Motability car with electric features

Oneye12

Oneye12 said:

I would forget electric handbrake as unrelible. 

"And your evidence for this is?"

Personal experience on a Chrysler that fails MOT every year, also historic experience  - we put it down to lack of use inherent in design. If it is relaible on your VW then brilliant.

poppy12345

Oneye12 said:

I would forget electric handbrake as unrelible.

That's irrelevant here anyway because with motability you only pay for fuel. If there's problems with the vehicle then you're given a courtesy car.

lostCCJ

Thanks all - I've waded through page after page of information over cars - I'm going to look into the Clubman tomorrow as I suspect that'll be a 'ooh that's exciting' car.  For those who're interested in a similar problem in the future, I've found that in the small SUV category:

• the Peugeot 2008 GT (Premium) has all the options (although there is a big door cill so we'll need to try it, and also  has a helpful 'joystick' style gear stick which looks good - need to try how much force is needed for the unlock button
• the Ford Puma is great and can do all I asked (although annoyingly for motability they come as options so you have to pay). The only thing they don't do is an electric handbrake.  This can be gotten round with an easy release handbrake or having one retrofitted.
• the Renault Captur can do all of these things but not in a model offered via motability annoyingly!  You can get it in the hybrids but they're £2500 advance payment (a whole year's worth - I'd rather get a Merc!)

In bigger cars it seems much easier Ford Kuga (Titanium) has all of this (apart from parking itself I think) as standard and even has a cool rotory gear changer which is really accessible.  The Honda CRV seems promising in this regard to (has a push-button gear changer, too) but didn't look at this too much as it wasn't easy to get in for Mum.

Thanks so much everyone

lostCCJ

Oh Mum loved the Audi Q2 but weirdly the new models don't have push-button start [and she really struggles with turning a key, specifically].  I understand a push-button start be retroactively fitted by motability but it's £843!!!  I see versions on amazon/ebay for much less but I wonder how easy/hard it'd be (for a garage) to fit....Hmmm!

AdrianC

lostCCJ said:

Oh Mum loved the Audi Q2 but weirdly the new models don't have push-button start [and she really struggles with turning a key, specifically].

Keyless start is a big security risk, with a lot of cars being stolen by simple extension of the signal between keys in the owner's house and car in the drive.

lostCCJ

AdrianC said:

lostCCJ said:

Oh Mum loved the Audi Q2 but weirdly the new models don't have push-button start [and she really struggles with turning a key, specifically].

Keyless start is a big security risk, with a lot of cars being stolen by simple extension of the signal between keys in the owner's house and car in the drive.

Thanks, that's a good point but if you can't turn the key then it's needed

poppy12345

lostCCJ said:

• the Peugeot 2008 GT (Premium) has all the options (although there is a big door cill so we'll need to try it, and also  has a helpful 'joystick' style gear stick which looks good - need to try how much force is needed for the unlock button

I have a Peugeot 3008 Automatic, which is the same as the 2008 just bigger. The gear stick is very simple to use and have never used the "unlock button" in 18 months of having the car. I also needed a car which was easier to get in and out of as have mobility problems and find the 3008 very easy to get in and out of. The mini clubman was too low for me. I did test drive several cars before choosing the one i have now.

AdrianC

lostCCJ said:

AdrianC said:

lostCCJ said:

Oh Mum loved the Audi Q2 but weirdly the new models don't have push-button start [and she really struggles with turning a key, specifically].

Keyless start is a big security risk, with a lot of cars being stolen by simple extension of the signal between keys in the owner's house and car in the drive.

Thanks, that's a good point but if you can't turn the key then it's needed

Sure. I'm just suggesting why it's not necessarily "weird" that they've dropped it on the standard car. Many people are simply refusing to buy keyless-start cars, and sensibly so.

Keep_pedalling

Sorry to be a pedant, but the problem is not keyless start, but keyless entry. Once a thief is inside any car he can start it with ease.  It is relatively easy to protect your keys from being hacked but the malority of people don’t bother.

https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/keyless-car-theft-prevention?

I know most cars with such systems tend to have both, but not all cars do. I know the base Life spec of the VW ID3 has keyless start but not entry. 

neilmcl

AdrianC said:

lostCCJ said:

Oh Mum loved the Audi Q2 but weirdly the new models don't have push-button start [and she really struggles with turning a key, specifically].

Keyless start is a big security risk, with a lot of cars being stolen by simple extension of the signal between keys in the owner's house and car in the drive.

That's car's with keyless entry, not keyless start.