My wife, who doesn't drive, uses a wheelchair. The ease of transfer from her wheelchair to the passenger seat is key for us. To transfer, I help her stand, shuffle turn, and sit back on the seat. I then move her legs into the car, position her in the seat, and fasten the seatbelt. We took a test drive last Friday and found the LS430 one of the best vehicles for our use. My findings:

- Door opens widely which allows both of us to stand in the doorway. (MKS doors do not open very widely.)
- Tall door opening allows her to sit back onto the seat without hitting her head. (She bumps her head every time she enters my MKZ.)
- Large distance from the seat to the dash allows me to swing her legs in without hitting the dash. (My CTS and SRX required contortions.)
- Large flat leather seat allows easy positioning. (The LS460 seat was narrower had had small thigh bolsters.)
- Tall seatbelt receiver and high roof allows me to easily duck into the car and fasten the seatbelt. (Two weak points on my MKZ.)
- Large flat trunk with a large opening and low liftover makes loading her folding transport chair easy. (However, I wish it had the LS460 power trunk opener/closer.)

While most folks will hopefully never need these features, it's good to know handicap needs were obviously thought of.

 

Welcome to Clublexus, and thank you very much for the review. I will be adding it to our FAQ as i am sure many can benefit from such detailed review.

Have you decided on the purchase yet by any chance?

 

when i had my 2001 LS430 it was fine for myself as a handicap driver. i am paralyzed from the waist down, confined to the wheelchair...as for helping ur wife as a passenger the LS430 is very easy to transfer into and out of, front doors have wide openings, power height adjustable seats make it easy to set desired height, trunk space is big enough for a folding chair, as mine was a rigid frame chair and with the help of a passenger fit easy in the trunk, seats are wide bottom and back, and im 6'1 and the ease of swinging legs in was a breeze, even when seat is fully slid back there is still room for an adult passenger in the rear....

hope this helps

 

the jdm one is even better, the front chair swing out of the car and in the trunk it come with a winch to bring up the wheel chair...if i have time i will look for a pic.

 

The current rankings are:
1 - 2006 LS430
2 - 2007 DTS Performance
3 - 2007/08 Lucerne CXS
4 - 2009 MKS

The unknown is the 2010 MKS with the 350HP ecoboost engine. However, the unknown reliability of the new engine, high cost (even with Z plan), and steep depreciation curve will probably trump any initial driving excitement.

I am targeting the December / January timeframe to start seriously shopping. When I compare prices around the country, it seems that the upper midwest has the lowest used LS prices, so I'll probably stick close to home in my search for a CPO unit.

As a rather sad footnote, I stopped at my mechanic's lot to check out an 09 DTS Lux III with 17K miles he has for sale. (He's my vette & allante mechanic and also sells used cars. My summer cars keep his kids in braces.) Inside this nice low mileage DTS, a sunroof seal was hanging down. It looked like someone tried to ham-handedly fix it from the grubby prints on the headliner.

 

I have to add that the passenger seat adjustments located on the drivers side of the passenger seat are enormously helpful as my wife cannot use her hands to operate the seat adjustments herself. I can make her comfortable without having stop and get out of the car to reach the door-side adjustments. Such a small feature but with a huge impact on our enjoyment of our LS.

 

^^^
I agree. I never noticed those switches until later in my car search process. Now that I own my LS, I find that feature to be very useful.