VWBUS T4&5+
http://www.vwbusmagazine.com 17my hospital, doctors, dentist
appointments without having to
cancel them all the time. I’m still
training myself that I can just
go anywhere, leave whenever
I want. There is so much I
want to try now, new places,
new activities, I can’t wait. It
has truly changed my life.”
Remember that ‘it had to look
cool’ line? Well it certainly
delivers on that. You might
wonder why GM’s conversion
work takes so long, but as
mentioned earlier a LOT of work
went into making this a great van
for long term use for Lee. For
one thing, the entire floor (not
the ride, we’ll get to that later),
had to be lowered to give 57” of“There is so much I want
to try now, new places, new
activities, I can’t wait. It has
truly changed my life.”
pack’ and a titanium and
moonrock interior. After several
months of waiting (initially for
the base van to be delivered, and
then around another three months
for the disability conversion), the
completed adapted vehicle was
finally delivered to Lee in March- I’ll leave it to him to say
a bit about what makes his van
so special to him. “I’ve already
done more miles than I did in all
the years I had a Motability car.
It’s given me a new lease of life
... I can just pop out whenever I
want; the freedom it’s given me
is truly life changing. I can go
see my sister whenever I want,
say yes to people if they invite
me out, make new friends, make
drive from it. His excitement
was soon squashed by the fact
that such adapted vehicles are
very expensive. Lee approached
Motability and other charities for
help, but he didn’t fit their very
specific criteria. Frustratingly,
his goal of easy driving once
again seemed a distant dream.
During this time Lee’s mother
became ill with cancer and
passed away suddenly. Lee says
her passing left a huge hole in
his life as she’d always been
there for him and his sister. In
fact, even after she died she was
caring for Lee: she left him some
money and he was finally able
to purchase and adapt his much
longed for van. By this time, Lee
knew exactly what he wanted:
“It had to be a VW Transporter
and it had to look cool”.
Lee went to GM Coachworks,
who are VW approved to convert
wheelchair accessible vehicles and
put in his order for a T6 Caravelle
204 TSI, 2-litre turbo version with
twin sliding doors, ‘executive