A Mobility Scooter comes to Stay – Part 3
After our abortive ‘Test drives’ of two four-wheel scooters it eventually became apparent .. mainly from rhetoric and the limited photographs from brochures, that a tick-list was emerging at last.
1 High weight – bearing
2 Three wheeled .. for the increased leg room.
Having got this far, we discovered that there are only a limited few high weight-bearing three-wheeled models currently available, and they are not generally held on stock at least by the smaller dealers since they ‘ do not sell as well’. Front of the queue is the Shoprider Torino.
Now, at the time of writing this was the only image available. It appears in various sites, in various sizes, but in terms of actual views of this scooter .. this is it.
From our point of, view, the weight factor was satisfied. It has a designated weight load of 220kgs (or 35 Stones in real money). However it was, and still is, far from clear whether there is sufficient legroom. It would appear that a footplate extends either side of the front wheel, and albeit at a bit of an acute angle, but we never managed to get another view of it.
One site, and one site only, offered a not-dissimilar model to the Torino .. called the Toulouse.
mobilityextras.com
Now as you can see, there is a great deal of similarity between the two. However the crucial question, given the equality in weight loads, is answered in the picture. You can just see that the footplate does actually extend around either side of the front wheel.
Another fortunate factor perhaps was the much-reduced price. Other dealers, when asked, averred that this model was old stock. However I have come to believe that there is in fact little or no difference at all between these two models, save for the shape of the fibreglass bubble affixed to the front of the chassis. Allow for a flattening distortion in the photograph of the Toulouse, then compare the two – ignoring the body fixed over the front wheel. Here is the photograph of the Toulouse taken from the hand book, with the Torino by it’s side, for easier comparison …
I think that the differences are merely cosmetic. However getting ‘the trade’ .. who are really little more than importers and box-shifters remember .. to investigate these possibilities, evidently gets too much in the way of sales. This short-sighted approach, particularly if I am right, is not to the benefit of either buyer or seller. In my own case a dealer selling a Torino, need only have acquired the alternative front body panel to satisfy my requirements, and made the sale.
