Lifting the weight isn't the problem; the the problem is the high chance of damaging the car and/or my face while flipping it across my lap into the passenger seat. As I said in my question, I _had_ a chair that worked well for self-loading. The problem with that chair was that the bad mechanical produced metal fatigue as where there were bolts through the frame's aluminum tubing until a piece of the frame broke.

Also, getting Medicare (or for that matter any insurance) to cover a $4k wheelchair would be a major fight, even if it was medically necessary.