What Car? Personal Shopper: best city car for a wheelchair user
Want a new car but don't know where to start? Just send us your criteria and we'll give our new and used car choices, and tell you how much we can save you...
Buying new
- Our recommended choices: Kia Picanto 1.25 3 5dr
- List price: £13,150
- Target Price: £12,534
If small but spacious is your top requirement, then look no further than the Kia Picanto. It's been our favourite city car for two years running, and that's down to its tidy handling, excellent infotainment system and good boot. When it comes to space for storing your husband's equipment, there's very little in the city car class which can match it. Handily, too, the Picanto's rear seats split and fold 60/40, and lie relatively flat when they're down.
We recommend the mid-range 1.25-litre petrol engine in the Picanto, which offers peppy performance but also keeps running costs sensible. Indeed, this engine managed a very respectable 47.9mpg on our True MPG tests. Team that with '3' trim and you'll get goodies including 15in alloy wheels, climate and cruise control, rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and upgraded safety kit.
And even better, thanks to the discounts available through What Car? New Car Buying, we can save you up to £617 on our favourite Picanto too.
Find a great Kia Picanto deal, or read our full Picanto review
- Also consider: Suzuki Celerio 1.0 Dualjet SZ2
- List price: £8999
- Target Price: £7999
Suzuki's city car is seriously cheap to buy and run, and should be reliable too. It's also impressively spacious by the standards of this class, and all Celerios feature split-folding rear seats.
The sole 67bhp 1.0-litre petrol engine on offer doesn't offer sizzling performance, but it's perfectly acceptable even on faster A-roads and motorways, and returned 57.7mpg on our True MPG test. Our favourite SZ2 models are fairly basic, getting electric front windows and central locking, but not a lot else. The good news, though, is that stepping up to an SZ3 model doesn't cost an awful lot more.
Find a great Suzuki Celerio deal, or read our full Celerio review
- Also consider: Toyota Yaris 1.5 Hybrid Icon CVT
- List price: £18,400
- Target Price: £17,131
If you can afford to spend a little more, the Toyota Yaris hybrid offers frugal, spacious motoring for a bargain price. And just like the Picanto and Citigo, the Yaris offers split-folding rear seats to make loading a wheelchair or zimmer frame, or both, easy.
Where the Yaris shines, though, is in fuel economy. This version features a 1.5-litre petrol engine and a small electric motor, which means you can drive for short distances using only electric power. If you stick to the city, expect to average 80mpg without trying too hard – so it's good news for your fuel bills too.
Icon models add 15in alloy wheels, cruise control, air conditioning and a 4.2in screen in the instrument cluster to the already generous standard equipment, so you shouldn't be wanting for much else from the options list.
Find a great Toyota Yaris deal, or read our full Yaris review
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Want practicality, class and an elevated driving position in a relatively compact package? Then these are the top 10 cars you should be looking at – and the ones that are best avoided
