Reader’s road test,

by Richard Wallace

Peugeot Expert

Wheelchair accessible vehicle

The vehicle arrived with a normally aspirated 1.9 litre diesel engine and manual five speed gearbox, central
locking, PAS, two single front seats instead of one driver seat and a two seater bench seat, and neither of the (cost option extra) two rear seats.
Access for a wheelchair is through the rear double doors. A short, counterbalanced, non-slip ramp unclipped by a lever to the right lowers by hand to enable access. (Lowering rear suspension cost option). There is no light for this ramp at night. The centre section of the floor has been lowered to give plenty of head clearance (59inches, 150cm)
throughout.
A courtesy light is situated in the centre of the rear compartment on delayed switch off with the closing of the driver’s door. A switch on the rear right wall releases the webbing belts, in two inertia reels on the floor just behind the front seats. With free movement on these belts they can be extended to attach to the wheelchair. If the passenger is unable to hold one of these for you whilst you attach the other then this has to be done one at a time.
With both belts attached to the front of the chair with seat belt type clips, the switch must then be turned off. This enables the ratchet on the inertia reel to come into play. The chair, if manual, can then be pushed up the ramp, and if you have to pause part way for any reason the chair cannot roll backwards. With the chair positioned suitably, pull it on the front belts and apply brakes. The second set of webbing belts can be attached, again by seat belt type clips. The slack must be taken up on these belts one at a time, by the sturdy tensioning system. Test the resulting tension to make sure there is no undue sloppiness in this belt then repeat with the other belt. With a bit
of practise this becomes easier and you end up with even tension on both belts.
It must be said that if your carer is unable to get down on his/her haunches, or kneel, this will be impossible. If they can do this, but do not have strength in their hands to close the rear tensioning clips, then another system may have to be found at extra cost. Unless your chair has an in-built body harness or other seat belt system to crash test standards, the standard seatbelt can then be placed round the wheelchair occupant. The cut away floor is coated in a non-slip covering, but I would recommend care when it’s wet outside as it is not so non-slip when wet!
My passenger did not like the sloping position at the rear as it’s too far away from the driver. The wheelchair restraint system allowedfor only one wheelchair at a time to be locked down, even though two seatbelt points were fitted. There is another
cost option of fitting another set of restraints, but practically, we found there was no room for a second adult wheelchair to fit in, unless folded, as the front seatbelt was just not long enough to reach round the passenger if far enough forward to fit in an extra chair.

Drivers Access

There is a step up into the driver’s seat from the roadlpavement. The driver’s seat is fully adjustable with forward and backward adjustment by a bar at the front. There are two tab levers on the right side of the driver’s seat. The front one adjusts the up/down movement of the front edge of the seat base, the one behind adjusts the up/down movement of the back of the seat base. A knob adjusts the backrest. A very comfortable driving position can be attained.
The back of the seat was a bit short for my taste and the rounded A-style head restraint would have been better replaced with a soft padded one. Alas, this is based on a commercial vehicle and so is a standard fitment to both front seats.
The five speed gear shift is dashboard mounted, as in all these vehicles. The hand brake is situated on the right of the driver’s seat and took some getting used to, but it does not get in the way if you need to get through to the back.

Interior

In this model there is a combined radio/CD player with four convenient remote control switches on the steering wheel that cover most functions. RDS and Traffic Alert were included. The ashtray is next to the gear shift, under a concealing flap, which folds upward and drops behind the ashtray and lighter. The cigarette lighter, if you need one, is a bit flimsy but does the job and the ashtray is illuminated at night.
The front windows are electric with the two switches mounted centrally above the rear view minor. The driver’s window is semiautomatic and with a firm push in either direction it will fully open or close on its own. A light touch and it will move until you let go, as it does on the passenger side. I don’t like the position of these switches as it means a vision panel cannot be installed above the windscreen for forward vision for the wheelchair passenger. This was our largest gripe. Some converters of WAVs don’t think the wheelchair passenger needs to see forward.

Storage
There is ample storage in upper and lower door bins both sides. There is also extra storage above the sun visors in a tray across the full width of the vehicle. The glove box was not lockable and often wouldn’t open (great when your blue badge is in there)! The jack is under the passenger seat, and the wheel brace is in a long lidded compartment on the opposite side to the spare wheel, also not lockable. In front of the spare wheel there is a small open tray. This is, however, not easily accessible to the wheelchair passenger as it is either behind them in the forward position or too far in front in the rear position. There was enough room for our assistance dog at the side of the wheelchair.

Performance

With the basic nonnally aspirated 1 .9 litre diesel engine I found it rather lacking in oomph. Don’t bother trying to overtake unless you are on a motorway or dual carriageway with loads of manoeuvring room. Having said that, once up to speed it drives beautifully and the power steering makes the tightest of moves a lot easier. It is no longer than the average estate car at 15’ and 6’6” wide. It will go into multi-storey car parks but the aerial will catch here and there.

Shortcomings

No means of fixing down or holding a spare manual chair. We got round this particularproblem with a bungee strap affixed to the back of the front scat and a convenient hole in the bodywork beyond the
side door, with a blanket to protect the side door.
Our second largest gripe is the sliding door on the driver’s side. This didn’t shut properly when we first got the vehicle and even with numerous trips to a garage still gives problems. We just avoid using it.
I must point out that we know of one similar vehicle at least four years older than ours, under the badge of
another vehicle manufacturer and converter, that has had so many problems with sliding doors and rear doors that separate hook locks have been installed to keep them from constantly popping undone. It may be a problem associated with the structural alteration of the vehicle, although the converters maintain there are very stringent controls by the manufacturers and Motability. Maybe we were unlucky and got Friday afternoon tea break vehicles.

Overall

All in all this is a very well appointed vehicle and probably best suited to a family with options of driver and up to four passengers and a wheelchair (or more seats if the passenger doesn’t mind sitting well to the back). Forward vision for adult wheelchair users may be severely limited, and if this is necessary to avoid travel sickness then it should be taken into account. I would recommend a more powerful engine for those who have larger families.