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I’m in Lafayette Louisiana. The local dealerships include Moss Honda, Hampton Toyota, Courville Toyota, Giles (Nissan and Subaru), Sterling (Kia & Hyundai), and Hub City Ford. The prices at the Honda place are good right now because a nearby road bridge was recently repaired and now re-opened. Go to the Toyota dealer sites and look at the prices for their RAV4 and C-HR. The Giles places are on the list to check out especially with the Nissan Kicks and Subaru Crosstrek. Don’t think there’s a nearby Carmax but I’ll check. Seems the nearest Carmax is about an hour away in Baton Rouge.
I'd give the Escape a test drive. There's a LOT of content in one. The wife has a 2017 Escape Titanium that has every bell and whistle you can think and some you've never thought of. You can probably get in a new one on your budget. I would strongly suggest the 2.0 engine ONLY. Avoid the others as they've had issues. The 2.0 gives the wife 22-24mpgs in stop and go traffic. Not bad for stop and go. She drives 12 miles to work and takes an hour to give you an idea. We haven't had it on the road yet but on short hiway trips of 70 miles or less at hiway speeds, the computer says we're getting right at 40mpg. It's accurate with town driving but don't have anything to compare it to for hiway. The Titanium has a 10 way power seat that adjusts to any position you want. The leather seats are heated which will be a MAJOR plus for her in the winter. The car will all but drive itself with blind spot monitoring, accident avoidance, etc. It rides nice and the 245HP 2.0 is a power house in this platform. The car also comes with a power tailgate which could be an issue for someone with a back issue. I would think the power tailgate, 10 way heated seats would be very important to her for her back. The car has instant electric heat for the winter. I'd suggest a test drive of a new Escape Titanium. Most folks that do take one home.
My mother-in-law is about 5 feet and ended up buying a used Subaru Outback.
However, if you want visibility I would recommend a Subaru Forester. Can't beat the visibility out of that small SUV.
The Subaru Crosstrek is also worth checking out...however if you want luxury features (leather interior, power seats) options like that are not available.
Sorry to hear about the accident, and glad everyone's ok.
You mentioned that you were considering base models of sedans. If your wife needs adjustable height seats, it might be tough to find that on a base model of most sedans out there as height adjustment generally requires power seats (I'd be happy to be wrong about this though).
I'm under 5 feet and read anything I could find about height and adjustability and got a Subaru Forester. The steering wheel doesn't telescope (that I know of), but I've found it just fine. Not sure about the spine, you'll have to go in person and give it a try.
Why on earth would you buy a new car from a dealership? It will depreciate the second you drive it off the lot. Shop wherever you need to to try out the fit of each model car, then find a new used model.
Enterprise Rental has used cars in excellent condition.
Google 'Best cars for short people' and you get lots of good ideas.
My GF has a '15 Buick Encore as she has the same issues as your wife
and it works well for her, however she actually enjoys my '17 VW Jetta SEL
better stating the seats " Feel " better especially for anything more then a
half hour in it, she's 5'1"
I would definitely suggest a subcompact CUV specifically something like the Chevrolet Trax, Buick Encore, or Nissan Rogue Sport. A compact sedan such as the Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze, Toyota Corolla, or the Nissan Sentra would be a good list of cars to start off.
Why on earth would you buy a new car from a dealership? It will depreciate the second you drive it off the lot. Shop wherever you need to to try out the fit of each model car, then find a new used model.
Enterprise Rental has used cars in excellent condition.
Google 'Best cars for short people' and you get lots of good ideas.
And as long as you can afford it, that's reason enough! New cars can be preferable for many reasons. People who prefer used do so because they think new cars are financially a bad choice, but oftentimes they're the cheapest option in the long run.
I'm getting up there in years (okay, 72) and have had a couple lower back disc surgeries, so bending is problematic. "Headroom" measurements don't provide much help for ease of entry/exit, so actually crawling into and out of a car is the only way to know. I've tried lots of them. You can't tell how comfortable a seat will be on a 500 mile trip by sitting in the seat for a minute, but it's quick and easy to learn how easy it is to crawl in and out.
Surprisingly, my Prius is pretty easy. My wife's old Saturn is a real test. Both my wife and I struggle to get into it. I have to tilt the seat back AND slide the seat rearward to get in, and even then it's difficult and painful.
But the Subaru Forrester, when I sat in one at a dealership, was easy-peasy for me to get in and out of, and the visibility in all directions is outstanding. I've read some reports that the seats aren't that comfortable for long trips. Others say they're fine. I'd suggest she at least try sliding into one, then go from there. I haven't test driven one yet, since I'm not quite ready to trade, but from all the cars I've climbed into in the past couple years, the Forrester is the one that impressed me the most for ease of entry and visibility.
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