I’ve ridden the VLX, and personally, I like it. It is by no means a fast bike, I’d use the terms “laid back” and “smooth” to describe almost everything about it. Very good things in a cruiser imo.
The bike is very easy to hold up, but I find takes some effort in low speed cornering. It does weight 500 pounds, and thus takes soem extra skill when leaned over (you have to use the throttle to bring it upright smoothly after a corner).
My mother moved up to it after a year on the Rebel, so that helped immensley. As a first bike, I think the question would be, how well does someone handle the low speed MSF stuff on a Rebel. If they have no problem with it, the VLX is a fine first bike. If they find low speed, in particular leaning the bike over at low speeds to be troublesome, I’d recommend a lighter bike (the S40 comes to mind).
With 30 pounds of torque, the VLX will handle any single-rider cruises without issue (again, smooth and laid back, not a speed demon). I’ve even met a guy who rode across the states on one and loved it.
The old Suzuki is certainly a good idea. Definitely cheaper, but again, I’d wait until after the MSF to make any final calls. My dad has a Suzuki GS450, and despite a low seat height, it has a fairly high center of gravity, which my Mom finds very hard to deal with. You might want to have your wife sit on it and do the lean test (you hold the handlebars from the front, and she leans the bike as far as she’s comfortable with). They’ll give her an idea of how heavy the bike is and if she’d be comfortable with its center of gravity before you invest the money fixing it up.