We were convinced long before we moved here that a golf cart is a must for living here. Having been here for all of five months now, I'm convinced that is right. One of the best things you can do once you get here is take one of the free golf cart safety courses that are put on monthly or so. I believe they are sponsored by The Villages Insurance (I could be wrong on that) but we got NO sales pressure from them.
The big decisions you have to make are:
* Gas or Electric (this is practically a religious argument here, but the vast majority of folks here seem to buy gas)
* New or used (new is more expensive and takes several weeks to get but does include warranty and the latest features)
* What additional features do you want (I strongly recommend seat belts, head, tail-light & side lights and rear-view mirrors, none legally required)
* Basic, customized or super-duper customized (applies to new ones only)
Just looking at the carts parked at the squares during one of our visits, I estimated more than three quarters were Yamaha gas. I've often seen 10-year-old Yamaha gas offered for sale and still commanding decent money. So we went with Yamaha. I'm not super mechanically inclined so I wouldn't know what to look for in a used cart to know if it's in good shape or not so we went with a new cart. I made sure the features I mentioned above were included. I'm not into spending a fortune on getting a cart that looks like a Model T, a Mustang, a Porsche or a semi-truck (though I get a kick out of seeing them) so I went pretty basic on the cart itself, not even getting a custom paint job. The big splurge for us was the seating upgrade that made the cart a LOT more comfortable to ride plus allowed my shorter wife to adjust the seat way forward to be able to reach the pedals without Velcro-strapped extender blocks on them. The one thing I did not get was a speedometer and I'm planning on rectifying that soon as I'd like to keep track of how many miles I'm putting on it. I'm not worried about the speed as mine is set to go no faster than the 20 mph speed limit on golf carts.
Before retiring and moving here, I actually had dreams of riding around in my golf cart. Now I'm living the dream. I still get the biggest kick out of running up to one of the squares or going to the gym in my golf cart.
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