“Mobility Van - Mile 1” Chapter 167

David DuBois, come on down! You are the next contestant on, WHAT’S BEHIND THAT DOOR?”

“I’ll take door #1," David said.

“It’s a new 2026, Honda Odyssey Elite.

When Laura and I buy a vehicle, we drive it until the doors fall off. Our car has over 200,000 miles and the doors are still on. So when we were shopping for a mobility vehicle, we did our research. Gas or electric? Hybrid sounded good. Side or rear entrance? Rear entrance didn’t sound like a good fit. Front row passenger wheelchair seating.

We decided to get a 2023 Toyota Sienna, Hybrid, mobility van. It was a nice van with plenty of room for my wheelchair . The van was lifted 18 inches and was a beast. We nicknamed it BABs (Big Ass Beast) because we looked down on the other regular vans. When we first got BABs I was still walking and sitting in the front, eventually moving into my wheelchair. We used rachet straps to attach to the grooves in the floor. The first thing we noticed was that it was so loud inside and you could hear all of the road noise. 

Then the issues started. We installed the EZ Lock system. This allowed my wheelchair to drive into an electric lock bracket mounted to one position in the van. My wheelchair was adapted with a bracket underneath it to lock into the van bracket. This process sounded great and it did work well... for awhile. The mount needed for the bottom of my chair lowered the clearance and the chair would hit everything in its path. Then we started having electrical problems with the van. The side door wouldn't open properly, the ramp wouldn’t extend every time, and the battery started dying. Eventually we got stuck in DC when the ramp wouldn’t deploy, and the van was all-around unreliable. It seemed like the van was in the shop ALL THE TIME.

Three weeks ago, we decided that this was not a 200,000 mile van. In fact, the odometer wasn't even showing 5,300 miles. That’s right - 5,000 miles and we traded BABs in. Laura did her homework and decided the hybrid was out, and the V8 back in. Sometimes bells and whistles just make noise, not music.

Mile 1…

Love and Blessings

I love to read your comments and hear your stories! Please rate my post and leave a comment below. If you’re not signed in when responding, your name won’t appear so please include it in your message. I truly enjoy knowing who’s sharing their content 💭 with me.