I need your expert advice on Motability Scheme vehicles. We have a appointment next week to see cars but I don’t know what to ask. What questions should I be asking? My cared for individual is a full time wheelchair user due to paraplegia of his lower body. In other words, he does not walk at all. One important factor to consider is how he will be able to get into the car etc comfortably too. Also he wears leg braces that start at his waist and go downwards to his feet as well.
Which cars worked well for you? Why would you recommend them? I want to hear the good and bad things. We are buying the car outright not leasing it this time around. The car ideally needs to be large so that his wheelchair can fit into the back of the vehicle easily. I am open to suggestions. All will be considered. Where can I access information on such cars? My caree can definitely use his hands to support himself but needs help when out in the community. His disability means he has virtually no leg function.
We were visited for a measure up to see our size entitlement. Then we looked online and asked to view a few cars. They bring them to us and we try the chair, as I remember. No pressure. You are taught how to use it properly. No questions for you to ask. We used Allied mobility.
Sorry I only read the first paragraph! The vehicles are called WAV’S or wheelchair accessible vehicles. Allied Mobility are who we used. We have a Peugeot Horizon or Partner…my advice is to take him with you for a demo, in fact you MUST… Most will bring a vehicle to you. Also if you go for Peugeot get manual it drives better than the semi auto. It does the job fine and changes to a five seater easily too. Look em up…good luck. You just need to see him in placed in it and then test drive, sorted.
Make sure you try the WAVs out well, step back look and think ‘will this still be suitable a couple of years down the line’? Remember a WAV through motability is for 5 years not like the cars 3 years. Also remember that the people are always nice and helpfull because they are salesmen.
My late hubby used to hate travelling in his wheelchair. He had no mobility at all, it was wheelchair or bed - nothing in the middle. As he had to transfer from wheelchair to passenger seat and back, our main concern was how wide the car door would open, because the large electric wheelchair had to be positioned at a 45 degree angle to the door sill, but touching it (else the slider board wouldn’t reach, let alone go under his bottom).
The other concern was the height of the boot and how far up the boot would lift. We settled for a Volvo estate, because the boot height was enough to allow a dismembered wheelchair to go under it and the back of the car was low enough, that the ramps weren’t too steep to drive the empty wheelchair up into the boot. This changes according to the ground which the car is parked on.
When it all became too much for me to balance him in ‘no man’s land’ in the middle of wheelchair and car seat, whilst I shuffled myself from passenger seat over to driver seat to pull him completely in, we got a WAV Chrysler Voyager. Hubby reluctantly travelled in his wheelchair. With side access and the passenger seat taken completely out, he managed to manouvre himself and the chair up the side ramp, turn 90 degrees round and drive forward into the passenger space. This was the only vehicle we could find, which was large enough to take his wheelchair. Hubby didn’t like sitting in the rear of any vehicle, as he didn’t feel safe.
It’s a lot to take into account, but quite an investment to get wrong.
Good luck with it all, hope you find something soon.