When I was working, my wife needed some transport to go shopping etc., but when we went out together, we had the use of my car. As the total mileage that she would cover was small, we decided to finance her car ourselves and to receive the benefit as cash. The result was that the car lasted 15 years, did only 35000 miles and was worth nothing when we changed it. Had we had a Motability car the only person benefitting would be the Motor trade who would get a 3 year old car with negligible mileage when we changed it.

Now that I’m retired, we are looking to change to a Motability car for the very reasons that you state, you only need to fuel it. This will obviously be ideal for us.

The downside of the Motability scheme is that the vehicle can only be used for the claimant, so if you need to go somewhere yourself, unless it benefits the claimant, you cannot use the car. I can cover that with my bus pass.

At the end of the day, you have to make a decision on your own circumstances and calculate which is the most beneficial.