Your son airsofts? brilliant! its a great sport . glad you're enjoying the roomster, and i understand about the motability requirements. My mother gets high rate, and we were on the motability scheme for around... 6 years, before i started to learn to drive, and so we got a toyota Rav 4 privately. they'll almost certainly move to skoda once i've moved out though, probably plumping for a scout version of either the fabia or roomster, or the yeti if its out by then.

Would you mind me asking how much the deposit was on the roomster you got?

[oldmann55]

Tink, the Roomy I got ( the roomster2 1.4) was zero deposit, a few weeks into the romance and I'm still in love... my mobile phones charger blew the fuse on the power socket, and I got a bit confused about which fuse it was, but Sparshalts (spelling?) in Chichester were very helpful, and understanding, and even went to the trouble to double check that the charger was indeed the cause of the blown fuse! The 2 way adjustment on the steering wheel is such a boon to me, I "fold away" the wheel before getting out, and that way have even more room to turn my huge body (can it still be called a body when its that huge?) and get out. The feeling that the nose of the car is longer than it is leaves me parking a little further away from objects in front of me, but thats not a bad thing remembering how many time I used to hit the back of the garage in my rover!