My Mum is currently in the market for a new car with the view of modifiying it to carry my Handicapped Brother in his wheel chair in the back.
Currently she drives a Tarago (no 1J she wouldn't let me )
With 2 alloy ramps that my brothers chair drives up into whilst my brother is manhandled into the front pass. seat. This is becoming a hassle for mum as it takes alot of effort to just go up the shops. She wants to be able to drive him Still in the chair into the back (or side) of the car and go.

I've been doing some research on the modified vehicle and it appears that out of the non-comercial vehicles that the Current shape Tarago, the Chrysler Voyager and the Kia Carnival are best suited to modification of the rear floor pan to get some more head room.

Now, Mum has always owned Toyotas and really wants the Tarago over the other two however she realised that the tarago may not be the way to go as the Tarago is in the realm of $80,000 + $30,000+ in modifications and that is alot for a Tarago.
The Kia on the other hand is around the $30,000 mark + modification and much more realistic a propersition. the Voyager is in the same ball park as the Tarago.

My first questiion would be how reliable is the kia? as this car will likley be kept for 10-15 years before trading up. will a Kia last that long??

And secondly for the Tarago has anyone seen or heard of any other Mobility modification that are not as drastic as cutting up the floor (ie make the modifications cheaper) to bring the costs down. Or any other ideas that I have missed in general?
I have been researching but may have missed a simple solution.
the current problem with the Mums Tarago is

1. the car is now over 10 years old and is in good nick but has had 3 boys on their L's and P's giving it a work out when *Borrowing* over the last 5 years or so and that has taken its toll.

2. the ramps in the back are too steep for the New wheelchair my brother has to climb under its own power (needs to be pushed, and it's one of those electric ones :read heavy)

3. if the ramps are extended any further (to reduce gradient) they'll be too long to fit in the car.

4. there is a lack of head room in the back for my brother to be transported in the chair.

I'm going this afternoon to look at a Tarago in the flesh and get some Critical measurments to see if he will fit in it in his chair and look at the car in general. and have a look a the structure under the rear.

But if anyone can help out with ideas I'd really appreciate it

Sorry for the long post.

[Updated on: Sun, 11 January 2004 01:29]

[Updated on: Tue, 13 January 2004 07:44]

Which entrance? They are all miles from any of the action... There is no good gate as far as I could see... and when I asked the guys at the gate they didn't seem to know of any disabled spots. My mates are damn cool about my problem... The Shell servo is the closest point to be picked up from so I would just walk to there and they would walk the fifty thousand metres to the car and pick me up.

We stayed in a cabin and no-one got annoyed about the stupid humm that my ventilator makes at night (I only have to use it when I am sleeping, thank god). Some of the people I had only known for a week or so.

[Updated on: Wed, 14 January 2004 04:10]

UPDATE:
For the few of you here that have been asking how things were going in relation to Finding and converting a suitable vehicle here we go...

After looking around at several companies here and abroad that modify vehicles properly, we settled on Freedom Motors at St Marys to get the conversion done. Mum purchased a 2004 Tarago early this year and the ball was set in motion for the conversion.

Cutting a really long story short, the conversion that was to take 6-8 weeks ended up taking 5 months to complete due to bad publicity from another similar person doing modifications poorly (if at all) the Today Tonight story that followed and the involvement of the RTA kindly shutting down all this type of work being done whilst investigation were done and ADR's modified. Leaving Mum without a car (or driving my brothers Supra
)

After a lot of phone calls and some surprise visits to the factory and the threat of not paying the full amount for the conversion if it wasn't finished by a certain date. The Tarago is now complete and on the road (save for engineers certificates)

I had a look at it over the weekend and I am rather impressed with the attention to detail and the quality of the work to mesh the conversion with the rest of the car. Basically If you can see the photos a well was fitted to the rear of the car with a fold down ramp to allow access to the rear. Previous Tarago conversions usually had the rear end converted to IRS but due to garage height restrictions the guys had to re work the standard set up to retain close to factory ride height which they did well. You can see on the floor there is a dimond shape locking mecanism that has been fitted and a matching lock fitted to the base of the wheelchair. Upon entering the rear, a button is depressed unlocking the lock mech. and a guide on the underside of the wheel chair guides the locking pin into place (there is onluy a few seconds to do this but once the button is depressed the car is immobilised until the wheelchair is locked into place. Once in place there are lap sash belts for the wheel chair occupant as well. The rear bench seat was removed for the conversion but due to the nature of the rear axel work the rails that the seat normally sits on were able to be retained and the seats can be locked back in. Freedom provided us with a false floor that sits over the well when not in use. This was not part of the work they told us about origonally and was a nice addition to the package and made up somewhat for all the trouble caused whislt being without a vehicle, to have a completely operational vehicle + seating for the wheelchair.

Any hoo here are some happy snaps... Mum has already taken my brother up to Port Macquarie and found the ease of transporting him around very refrshing compared to the old way and is now much less stressed about taking him out shopping.

http://www.haroc.1337thing.com/ls1/Lambolica/Tarag o%20Conversion/

[Updated on: Tue, 02 November 2004 08:07]