drivetofive

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Do you have a friend or family member who uses a wheelchair?  Having been a part of the broader automotive community for over 20 years and in the Phoenix region specifically for over 10, I was surprised to learn recently that one local Arizona company is an industry leader in mobility for folks with disabilities.  It’s a place called Vantage Mobility International (VMI).

Ever since the original Chrysler minivan debuted in 1987 – and even a bit prior – the founders of VMI have tasked themselves with customizing vehicles to make them wheelchair friendly.  The WAV, or Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle, industry has since become a large and important part of the automotive world that I hadn’t ever really thought about until I visiting VMI.  It’s estimated that there are around 30,000 new WAVs sold across the nation each year, from a variety of manufacturers.

Organization leaders and public relations representatives from VMI took me and a handful of other members of the Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA) on a guided tour of the facility in Phoenix.  Our guide through the manufacturing & assembly line areas was named Brian, and he introduced us to the step-by-step process by which a new minivan – straight from Toyota, Chrysler, or Honda, usually – goes through a complete transformation.

Safety first!  Fluorescent vests & goggles – check.

What starts as a cookie-cutter family hauler gets stripped down to basically just a shell.  The floor is lowered 10″ or more via installation of a new frame.  Precision welds are made where the doors are extended, the ramp is installed, and the engine is dropped so that the vehicle’s center of gravity and sense of balance still remains largely the same.  It takes about 2.5 days from start to finish for the conversion to take place and there are about 200 colleagues making it all happen.

Because of the vast number of unique needs that WAV customers have, the vehicles themselves are also heavily customizable.  Some vans even have the ability to “kneel,” like city buses, to lower the angle of the ramp and make for easier ride-up.  There are features available like an integrated remote for quick stow / deploy conversion functionality, power sliding doors, flexible seating configurations, and rust-mitigation coatings on all steel components.  A van that’s intended to be driven by a caregiver, for example, will need to be set up differently than one that will be operated by someone who is in a wheelchair.

One of the great things about VMI’s customization work is that any factory warranties on the vehicles from the manufacturer still apply.  VMI has such a great relationship with the automakers, in fact, that its engineers are invited to take part in the design discussions when new models are undergoing development.  VMI’s Phoenix facility distributes its vans to dealerships only, but its Atlanta operation sells converted vans directly to end users.

The leadership & executive teams at VMI are all mostly new to the organization – within about the last 3 years – and they are all passionate about what they do.  There is a huge opportunity and a need to enable the great numbers of people around the country who have mobility challenges.  The more the VMI team can do to make readily-available solutions for those needs, the happier they’ll be.  I greatly appreciated the chance to have a look around the facility!

This entry was posted on September 23, 2019 at 1:15 pm and is filed under PAPA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.