You need to walk round used car lots with a tape measure - there's no easy way especially as so many have seat height adjustment.

When my mother-in-law was alive we found that a conventional saloon/hatchback/estate was too low for her to get out of without substantial assistance from us - but when I changed to an "allroad estate" type she was able to slide in/out with ease - so it will obviously depend how tall your relative is.

Absolutely agree - and it's also important to check the distance from seat to door sill, and the height of the door sill as well. A lot depends on the way your relative's movement is impaired.

My wife has arthritic knees: she doesn't have too much of a problem with either my Q2 (you don't have to climb up or down) or her A3 convertible (lowish but not too much so). But when I had the Octavia vRS estate, the hard side bolsters on the seats made it difficult for her getting in and out.

Edited by Avant on 02/06/2020 at 23:20

Trying to find a car for a movement impaired relative and specifically trying to find seat heights for various vehicles. Anybody have any ideas where I can get this type of info?

Thanks

The Motability website has this information available for the reasons you state.

I think you have to search the information under specific cars. If this is the case, then I believe the search tool will be up and running again on June 4th.

There is https://www.ridc.org.uk/ which lists car details such as seat height but somewhat ironically I find their revamped website more difficult to use than its previous incarnation which to me was better.

The normal answer to this question is something like a Kia Venga or Hyundai IX20. Same car mechanically and choice is down to what interior you like. Both were discontinued last year so some good late model deals to be had.

For a reduced mobility person (ie: my wife) we chose the Venga as seat height is good, door opening is excellent both front and back and its an easy car to drive as an auto although very thirsty around town. Wife preferred the Kia interior and we managed to get one with some warranty left in our budget.

We did consider a Suzuki SX4 -Scross but it was beyond our budget, a Vauxhall Mokka again out of budget and boot was small for car size.

As others have said, mobility issues are personal so the only way to be sure is to try some of the models you shortlist.

I don't think there's any way but to check whether the relative can access the vehicle concerned. So much depends on their disability and how they deal with it.

My late Mother, born 1926, got herself into cars in her later years by shuffling backwards until her calves touched the door cill, feeling her way down until her bum was on the seat and then swinging round, knees together like she'd been taught so as not to show her stocking tops in the forties, ending up face forward, feet in footwell.

Wouldn't work in our 2013 Berlingo as the seats, front and rear, were too high/too far back from the cill. Her bum would drop short of the seat and end up on the cill.