sloon to estate

[ED BENNETT]

my wife needs the use of a wheel chair most times when we go shopping or visiting etc while thre is enough space in the boot when folded but an estate would be much more practical. my s70 is very good condition and what would be feasability making the saloon into an estate car any comments would be gratefully recieved

[jimmy57]

There is no feasible way to do that unless you could find a written off wagon of that model year and then pay a body repair garage to cut yours at the B post and splice the wagon rear on at that cut seam. Terribly expensive and then the registration may be trashed by the conversion.
Plan B that I may offer: install a hitch and get one of the load platforms that install into hitch. Place the wheelchair on the platform and use a cover.
I'm in US and these are sold by several suppliers. I'm not sure for UK. Your commonly used hitches for cars may use a different (EURO) version. In any case a hitch ball piece could be cut and a small platform 12 inches deep and 30-36 inches wide made. The boot can even still be used while chair is riding on platform.

attached is a picture of what is sold here for such use.

[billofdurham]

The majority of hitch mounted carriers in the UK are for bikes. Some companies do import the carrier Jimmy has shown but I am not too sure about the legality of using them in the UK. Bike carriers do need a trailer lighting board on them if the load obscures the rear lights, so I would think the same would apply. However, this is in the UK but as Ed Bennett is in the Republic of Ireland the Road Traffic laws may be different.

Bill.

[ED BENNETT]

Thank you for your comments re the above. The carrier sounds very viable. Will check it out and let you know.
Ed Bennett, Ireland.