Drive Medical Bobcat 4 Wheel Compact Scooter, Red

Note - I bought directly from Amazon and the peace of mind it gave me was well worth it. Update 10/5 - Charged battery just over 15 hours (sleeping) and got up to try the scooter inside. Fast! Too fast for my small home. Can't wait to try it later today at the mall. Making special trip for fun and ride testing. My new name is zippy. One fast scooter. Attracted a lot of positive attention at the mall. First time I was able to go to the mall and do what I wanted in more than a year. I got two hours plus before the battery went to yellow, and went all over and back three times around the inside mall. I wanted to try it on the outside pavement but couldn't chance a dead battery since I don't walk well. I was tired and ready to go home, anyway. Still juice on the battery, but it's only on yellow. Not enough time spent on it to know just how far I can go. Even with what I was able to do today I am EXTREMELY pleased. The entire scooter fits easily, with room to spare, in the trunk of a Honda Civic Coupe. I had a harder time figuring out how to lift sections into the car, than I did fitting it in. Reassembly and re-disassembly was flawless. For the sake of the vinyl I have the seat sitting in my passenger seat, but I could easily get it in the trunk, too. Extremely happy customer. As for the battery, I am already looking for a second set so that I don't have to go home when the going gets fun. :) A couple of "assembly" notes that may not apply to you, but were important for me. 1. Battery comes with a sticker that says connect battery before charging." Opened the battery box (6 long screws) only to find everything connected. Time wasted. 2. Couldn't get my wheels to turn either direction. Last night saw a red handle in front of the tiller base on the front shroud. Couldn't find any reference to what it does, but that red handle locks and unlocks the steering. Up or down movement, depending. 3. IMO, the manual is useless to answer questions like these. I didn't find anything about either 1. or 2. in it, and figured out other things (not shown), as well. 4. It appears that a lot of the promotional material and the manual need serious upgrades. Inaccurate images, descriptions, etc. Minor, but a nuisance. Altogether, the scooter seems sturdy and capable. Needles to say, I am excited to get out and about with it, now that I actually can. Later I will report on putting into trunk, etc. for those that won't be using a lift. I am doing 100% of this myself with no help, other than my wonderful UPS guy getting the carton onto my porch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just received this Drive Medical Bobcat 4 Wheel Compact Scooter, Red and I am in tears with joy! This will fill a long overdue need. I am handling the unpacking and initial assembly by myself. Getting it out of the carton was a trial, but that's my issue. It was packaged extremely well, with lots of styrofoam and good, thick cardboard. Initial impressions are good with two exceptions. 1. Tires - I know I will be replacing the tires over time due to gravel drive. Virtually no tread to speak of. That said, I will mostly use it away from home. 2. Hate the basket on the front. It is not the one shown here, but rather the one shown on the Drive Medical website. Black and plastic-icky. Yuck. I may leave it off or find another. On the plus side, instead of gray, the seat frame is black and looks much nicer than the photo shown. As I finish things up, charge my battery and test the scooter tomorrow, I will post updates. So far I'm glad I took a chance. Five stars to start, let's see where we end up. :) Okay, fully assembled. Since it comes almost assembled it was pretty easy to finish up. On further inspection the basket has a handle and is like picking up a shopping basket if you want to remove it. I will leave it on for now. Tip - when you attach your seat to the mounting post, make sure to fully "seat" one pole in to the other. If you don't have it nested in the grooved part before you tighten the knob your seat will move around, but not up and down. If you wiggle your seat until it settles into the small valley on the silver pole you'll have no problem with it moving around. Appears well built. Had an SSM (semi-senior moment) when I picked up the folded seat wrong and pinched myself. Watch your fingers. ;) Easy to do when adjusting the tiller, too. All-in-all, hardest part of assembly was getting it out of the box. Will be testing and disassembling tomorrow. Until then...

**This review is for the DRIVE MEDICAL "BOBCAT 4-WHEEL SCOOTER" only.** I have noticed it appears for other medical scooters as well. I've wanted a scooter for a long time but am not 'disabled enough' for insurance to cover purchase - price was perfect on this unit. If you are tall, you may want to spend some more on a bigger scooter; I am pushing it at 5' 10", but adjusting the tiller forward more did help with knee room. Make sure you charge the battery pack for 10 hours before first use, even if it appears to have a 'full charge' you can damage the life of the batteries if you do not. Taking the unit apart involves tilting the entire scooter upright to remove a pin from the frame and folding the base to seperate. Not a big deal but in my case (only having use of one arm), I will just put the front end on the tailgate of my SUV and then just pick up the rear and roll it in. Getting back to the size of the scooter. I am almost 6 feet tall and slim... leg room is barely adequate but I do not bend that easily either. My mother is 5' 7" and it fits her perfectly. I have only driven it around the yard so far but forsee no issues at all - there seems to be more than enough power for me, although someone who weighs more may have problems in this area. This is an 'indoor/outdoor' scooter but the 'outdoor' part is very limited. I plan to use this outside at county fairs and the like, events you go to when the weather is good anyway. There is no weatherproofing at all on this unit so DO NOT use it in the rain or snow. Going from a mall to your car AFTER a rainstorm would probably be okay as long as you stay away from any puddles and try to wipe off the motor if you can. If anyone has any questions about this scooter, please feel free to ask me!

I ordered this compact scooter because it had everything I needed based on months of research. When I received my scooter it was for a different model (the X4 instead). Am vastly disappointed in this because my main reason for ordering the compact design was that the battery could be charged without the unit. Because of a disability I can't be lugging the entire unit in and out of the house each time I need to charge the battery. This is not possible in the model they sent me... you have to have the battery in the unit in order to charge it. I will update this review once I hear back from the company and if they send me the model I actually ordered. Update: I never did receive this version of the Bobcat (which is the one I ordered) and based on research it's still the better model than the one I received. I will have to submit a review on the one I actually got since it wasn't this one and even just over a year later I'm still upset that I wasn't able to get the scooter I had ordered. To those of you who have this model I'm jealous because it is apparently discontinued.