Generally worth avoiding any model with "sport" in the title. They tend to have so-called "sport" seats which are more difficult to swivel into / out of, and also tend to have large wheels / stiffer suspension which do not make for a comfortable ride.

I wasn't being grumpy, but having just pointed out the reasons we couldn't realistically give him any specific suggestions at this point, it surprised me that someone came along and did just that! He said "higher seat" but what is that? My Roomster has height adjustable seats but normal height car, the CMax from the one I've seen has a higher level entry which is different to higher seats... we don't know what the OP's other half's mobility restrictions are other than she can't get into a bucket seat... so how can we make suggestions until we know more detail?

Anyhow I've made my suggestion to the OP, and the reasons why. If he chooses to pick cars at random then its his choice, I just hope he takes her along to try them out first! ;-)

Motability?

One thing to consider is door openings. My late father in law was wheelchair bound for the last few years of his life and one thing that we found made access easier, when transferring from wheelchair to car, was big wide doors. I bought a 3 door Almera as the doors on the 3 door open much wider than the front doors of a 5 door.

Thanks folks... Perhaps we could persuade the OP to come back and tell us what sort of vehicles he found suited her best and we can then suggest specific cars with those attributes?

Over to you, PMc!

Edited by b308 on 18/08/2010 at 10:19

I have read with the interest the posts on disabled cars.

Ideally one should take ones spouse to see and try cars,but that is not always possible.

My wife is at the moment is house bound and has very short legs and arms and a height of 4 ft..11ins. At the moment I have a Corsa,which my wife cannot get into, as although low is to high for her,even using a swivel seat she cannot get access. So I have to take a measuring tape to ensure that it is the correct height,but I have not tried the Toyota Yaris.

I thank you all for you all for your various comments , they have been most helpful.

MJ

As brilliant and reliable as they are, I'm not sure the Yaris Verso would have even been the obvious choice 14 years ago when this thread was started, never mind now. Back then, it may only have been 4 years since they went out of production, but they were never a big seller in the UK due to the unconventional looks so wouldn't be that easy to find.

Fast forward to now and there are 11 nationwide on Autotrader. Remove the insurance write-offs and that drops to 8. Want something with under 100k miles?, that leaves 5 (though 4 of them are auto)!

As for the side hinged rear door, I can't see why it would make any difference at all to the loading of a wheelchair or scooter, it is the very low loading floor height that makes it easy. Having that side hinged rear door means you need much more space behind you to open it and it also means that if you are parked on the "wrong" side of the road, access into the boot is very awkward indeed.

We had a Ford Fusion and I remember reading how much effort Ford had put in making the Fusion easier to access for those with reduced mobility (I think this also applied to the original C-Max). It had seats which were higher than normal (but not excessively so), very wide opening doors, and (like the Yaris Verso) a very low loading height into the boot. But the Fusion, while not as old as the Yaris Verso, is also getting on with the very youngest being 12 years old.