Hi Midge
Me again, just looking over your original post again and notice you asked about hoist and scooters so here’s my two pence worth.
If you don’t mind losing the back seats or at least one or two of them fitting a pavement scooter in the boot should not be a problem in most cases.
I’m on my third pavement scooter with it being a learning curve for me the past decade. The first was cheap but only lasted about 3 to 4 years, second one is still used as a back up but my third and now my main scooter has all around suspension and suspension is something I recommend. The downside to having all around suspension is the scooters are longer for example my first scooter (Careco Eclipse) with no suspension was 38” long, second one (Pride GoGo Elite Traveller LX) with semi-suspension built into the seat stem was 39” long and my current scooter (Pride Apex Rapid) with the all around suspenson is 41” long. The weight capacity of all these scooters are around about 20 Stone or just over.
With those lengths in mind most mid-size SUV’s boots I’ve measured are around about 37” to 39”long (seats up and not folded) but like the car I currently have on order the back seats slide forward and lock to give you the personal choice of more legroom for passengers or more luggage/ scooter space in the boot. A lot of cars don’t have that option but noticed its becoming more popular.
It might only be a few inches between these scooters but makes a hell of a lot of difference when getting them in the boot remembering this is fully assembled and not broken down into relatively small but heavy pieces. If you can handle taking them apart they will fit into the boot of 90% of standard cars but if like me you can’t do that then the hoist way is the only way apart from using ramps and ramps is something I’ve never tried because handling the ramp and storing it in the car still presents problems with space.
Last thing is the height of the backdoor and when I had my second scooter with my current car and hoist, that scooter could be loaded fully assembled however when I changed to my third scooter apart from being 2” longer it was also taller but luck for me because I’m abled to remove the seat of the scooter so lowering the height but the rest and heaviest parts of the scooter remains assembled but if you can handle removing the seat the backdoor shouldn’t present any problems but if the seats needs to remain in its useable position then the backdoor height needs a bit of awareness.
As you mentioned the Ford Kuga so add this is one car of a very few cars that I visited a showroom to try out for boot-space and is one of the models that have that slide and lock mechanise in the back seats but unfortunately for me after a couple sales guys lifted my 41” scooter into the boot the back door would not close so I estimated my scooter was just one inch too long but must say it was a great car otherwise being a full hybrid with all the toys but it wasn’t to be. The Tiguan Allspace is the other one of the few I’ve visit a showroom for and space-wise for scooters is no problem as is its sister the Seat Tarraco.
The car I’ve got on order now is my fourth Motability car and the Motability specialist at my local VW dealer (used twice before) is the first I’ve ever had who actually measured my scooter to see if it fits the car I’ve ordered so there is some help in that respect but not what I call 100% reliable.
You could go for the folding type scooters that will fit in most boots but none that I’m aware of have suspension and the ones I’ve test driven seem to be a bit flimsy for my liking and with the extra cost of such scooters can’t see them lasting long if being used on uneven ground but level flat supermarkets type trips I’m sure there fine.
Last word is the hoist. My 3 scooters are all around 42Kg and just a tad too heavy for using the cheaper 40Kg hoists. Currently I’m using a Autochair 80Kg 4-Way hoist that cost me £290 three years ago but unfortunately the current price has gone upto £590 and will not change in tomorrows quarterly prices as this year Motability have changed the prices for adaptions from quarterly to twice a year so the current price for that particular hoist is fixed from Q4 2021 to Q2 2022.
If your going for a hoist in your Motability car it has to be ordered at the same time as you order the car and the dealer should be in contact with the people who will install your hoist and with their experience they should tell you if the scooter you have or choose fits the car and the hoist combination.
Happy New Year to you and everyone.