Following on from Chris's thread, I thought that a seperate thread could be started specifically geared to those of us who have got the car for use with a disabled person... Its the sort of car which is seen as an alternative to the Berlingo/Doblo things so anyone coming onto the site to have a look for people's opinions would have somewhere to look straight away!

So to start off I'll give my reasons for buying, and my thoughts so far...

We needed a car which was big enough to carry a folding wheelchair and walker or an electric buggy, plus luggage for three or four adults... none of the Mini MPVs such as the Meriva or Note are anywhere near large enough for this purpose, and whilst the Estate versions of the superminis are, the seats in the back are only 60/40 folding and do not come out... We ruled out the Berlingo, etc as they are too big to fit in our garage...

At this point its worth noting that the Roomster is not really big enough to carry a full sized wheelchair with a person sitting in it like the van-based MPVs, its only really suitable for someone who is able to get out of the wheelchair and the chair is then folded down stored in the rear. So if a person is permamently wheelchair bound then the larger cars are more suitable...

We have been away with it, but just the two of us, all the luggage and the wheelchair was stored in the boot, with the walker behind the front seats...having another adult and luggage would not be a problem...

Earlier today I was looking at how I would store everything when there are four of us and tried folding the middle rear seat forward (the smaller of the three), I found that the folding wheelchair, slid in upright, fits exactly in the space left by the seat, between the other two seats, and with the other two seats slid fully forward (maximising boot space) it does not interfere with the boot space... With the handles folded down rear vision using the rear view mirror is not affected and you can still mount the rear parcel shelf. One thing I will have to do, though, is find some way of tying down the wheelchair when mounted here, I'd rather not have ot trying to escape if things went wrong!

Hope this helps, and if I think of anything else, I'll add to it!

My wife is disabled by rheumatoid arthritis. Lots of stiffness in lots of joints makes access to a car the major problem for her. After trying, IIRC, nine different vehicles mostly in the small-medium hatch segment we settled on the Roomster as she could comfortably get in and out of the front passenger seat. Incidentally, the Octavia failed that test! We have a very compact folding wheelchair (from Remploy) which collapses rather like the original McLaren Baby Buggy. With the rear seats fairly well back to allow plenty of space for the dog, the wheelchair fits comfortably into the boot, accompanied for holidays by two medium suitcases and miscellaneous bits 'n' pieces indluding the dog's bed. Her mobility scooter is a medium-large shopper type. It demounts into four sections which fairly well fill the boot, though with the rear seats still in the same well-back position. The lip depth (guessing, about 4in. 10cm.) doesn't make loading too difficult, and in fact serves to keep the scooter components securely located. By the way, the flexible what-not, useful for holding bottles etc, remains in place when we carry either chair or scooter, so there would be more room to play with if necessary.

I've only had to remove the rear seats on one occasion, when I had a suite to move. Two armchairs on one trip, and the sofa on another. Formidable!

I've seen a few about, all of which don't look "modified". Seems like they've taken well to being adapted for disabled use

Meadway, have you seen those seats you can buy which swing round and move outwards to help getting out? They are expensive, though, and there is a "turntable" you can out on the seat which does a similar thing...

I have, thank you, and very useful they can be. Fortunately, SWMBO's condition is not (yet :-( ) bad enough to need one. But therein hangs a tale: A few years ago, following two redundancies in 13 months, I took a short-term job with a company which managed the demonstrator fleets for a number of car companies. (I can recommend it to anyone who really wants to drive 72,000 miles a year). Some of the fleets had vehicles with various adaptations for disabled drivers. Some were straightforward, like power-operated clutches with a micro-switch in the gearstick knob, rather like the Mercedes A-class Clutchless Wonder . Others were anything but: on one occasion, while working our way back to base, I lifted another driver to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, prosthetic limb department, at Oxford. He was to pick up a Fiat. This machine had been so fiendishly adapted, most of the conventional controls didn't work: there was a row of big square buttons, all different colours, some illuminated some not. I expected him back at base about 10 minutes after me. I fact it took him almost an hour, working out which button did what. Still, never a dull moment!

Babs, I don't think they could be modified to full wheelchair use (if thats what you mean) without an awful lot of work, they aren't as big as the Berlingos/doblos and not as tall... I know that when we went to a local show the salesman on the stands who did modified vehicles hadn't even seen one! However they are very good for those of us who have quite a lot to carry around but not enough room for the larger cars!

Oh, and prefer a proper car to a modified van!