Car-fkaesque.

Regular readers of this blog may be aware of our adventures of late trying to swap over our Motability car, something that should be easy and accessible (clues in the name).

As previously mentioned it's the first time we've ever had to swap over our car (you initially get it for 3 years) so we reckoned it'd be fairly straightforward - the staff on the phone at Motability have been great - tho' there has been a noticeable delay 'tween getting information on the phone and it being passed along the chain to the actual hard copy paper department, for example we phoned one day to extend the lease and were told it was no problem only to receive a letter a few days later saying the lease was up and we'd stolen the car(!), turns out 'the system' hadn't updated. An excuse that NT folk seem to accept as a given even tho' the new information would have been updated manually and almost instantaneously - the real reason was no-one bothered to inform anyone for a day or two so the letter got sent out and let's be fair, when you as an Autistic person gets a letter like that the phrase "Just ignore it" doesn't really help. 

And that's just the easy part of it seeing as the rest of the process is an utter Kafkaesque nightmare.

 

 

You might remember me mentioning that originally when the car lease was up we just wanted to swap to a car of similar size and make - nothing special, no hyper alloy racing wheels or 'go faster' stripes (which surprisingly they try to get you to have) so we phoned our local Motorbility dealer to arrange an appointment.

The Motability agent was on holiday so we had to phone back to arrange to see someone else.

We phoned back, the other guy wasn't in that day.

So we needed to phone again.

Now you'd think that if the whole Motability scan thing was as rife as the press made out there'd be dozens of staff around throwing cars at any old disability but no - only 1 (maybe 2 at a push) - per dealership. 

Eventually Ro (for it is she who drives, does car stuff) managed to make an appointment and went to see him.

Now we reckoned it'd be a quick and easy swap to a similar model but no...turns out that certain garages only have access to certain cars and to swap over to the same model will now cost £3000 as it's become quite popular.

And before you ask, no you can't just keep the old one.

Luckily there are cars that are cheaper - or no deposit - but guess what? It turns out that car dealerships aren't allowed deliveries of cars from other - affiliated - dealers.

You have to go home and find out for yourself which ones have the car you want/need and where they are yourself.

 

But does she really deserve a car? (Answer on social media).

 

Now I've never bought a car so I've always assumed that when you go to a garage to buy one the staff/sales folk are chomping at the bit to sell you one so was quite surprised to find out that this isn't the case as it looks like not only do you have to get the right day to visit to actually find a salesman but then they only have 2 or 3 types of car as they're not allowed to sell other types. 

If you want a different model they just see you on your way without any help at all.

Not even an address of another dealer.

Yup, turns out that all this talk of sales being a high pressure job is all bollocks and it's almost as if they really don't want to sell you a car and if they do it's less easy than a very complicated Dungeons and Dragons quest.

In a second language.

And without a Dungeon Master to run it.

Or dice.

I assume this is the case as the alternative is that the company sign up to the whole Motability scheme to look caring and sharing in public but when it comes down to it really can't be arsed.

But that can't be it could it? 

Anyway, we finally tracked down a garage we can actually get a car from so Ro popped in to see them and it all went swimmingly till she was told that even tho' she's the driver and has all the information I'm not allowed to ring to confirm who I am and have to be there in person.

But they can ring to tell me this which is odd because that means I'm actually who I say I am when it's convenient for them.

NT rules are really confusing.

So the following Monday Ro had to drop the girls at college whilst I persuaded  Cassidy to get the train into town where we all met up before heading to the dealership (again) in the hopes of getting the whole thing sorted.

Luckily this Motability appointment went brilliantly thanks in no small part to the salesman/rep we had to deal with and everything was put in place to get the new car the middle of December.

Or so we thought.

Jump forward to today, Ro has just taken the car to the dealership (the kids are all off college to enable us to do this) as the new car is waiting for her.

I've signed off on my bit and we're ready to go.

Except it turns out that we're not as we've discovered that I actually have to be there to enter the PIN number and agree (again) to the lease.

Even tho' last time I didn't.

So Ro has left the old car at the garage and had to get the train home, girls are in college tomorrow and Thursday which means we can't get the new car till Friday but only after I travel to the dealership and do my bit, then travel home so that Ro can then get the train to the dealership to get the keys and drive home.

Someone explain how this is in any way and easy system to navigate to me.

Fingers crossed for Friday.