New Car Smell

Hello dear readers!

You join me today after what has been a very exciting week. No, unfortunately this does not mean any offers of gainful employment. What the week has brought however is a new arrival to the Seated Perspective household. Her name is Ruby, she is only a few weeks old and she is, as the title of the post probably gives away, a car

Specifically she is a Toyota Auris, a make and model I've was particularly keen on due to it being a hybrid and therefore a little lighter on the pocket when it comes to the old fuel bill. Now this post isn't meant to serve as some kind of shallow boast, although I am very proud to own such a wonderful piece of machinery. No, I thought that meeting my new lady would give me the ideal opportunity to illustrate how purchasing a car can be a very different experience for those of a seated disposition.

First of all, you may have noticed that I mentioned Ruby is a new vehicle, and not just to me. In fact only a couple of weeks has passed since she first took her first rolls off the assembly line. Now, obviously new cars do not come cheap and such an extravagance would normally be far beyond my means... if I wasn't disabled.

You see, one 'perk' of being disabled is the Motability scheme. What this effectively does is use some of the benefits disabled people get, in order to help them live as independent a life as possible, to finance hiring a car for a fixed three year period (there is a non-refundable deposit to pay however.). At the end of this period the vehicle is returned back to Motability who then sell it on. It's a wonderful scheme, one that I’ve used since I got my very first car (many, many moons ago!) and without which I could not have held down a job, visited out of town friends, and would have had severe difficulty even meeting the long suffering Mrs S-P!

So, as you can see, transportation really is vital to someone like myself. I know public transport has come a long way of late (more of which in a later post.) and in fact I know disabled friends who use it regularly. This blogger for one though cannot imagine life without a car, and of course it has to be the right car.

As a bit of a thought experiment, what do you think would be important to you if you were buying a car? Price? Mileage? Fuel economy? Colour? Sexy curves? I know for a lot of people all of these are major considerations, amongst many, many other factors, and of course the same goes for me. (Apart from colour, Mrs S-P had the final say on that this time, red, red or... errm, red). There was one thing though, one overriding factor that, despite outstanding fuel economy and affordability, great reviews and fantastic customer service from the dealership, would have been enough to scupper the whole deal.

Would my wheelchair go in the boot?

You see, dear readers, my current chair is a fixed frame model. This means that it doesn't fold in the middle as some do, giving it greater stability and durability. This does come at a price however and that price is a lack of versatility when it comes to storage options. To put it another way, the chair takes up a quite a lot of space. This lack of adaptability means that a large number of cars would present enough of a challenge for me to avoid completely. Any saloon cars are out, as are any of the superminis. Any car without foldable rear seats would have to be looked at carefully too. They might not be unmanageable, but it would be something I'd have to take into account. 

Having assessed the car as having the necessary room, the next step is how high the mouth of the boot is and whether it has any kind of lip to navigate when throwing the chair in. (I know, it doesn't sound the most civilised description of getting a wheelchair in the boot of a car. It is probably the most accurate though.) Again, if this is not the right fit then it could be enough to dissuade me from making the purchase, it really is that important.

Once the chair is in the car, that just leaves one other thing to consider; can I get in? It seems like a fairly straight forward thing but, as I have unusually long legs for a wheelchair user and they don't bend all that well, it can be, well, less than easy. A door that opens nice and wide, and a seat that goes back far enough to swing them in makes life so much simpler. A brake pedal I’m not going to get my left foot stuck under is always a bonus too.

All of these have to be my first considerations before I can think about such niceties as a sexy silhouette and whether it would get on Mr Clarkson's (Sorry, Mr Evans') cool wall, probably more too. Don’t get me wrong, Ruby is a lovely car, she's got the looks, she's got the gadgets and she's a pleasure to drive. At the end of the day though I have to take the practical viewpoint and admit that above all she is a tool to give me independence and that is something she does extremely well.

Until next time!