Disability Cars: The Prudent Buyers Resource

The reason for having mobility vehicles is in order for disabled people to be able to get about without having to rely on dial a ride or public transport. There are several varieties of mobility vehicle and out of them all, the ones with rear access doors are more common. By converting a vehicle into a mobility vehicle, the aim is to achieve an improvement in both safety as well as comfort for the disabled passenger.

Out of all the variety of mobility vehicles that are available on the market, the small mobility van is proving to be one of the most popular types. Due to the increase in demand for these speciality vehicles, the major car manufacturers are producing custom made vehicles.

A mobility vehicle has a lot of features many of which you will not find on an ordinary car. The access ramp is probably the most obvious of features that any mobility vehicle will possess. They come as two kinds. One is an electrically operated ramp and the other is operated by a winch mechanism. The ramps can access the vehicle from either the side or back depending on the vehicle construction. Lifts are also available in the larger mobility vehicles making entrance to the vehicle even easier.

They are usually well equipped with other facilities like wheel-chair tie downs, seat belts, sufficient lug space, etc which all helps the wheel chair passengers secure and comfortable while traveling. Usually all the wheelchair accessible vehicles have the power assisted steering and a few have automatic transmission too. Many dealers provide additional accessories like power sensors if we are ready to invest extra money for that. The narrow seats are also provided if needed, which are usually meant for children or for short journeys for the adults who are traveling along with the disabled person.

Essentially, there are two predominant categories of mobility vehicle. One is where the disabled person is located in the vehicle housing and is driven by someone else and the other is where the disabled person them selves drive the mobility vehicle with the aid of several custom made controls to allow them to do that.

The mobility vehicles usually possess a high roof or a lowered floor in order to accommodate the wheel chair. But this depends on the model of the vehicle and the converter which we are choosing. For all most all the vehicles, the length or width of the wheel chair often may not be a problem. But the height matters as different vehicles will be designed in different patterns internally. So in order to accommodate the wheel chair and the person who uses it, some changes are made by increasing the height of the vehicle or by lowering the floor of the vehicle. Several reputed manufacturers of the vehicle provide approved converters, who will be much specialized in their jobs. The manufacturer will provide all the inclusive cost for the conversion of the vehicle.

Mobility vehicles are also available for lease also. So those who cannot afford buying an own vehicle, have those options too.