What Is Your Criteria When Buying A Car

Written by David M. Grice    Friday, 13 February 2009

If you want a new car, you determine your requirements and set out to find the automobile which satisfies your needs. But for us who use a wheelchair the car we end up with may not be what we had in mind when the shopping began. Having reached middle plus age, my desire is to drive a somewhat sporty car. Other requirements for the new car include a place for the wheelchair within the passenger compartment, room for the chair in the trunk, suitability for hand controls, and an automatic transmission with the gear shift lever on the steering column. I could not find an even somewhat sporty car that meets these minimum requirements. In fact, there are very few cars available which do meet the needs a paraplegic driver (I have good upper body function). Experience has shown that twodoor cars are the best as the wheelchair can be placed behind the front sear of the driver. Four door cars require the independent paraplegic driver to do some wheelchair disassembly so the chair makes the same trip as the driver; typically the footrests must be removed. There should be enough floor space without having to dismantle the wheelchair or have it ride up on the rear seat. My chair, when folded, requires a space of about 13.5 inches. So this eliminates virtually all the "sporty" models. I prefer getting in and out on the passenger side but it is difficult to get uncooperative legs untangled and over a center console so this also eliminates most "sporty" models. Entry on the driver's side does not make things much better. It becomes necessary to sit on the console to fold the seat down while getting the chair in or out of the car. That is not comfortable! The need for space for the wheelchair and for entry and exit from the car eliminate most Japanese makes. I didn't try them all, but did consider all models of the Accura, Toyota and Honda. Discouragement set in at this point as they all had the center console in the two door models and, more importantly, not enough floor space for a wheelchair. Now the U.S. models needed to be considered! I found that all 1991 Ford models failed on either the incabin wheelchair accomodation or on the entry/exit criteria. The Thunderbird and its incarnation, the Mercury Cougar, would be great except for that center console. Chrysler has several cars in their Playmouth, Dodge, and Chrysler lineup which would be just fine except for another of my requirements. There must be enough room in the trunk for the wheelchair because on many occasions I have more than one passenger and this means the trunk and the opening has to be big enough for the chair. All the twodoor Chrysler products fail because none has a trunk long enough to accept a wheelchair and still be able to close the lid. We're down to the General Motors lineup. Good old GM comes through, but not with many choices. I did my shopping at the Buick store, but the comparable models of Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile should produce similar results. The Buick Regal coupe meets all my criteria. The Le Sabre interior space is better than that of the Regal, but the trunk has an opening that is difficult to get the wheelchair through. The Buick Riviera would probably work, but I couldn't spring my wallet open far enough to seriously look at that model. Thriftiness also explains why Cadillac is not mentioned here. I now have installed the hand controls on my red Regal and am on the road. The other features on this car which are proving their worth are the power steering, tilt steering wheel, cruise control, power windows and adjustment for the side mirrors, and other feature not really tested yet, anti lock brakes. This car is not the sporty model I had in mind but it is a good compmise (the red helps). I do not claim to have made a exhaustive search of all the new car possibilities, but have looked at many model's both domestic and foreign. The only acceptable models using my criteris, and there are not many of them, were made in America (truthfully some parts of them from Canada).

Last Updated ( Friday, 13 February 2009 )