Yahoo Autos Mobility Scooter Test: Whill Model A vs. Golden Tech Buzzaround EX vs. Pride Mobility Victory 10 LX
From the July 2017 issue
Mobility scooters are ubiquitous. At hot-rod shows, they fly in squadron formation with each pilot trailing a gray ponytail. Take your dog out for a constitutional and one will whiz by, forcing Fido off the sidewalk and into the gutter. Occasionally someone will get drunk, steal one, and drive it into a canal. Trader Joe’s should add banking to the sweeper through the produce department; Walgreens and CVS sell them on their websites; and the scoots are now a go-to reference for jokes about growing old, alongside walk-in bathtubs and reverse mortgages. The future may soon bring autonomous flying cars with onboard Chipotle service. But the present belongs to crossover SUVs and mobility scooters. So, here’s this comparison test. There’s a crossover instrumented test here.
You may think that mobility scooters are a fad with the half-life of selfie sticks, but demographics argue otherwise. There are about 75 million baby boomers in the United States, and the youngest of them turn 53 this year. The oldest are 71. They’re aging into that part of life when bodies become fragile and, while modern medicine means they’ll live long lives, many will need help getting around. Right behind are 66 million Gen-Xers, followed by millennials, whose numbers now match the boomers. You may not be in the market now, but we are all potential scooter owners.
Throw in other sources of decreased mobility (including illness and obesity), and at least one report projects that the worldwide mobility market, which includes everything from canes to scooters, will grow from $7.7 billion in 2015 to $14.6 billion by 2024.
To oversimplify, there are three-wheel scooters, four-wheel scooters, and motorized wheelchairs. And they’re virtually all electrically powered using lead-acid batteries. There are dozens of different models, most built for sidewalks or the great indoors, and they top out at about 5 mph. But scooters for use on trails and paths are becoming common, and more-stylish models are coming. We recruited three for this surprisingly serious comparison.
C/D knows vehicles, but these scooters are medical devices. And no one scoot will be right for everyone. This also means that scooters are prescribed by doctors and often paid for by health insurance or Medicare. Abuses may occur.
In 2015, the company Hoveround, which had often advertised on The Price Is Right during the break before the showcase round that it could get patients into a scooter for “little or no cost,” was accused by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general of billing Medicare $27 million for mobility devices that weren’t medically necessary. Hoveround was invited to this test but turned down the opportunity with the explanation that it doesn’t want any publicity at this time. So, well, there’s that.
These scooters enable the personal mobility of people who would otherwise be restricted by physical challenges. But that doesn’t explain the complete lack of cupholders.
This is the classic mobility scooter: simple in its engineering, lightweight and easily transported on a rack behind a sedan, comfortable for anyone under 330 pounds, and timelessly style-free. At only $2199, the Buzzaround EX is built for tight budgets and unpretentious personalities. It blends in like a Camry.
ATV makers stopped building three-wheelers years ago, and the mobility industry seems likely to follow. The single front wheel keeps the tiller steering light enough for anyone with limited arm strength to pilot, but there’s an inherent instability that can be felt as the Buzzaround hits its 5.4-mph governed top speed. Hitting the office’s legendary Indianapolis corner where the C/D art department transitions into the editorial cubicle farm, the rear-drive Buzzaround would gently lift the right rear wheel, with the rider feeling a queasy and tipsy sensation. It handled every mall, park, road, and indoor surface we threw at it and it never rolled. But it sometimes felt as if it would.
With 0.4 horsepower on tap, the Buzzaround is the least powerful of the gathered devices. But at a svelte 151 pounds, its power-to-weight ratio was second-best. Still, it took 3.8 seconds to zip up to 5 mph, or 0.4 second slower than the Pride scooter.
The Buzzaround’s 42.0-inch turning radius made it easy to navigate the aisles at CVS, and without much in front of the rider, it was also a snap to reach items on higher shelves and dump them into the small, attached basket. The seat itself is flat, shapeless, and covered in cheap vinyl, but it’s squishy enough to contour around even this author’s awkward thunder butt.
A rocker switch directs the battery current to produce forward or rearward thrust. A rheostat allows the throttle to be fine-tuned to sustain walking speeds. Brake by releasing the throttle; it’s fairly gentle. The second-place Pride Mobility Victory operates almost identically.
The Buzzaround is a high-value proposition. And that’s tough to resist.
Running the long, straight Mulsanne from C/D’s posh office reception area back to the clandestine testing garage, the Pride Mobility Victory 10 LX hunkered down at 5.5 mph. Blowing past a fresh crop of web-development hires, the coil-spring suspension smoothed every carpet divot while the four Primo tires swished in harmony with the 0.5-hp electric motor. Built to swallow entire yards in comfort, the Victory swept mere pedestrians aside with its electric horn while the LED turn signals flashed to signal the driver’s indomitable will.
The rear-drive Victory is only two inches longer than the Buzzaround, but its fourth wheel means it feels more substantial and stable. Even on grass or uneven berms, the scooter remains composed. Unfortunately, the fourth wheel also increases the turning circle to 65.0 inches, 23 inches greater than the Buzzaround’s, and enough to make turnarounds in the aisles at a local Meijer superstore three-point affairs. It also means more effort to move the steering tiller.
Weighing in at 229 pounds, the bulkier Victory takes more effort than the Buzzaround to muscle into a van or onto a rack, although each scooter can be disassembled into three pieces without tools. But the Pride scooter is 0.4 second faster to 5 mph than the three-wheeler and stops three feet sooner. And at $2765, it’s still affordable.
Rated to carry 400 pounds, the Victory became C/D’s scooter-to-scooter photography platform. It’s not built for two, but with the driver in the nicely shaped seat, photographer Roy Ritchie could stand on the floorboard and shoot back to the other machines as they orbited the Village of Rochester Hills mall. And even while carrying that heavy load, the suspension remained supple and the scooter went through corners flat and secure. The Victory feels as if it could tow an Airstream across Montana. But assistant technical editor David Beard would like to see it equipped with an ashtray.
Whill’s Model A has all-wheel drive, is covered in Star Wars–style stormtrooper white plastic, and comes with an iPhone app for remote operation. And at $12,999, it costs almost six times what the Buzzaround EX does.
Launched in 2011, San Francisco–based Whill refers to its products as “personal electric vehicles” and not wheelchairs. The Model A is, however, a chair with wheels.
Vastly more complex than the scooters, the Model A’s primary control is a one-hand joystick on the chair’s right arm, with a three-position speed control located on the left. Using the joystick is intuitive; push forward to go forward, right to go right, etc. But it takes some acclimation for the moves to become graceful. And because it steers by varying the speeds of its four wheels, it can spin around practically within its own width. The turning radius is only 28.0 inches. Helping are front “Omni wheels” with rubber rollers around the circumference that allow the wheels to move laterally.
The 2.4-hp Model A is a mobility rocket ship. It rips to 5 mph in 1.5 seconds and tops out at a governed 5.8 mph while completing the quarter-mile in a blistering 160.9 seconds. Remote control may seem gimmicky, but it allows a friend to operate the chair while walking alongside it if the rider needs to nap. It’s also useful for loading the chair into or out of a van.
The Model A’s best features include how easily it handles off-path terrain; it can even climb low curbs. And the lack of apparatus in front of the rider also means the chair practically disappears from his or her view. It’s easier to interact with people when there isn’t a tiller acting as a barrier.
What holds the Whill back are its limited 220-pound capacity, the lack of onboard storage, a big-ticket price, and the fact that its design means that a van is almost mandatory to move it long distances. And who knows how well this tech-intensive machine will hold up over time?
Even so, we have seen the future, and it looks like a giant pair of Beats headphones for your ass.
Final ResultsMax Pts. AvailableWhill Model APride Mobility Victory 10 LXGolden Tech Buzzaround EXRank123VehicleDriver Comfort10897Ergonomics10987Weight Capacity*106108Cargo Space*5054Features/Amenities*108107Fit and Finish10976Portability10578Styling5543Rebates/Extras*5011As-tested Price*2051720Subtotal95557871Powertrain0–5 Acceleration*2020119Motor Braking*1010107Speed Control10887Subtotal40382923ChassisOff-Road Ability101065Steering Effort10878Maneuverability10957Ride10997Subtotal40362727ExperienceFun to Drive25241716Grand Total200153151137
* These objective scores are calculated from the scooters's dimensions, capacities, rebates and extras, and/or test results.
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