5 Tips You NEED To Know If You're Buying A Golf Cart in 2023!

Back in the day, you might've had one or two golf cart dealers to choose from in your area, and you essentially had three OEMS to choose from: Yamaha, Club Car, EZGO, and a few smaller brands trickled in.

But now in 2023, there's a golf cart dealer every 5 square miles, and you get to choose between Club Car, EZGO, Yamaha, Evolution, Advanced EV, Icon, Madjax, Gem Car, Navitas, and many more OEMS that may have emerged within the last year.

It can certainly make your head spin if you're currently shopping for a golf cart here in 2023, so read on to find 5 helpful tips on purchasing your golf cart. 

TIP #1. YOUR GOLF CART IS ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR DEALER.

Obviously, some golf carts out there might be a little more prone to have more issues than others, but the chances of you having any issues with your golf cart are very contingent on the dealer you purchase from and here's why:

1. A good dealer won't knowingly sell you a golf cart that'll give you issues short or long term because a good dealer wants to do the right thing, and they also want to create a healthy relationship with you, so you become a repeat customer in the future.
2. A good dealer WILL have a thorough, methodical, prep process for each golf cart they sell, and their prep process is based on their experience with that specific golf cart. If they know a certain model of golf cart typically develops a terrible squeak in the roof after a few hours fo use, they'll do whatever they can to prevent that squeak from happening down the road, meanwhile, a bad dealer will just ignore that squeak and sell you the golf cart, letting that squeak be your problem. 
3. As long as you, the customer, are understanding and fair, a good dealer will be understanding and fair. When it comes to warranty concerns and golf cart issues, a good dealer will take care of you to the best of their ability. But a bad dealer will try to squeeze money out of you every time they can, fight you on warranty work, or just not communicate with you at all. 

Now, I'm not telling you that you're guaranteed to have ZERO issues with your golf cart if you buy from a great dealer because that's not realistic. Crap happens out of the dealer's control, but you're less likely to have issues as well as a poor experience if you buy from a good dealer instead of a bad dealer. 

Now how do you if your dealer is good or bad?

1. Just call or visit the dealer and see how you gauge the experience. Let your gut feeling guide your decision.
2. Word of mouth; if you've heard multiple people saying: "that dealer ABC is great," then they're probably a good dealer. On the other hand, if you've heard: "dealer XYZ isn't great," then they might not be your best choice. Only base your decision on word of mouth if you've heard ALOTTTTT of people's opinions, not just one or two.
3. If you don't have many "word of mouth" opinions to go off of, you can look at online reviews through Google, Facebook, or Yelp. If half of their reviews are bad and the other half are good, that dealer may not be the best choice. On the other hand, if there's one bad review for every 100 good reviews, then they're probably great! Also, pay attention to the quality of the reviews and the feedback from the dealer.  

TIP #2: STREET LEGAL REQUIREMENTS!!

Figure out your local requirements for a street legal golf cart. This is a HUGE one because the golf cart street legal requirements vary widely state-to-state, and they can vary widely within the same state. 

The best way to figure out what is required for your golf cart is to visit your local BMV, Title Department, or Police Department for the area you'll be driving your golf cart in, and you may get a list of requirements.

Don't go two counties over or the town an hour away and ask them their requirements because the requirements can literally change within a 10 mile radius. The county next to you might allow gas and electric golf carts, require them to be titled and plated, meanwhile your county might require you to have an electric golf cart and no title or plate. Again, the best way to get this answer is to go directly to your LOCAL source.

TIP #3: UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LSV AND GOLF CART.

This kind of piggy backs off the street legal requirements, but is so important that it needs its own section. An LSV stands for Low Speed Vehicle, and an LSV comes built from the factory with a 17-digit VIN number, has a Title or MCO, and is equipped with the average street legal requirements, like a DOT windshield, seatbelts, street legal lighting, and so on. 

Some states and some counties require you to have an LSV instead of a 9-digit VIN golf cart to be allowed on the road. Now, an LSV can still look exactly the same as a golf cart. They are almost the same exact golf cart; literally no difference in performance or cosmetics. The only difference is the that one has a 17-digit VIN with a title and he other has a 9-digit VIN with no title. 

Some area's like Charleston, South Carolina allow a 9-digit VIN golf cart on the road, but they have limitations on how far you can drive from your residence and what time you can drive at night, but if you have an LSV, then these limitations DON'T apply to you. 

Figure out if your area requires a golf cart or an LSV because the last thing you want to do is buy a golf cart, and then be unable to drive that golf cart on the road because they required an LSV, or vice versa.

TIP #4. DON'T SOLELY BASE YOUR DECISION ON THE PRICE OF THE GOLF CART.

The industry is now flooded with dealers. Some regions, throughout the country, have some serious competition with how many dealers are in one area, which means that you, as the customer, have way more power versus a customer shopping for a golf cart in the middle of nowhere with one golf cart dealer to choose from.

If this is you, and you have a lot of dealers to choose from, you can't expect to get the best golf cart, the best service, or the best experience if you're trying to get the lowest price. A good dealer, that's good at delivering a good product, great service, and a great experience doesn't necessarily have to be the cheapest option in their market because the average customer understand that "you get what you pay for." 

Now, I'm not saying that you won't be able to get the best deal from the best dealer around, but that doesn't mean you should consider price in the end. Here's how this works.

If dealer ABC offers a mediocre product, service, and experience, then they struggle to sell golf carts.

If dealer XYZ, that's down the road, has their business together and offers a great product, service, and experience, then they may sell the heck out of their golf carts. 

Which dealer do you think is more inclined to give you the best price? 

9/10 times, it's going to be dealer ABC because they struggle to sell golf carts. If you buy from them, you might find yourself regretting your purchase, and you're going to wish you spent the extra money down the road at dealer XYZ.

And if you might find yourself in the scenario above, then you may end up having issues with your golf cart due to buying from a less reliable dealer. 

SO don't make the price the absolute "do or die" decision maker because it isn't everything. And again, I'm not saying you're always going to pay more at the better dealer. Heck, it could be flipped; a dealer could deliver such a great product, service, and experience to where they sell a heck of a lot of golf carts that they'll be more willing to give you an awesome deal. But I wouldn't always bet on that. 

Regardless, going in with the mindset that you're going to pay the absolute minimum price for a certain golf cart by ignoring a poor reputation, or your first impression, then you're probably going to find yourself regretting your decision down the road.

TIP #5. DON'T SOLELY BASE YOUR DECISION ON A FEW INTERNET COMMENTS!

People are more than likely to complain on the internet than they are to share a great experience. Don't base your decision solely on Facebook comments and/or other comments across the internet. People are way more inclined to complain about a poor experience that they are to praise a great experience. So don't instantly get discouraged about a certain model of golf cart, or dealer, just because @bob34655 said "this golf cart model/dealer sucks" in a Facebook group, or because Susie left a bad review about a dealer with 0/5 stars with no context.

Now again, it's a quantity thing, like I said earlier. If you see 30 comments about a certain dealer being great or bad, that might help you make your decision. If you see 50 bad reviews about a dealer, that might accurately shape your opinion on the dealer. But if you see one bad review and comment on a dealer, you can't jump to the conclusion and decide to share the same opinion as that customer. 

Now, it's a different subject when it comes to internet opinions about golf cart models, and that's because people hold opinions so strongly about certain brands. For example:

There's millions of people that think Dodge is junk, millions that think Ford is junk, millions that think Chevy is junk. The reality of it; some aspects for all three of these OEMS are better and worse than others, but if they were truly junk, nobody would buy them, and the same goes for golf carts. Heck, I own all three, and I've personally experienced PROS and CONS for all three.

If you read through the internet, you're going to see just as many negatives comments about a certain golf cart as you do positive comments. Some of these comments might be from dealers that have extensive experience, and have a very good reason why they feel as strongly as they do about a certain brand, but the reality is that 95% of the opinions you'll read on the internet about a certain golf cart OEM are not qualified opinions. You know what you're always telling your 16-year-old? "You can't believe everything you read on the internet."

Don might've bought a pre-owned Club Car from a dealer that knew it was on its last leg, and then when it has issues a month down the road, Don has to go and sell it, which leads to him writing negative comments on Facebook and other websites about Club Cars for the rest of his life because he bought ONE beat-up Club Car. You can't let Don determine that you're not going to buy a Club Car now because there's millions of people, including myself, that think Club Car is one of the best, if not thee best, golf cart to buy.  

And there you have it!

5 tips if buying a golf cart in 2023. Let's recap:

1. Choose your dealer WISELY.
2. Know your street LEGAL requirements.
3. Know the DIFFERENCE between an LSV and a golf cart.
4. Don't base your decision on PRICE.
5. Don't base your decision on a FEW internet comments. 

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If you think there's more aspects that I should've covered, you disagree with me on a certain subject, or you have more information on some of these topics, please let me know as I'd love to hear some feedback. 

You can contact me at: Sloan@BACarts.com or go to BACarts.Com!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!