[villagerjack]

Originally Posted by WaltR

Thanks, appreciate all your responses. To elaborate a bit from my original post-------

We are Village newbys, and intend to be seasonal residents. We've driven a couple of gas carts and dislike the noise and smells. We were told rather emphatically by a couple of sales people that elecric carts are not for seasonal residents due to high battery maintenance requirements. We learned about the maintenance-free batteries newly available in new ParCars. These are not gel batteries, they are aborbed glass-mat or AGM. As I understand they are completely sealed, and I think liquid-free, and so there is no worry about maintaining their water level. As I understand, they do need to be charged periodically. ParCar salesman says they have an on-board charger that can be programmed to kick on once a month when unattended. The rub is that these batteries are expensive, and carry only an 18-month warranty. A Club Car advocate still insists that as seasonal residents, we'll regret if we get an electric, even with "maintenance-free" batteries. He also says that gas club cars are significantly quieter and less smelly than gas Yamahas or E-Z-gos.

I don't expect that anyone has any experience with AGM batteries on a golf cart - they're too new. What about the Club Cars (gas) being quieter and less smelly than other gas carts? Also what experiences have other seasonal residents had with electric carts, especially regarding battery longevity?

I have an electric cart for 12 years as a seasonal resident here and in another Adult Community prior. It is a 1998 EZGO and still works great. Replaced the batteries only once about 2 years ago. I have no problems as long as it is unplugged when I leave and the batteries have water. We have 'Affordable Home Watch' which looks after the home and the Golf Cart when we are not here and they do a great job for us.