Height and accessibility of 9-5?

[Piglet]

An odd question! My Dad's mobility is poor and he has no chance of getting in and out of the passenger seat of my 9-3 (2002) a the passenger seat is way too low and struggles to get in and out of the back of it because there isn't enough space to swing his legs in and out easily.

We need to add a second car and are heading towards a 9-5 estate...clearly we need to go and look at some but does anyone have any experience of folks with lesser mobility getting in and out? are the seats a decent'ish height and are the doors big'ish to aid leg movement.

Cheers

[Aero_saab]

This any help:

[i want an aero]

my dad is disabled, he gets in and out of my 9-5 saloon fine, although it is rather low

[aeropilot]

I agree, accessibilty is OK, but seats are low. My Mum (late 70's) has a bit of a problem trying to get out of mine. She's not disabled, but doesn't have much leg strength, which is why I ended up persauding her to get a Merc A-Class a few years back, and she has no problem getting in and out of that.

[Piglet]

Thanks everyone, sounds like the height might be a problem, Dad's 74 and has just had a hip replacement replaced, he needs space to swing his legs around, which it sounds like will be OK but he then struggles to heave himself up out of the seat if it's low.

Hmmm sounds a bit like it's back to the drawing board...

[aeropilot]

Piglet said:

Thanks everyone, sounds like the height might be a problem, Dad's 74 and has just had a hip replacement replaced, he needs space to swing his legs around, which it sounds like will be OK but he then struggles to heave himself up out of the seat if it's low.

Hmmm sounds a bit like it's back to the drawing board...

I had my 9-5 when my now ex, had her 2nd hip replacement, and the 9-5 was too low for her in the first 2-3 months after the op, but was fine for her after that. I had to borrow my Mum's Merc A-Class to pick her up from the hospital after the op.

You'll find it's as much too do with the seat shape and material as it is the height. My 9-5 is a post 2002 Aero with the more bolster squab seats and this didn't help matters as it's not so easy to spin on yer bum after a hip replacement. The ex, once she had got a bit more mobile was able to get in and out of the passenger seat of her Focus Ghia (leather seats) more easily than she could my 9-5, so we just used the Focus for a few months until she was back to normal and getting in and out of the 9-5 wasn't an issue.

[Piglet]

aeropilot said:

Piglet said:

Thanks everyone, sounds like the height might be a problem, Dad's 74 and has just had a hip replacement replaced, he needs space to swing his legs around, which it sounds like will be OK but he then struggles to heave himself up out of the seat if it's low.

Hmmm sounds a bit like it's back to the drawing board...

I had my 9-5 when my now ex, had her 2nd hip replacement, and the 9-5 was too low for her in the first 2-3 months after the op, but was fine for her after that. I had to borrow my Mum's Merc A-Class to pick her up from the hospital after the op.

You'll find it's as much too do with the seat shape and material as it is the height. My 9-5 is a post 2002 Aero with the more bolster squab seats and this didn't help matters as it's not so easy to spin on yer bum after a hip replacement. The ex, once she had got a bit more mobile was able to get in and out of the passenger seat of her Focus Ghia (leather seats) more easily than she could my 9-5, so we just used the Focus for a few months until she was back to normal and getting in and out of the 9-5 wasn't an issue.

Thanks for that, as a tip on the bum sliding, a bin bag works well in the early days to aid the slippperyness!

Part of the problem I suppose is that we don't know how much mobility Dad will recover so it's a bit of an unknown at the moment, ideally we could do with something a bit higher but I really quite fancy a 9-5. I guess it's back to looking at people carriers...

[threespins]

My mother has had a hip replacement and can get in and out of the front with no problem, never tried the back.

[Prof Beard]

My Dad is 94 with two hip replacements (both very successful and 10+ years old). He can cope with my 9-3 Aero, but find the "side supports" of the seats a nuisance. We took my wife's '01 9-5 Estate last time we visited and he got in and out fine - EVEN in the back seats... He commented how comfortable the car was. The 9-5 has "flat"ish - seat squabs...

[Piglet]

Thanks all, sounds like I'll have to drag Dad out to have a look at some and see how he gets on.