Which mobility car did you pick?, does it work for your family and why did you pick it?

[FlyMeToTheMoonAndLetMePlay]

Did you choose contract ot HP?

Also if you have a child with non visible/physical disability do you use the disabled car spaces or the child car spaces in private car parks if you have a blue badge?

I dont have the mobility element so am just being nosey

We've got a Nissan Note on contract hire, because I haven't been driving very long and I didn't feel confident about driving a huge car yet. We've had it for just under a year, and it has been a Godsend tbh. Both myself and dh have back problems, and we chose this car because it sits quite high on the road. We dont have to bend down as far to lift dd in and do up her seatbelt.

We do use the disabled spaces now that dd is 5 and is a blue badge holder, but I try to be considerate. If there are several spaces free I will pick the furthest one, so that people with greater needs can have the more convenient spaces, but I realise that not everybody thinks like me. I need to be able to open the door wide enough so that I can get dd in the car without either of us getting hurt. The average car park space isn't wide enough, particularly if you then get a 4x4 parked right next to you. I would rather wait than use a parent and toddler space... my 2 dc's are 5 and 6, so clearly aren't toddlers any more. I don't fancy triggering a buggy rage incident

Dd's problems are physical, but aren't always immediately obvious. She can walk a bit but it causes her a lot of pain, and it puts strain on her heart. She is also very wobbly and likely to fall over. She uses a Maclaren Major which just about fits in the car, thanks to dh mis-measuring it

We have got a vauxhall zafira. Its great re space (7 seats) and good sized boot for DS wheelchair. I also like that it is high up and much easier to get DS in and out of rather than stooping. The only problems I have with it are as follows:
1). The A-post (next to the windscreen) is huge and I think it is quite dangerous. I don't know if it's because I am little, but it restricts my vision when looking to the right a lot. eg If I am going around a roundabout, I find it very difficult to see if there is anything in front of me. I almost knocked a man over the other day because I was turning right and he was walking right in my blind spot. I saw him with inches to spare! Gave me quite a fright.
It is for this reason (and this alone) that when I come to replace our motability car next year I will choose a different one.

2). I would prefer a car with sliding doors as if there are no disabled spaces available or spaces on the end of a row, then I cannot get DS out of the car.

I always park in disabled spaces as we need the room to get out of the car. I never park in parent and toddler as my DS (5) is not a toddler any more, and I remember how annoyed I used to get with people who used to park in these spaces with larger children

I have been given a few tuts and stares, but if anyone ever dared to say anything to me then they would be put COMPLETELY straight!
In fact, one old lady once flashed her blue badge at me as I pulled out of a space in Tesco. We had only just got our blue badge then and I was fuming. I actually drove away from the shop but stopped a few hundred yards down the road. I wrote a note which I stuck on her windscreen basically telling her how lucky she was she could walk at all, and that my 3 year old couldn't take a single step!

We're on our second mobility renault scenic grande. It was a choice between that an the zafira, but I preferred renaults (had one already, like their safety features).

I park in disabled spaces sometimes. Eg today we went into a car park, it was fairly full, I knew ds1 would want to do his routine (go to the toilet) I knew he would try to kick off and run inside the visitor centre, I knre ds2 wanted to stay in the car and ds3 wanted to get out with ds1. So we went for disabled. I don't always.

We have a toyota corolla verso. Very good, a 5 seater, but with 2 extra seats that stow flat in the boot, so a small people carrier really. Good on fuel, but not too difficult to do parallel parking in.

my dad has the renault Espace.
It is a beautigull car to drive but the rear seats and boot space is really small.

I wouldn't recommend it if you needed to use all the seats.

He uses the disabled spaces because he has to...he needs the room to get out of the car.

i have a 7 seater renault grand scenic on contract

with 4 kids and a wheelchair to fit in, i find it has plenty of space to fit us all plus shopping if needed

in fact even with 7 seats up, i can just about squeeze the wheelchair in, though clearly no room for anything else

i picked it because i didnt fancy a zafira, and it was on a special offer of a 995 deposit at the time

We have a VW Touran, 7 seater but they had to remove the two seats in the boot to install the hoist which lifts the wheelchair into the boot. We got the disabled badge when DD was 2, she is now 7. At the time we only used the disabled parking when we couldn't get M & T parking. We have always needed to open the doors wide between having casts on her legs and the wheelchair.
For the last 2 years we have had other children 2 and 13 weeks so now if their are m & t parkings we use those as still get scares and rude comments before people see our daughter who can't move her legs or sit up. And it is always from the people who might have a badge but can walk and look perfectly able.

we are on our 3rd. last one was a vauxhall zafira. it was brilliant as a family car and plenty of boot space fro dd's small wheelchir.
we now have a renault master van(biggest offered on motability) and it is the best. is W.A and plent of room for everything and brilliant to drive.

we are on our third mobility car.

we had the vaukhall astra new style, for a year, which was great, but hadto upgrade to a bigger car when dd3 came along.

So then went for a nissan tino. which i loved. it was the perfect size for us as a family of 5, with a double buggy and dh occasional wheelchair to start with. then it carried the double and peters LVAD and trolley, plus spares. It had plenty of leg room front and rear, and was just a nice car to drive.

Now we have a zafira. its very practica, but tbh to me its just a car. i dont love or hate it. i would;ve preferred something like the renault, or one of the other 6+ seaters on the market, but finicial aspect limited us to the zafira.

oh and we dont always use disabled spaces now. at one point it was a nesscitty as dh couldnt get out6 of the car without swining his door wide open. but now we can park in most places, as long as its not too far from where peter needs to be.

We`have a Ford S-Max. It has loads of room, 3 individual seats which is great as we have 3 girls in car seats, then 2 seats in the 'boot' should we need them. When we're not using the 2 seats in the boot there is a huge amount of boot space, great for all the pushchairs we carry around (Major for when I have DD2 on her own, single for when I have DD3 on her own and double for when I have DD2 and DD3!

The advance payment was huge (gulp) but it is a fantastic car and so great for us - the only thing that would make it even better would be sliding doors.

We do have a blue badge and I use disabled spaces as much as possible when I have DD2 with me - we need the extra space so I can open the door fully to get her out. I also like to avoid walking across big car parks when I can as she has no real awareness of traffic and also trips and stumbles a lot - I dread her falling in front of a moving car.

We have the renault scenic grande, we got this because of the seven seats and safety rating. We only have 2 dcs at mo 3rd is due sept and we are hoping there will be enough room for all 5. No one sits next to son in case he flips out and kicks you. Liked having the extra row of seats as if he is in a bad mood dd sits in the back, she is 5'8" and has loads of room even with his buggy.
Want to go for the Kia Sedona or Renault Espace next year but not sure we can afford the down payment, does anyone know how you get help with that, we saw something about it when we got firsdt car but can't find details now.

My friend's mum has a Renault Scenic (I think? 5 seats anyway) and she HATES it. H (my mate) is a wheelchair user, and has a DaVinci Venus, which is rigid frame. Her mum has to fold one of the back seats down to fit it in. It can cause problems when we try to go places and H's younger sister is with us too...

My uncle uses an electric wheelchair so we have a Kia Sedona. It's W.A and lovely and big. (My granddad drives because my uncle can't).