Thinking about a Gem Car

[John H C]

Thinking about a Gem Car - or perhaps a Par Car for a LSV.

Any comments?

[Indydealmaker]

Thinking about a Gem Car - or perhaps a Par Car for a LSV.

Any comments?

For my part, I have always wondered what the attraction is for a LSV.

The Good:
You can cross a road that has a speed limit no greater than 45mph.
You can drive 5mph faster than a cart (up to 25mph)

The Bad:
You can drive 25 mph on a road with speed limit up to 35mph. However that is at least 10mph slower than the cars and pickups flying by you.
Insurance will be as much as a car.
The LSV must be registered and plated just like a car with the accompanying costs.

That being said, the GEM gets less than half of the range of the ParCar.
Also, I believe that the GEM has twice the batteries of a golf cart. (you might verify that). If that is accurate you are paying a heck of a premium to get to go 5 mph faster and occasionally cross a 45mph road.

Best of luck!

[robertj1954]

I have a Par Car. I love it. Smooth ride, long range (limited of course) On board charging makes it easier to get a boost charge when traveling long distance. I have taken my cart to Evans Prairie, played golf and drove back to Hacienda on a charge with plenty to spare. They are good carts in my opinion.

[ureout]

I've had a par car lsv for about 2 1/2 years I love it. 2 things you have to be aware of though is lsv insurance is almost the cost of car ins. and battery life. They will tell you a well maintained battery will last 2 to 3 years. The warranty also includes "battery hour usage" and par car states a battery pack gets about 500 hrs. Im going to need my 3rd set of batteries soon, range has reduced drastically. I was upset about that until I sat down and figured I drive on a average 25 miles a day which over even 300 days a yr. equals 7500 miles if you take the avg. gas golf cart gets about 35 mpg and and use a low cost per gal. of $3.25 thats about $700.00 a yr. for gas. New batteries will cost me in the range of $800.00 and then I get a new 1 time warranty on them again for 2yrs...so battery cost breaks down to $400.00 a year. hope this helps

[red tail]

For my part, I have always wondered what the attraction is for a LSV.

The Good:
You can cross a road that has a speed limit no greater than 45mph.
You can drive 5mph faster than a cart (up to 25mph)

The Bad:
You can drive 25 mph on a road with speed limit up to 35mph. However that is at least 10mph slower than the cars and pickups flying by you.
Insurance will be as much as a car.
The LSV must be registered and plated just like a car with the accompanying costs.

That being said, the GEM gets less than half of the range of the ParCar.
Also, I believe that the GEM has twice the batteries of a golf cart. (you might verify that). If that is accurate you are paying a heck of a premium to get to go 5 mph faster and occasionally cross a 45mph road.

Best of luck!



you forgot to state under the 'good' points the many safety features of a lsv over a golf cart. 4 wheel hydraulic brakes,seatbelts,heavy frame etc etc etc

[Indydealmaker]

you forgot to state under the 'good' points the many safety features of a lsv over a golf cart. 4 wheel hydraulic brakes,seatbelts,heavy frame etc etc etc

You are right. I did omit those. Maybe that extra weight is why the GEM has 72 volt batteries, but only has a maximum range of 40 miles with the 9-8 volt batteries.

The 4 wheel hydraulic brakes is a good selling point, but I wonder if there is a significant difference when you are travelling only 20 mph?

[red tail]

You are right. I did omit those. Maybe that extra weight is why the GEM has 72 volt batteries, but only has a maximum range of 40 miles with the 9-8 volt batteries.

The 4 wheel hydraulic brakes is a good selling point, but I wonder if there is a significant difference when you are travelling only 20 mph?

the difference is they are hydraulic instead of a cable that over time gets corroded and can break when braking hard in an emerency. with a lsv and if a hydraulic failure happened you can fall back on the emergency brake which is a cable driven standby. many serious accidents here are tip overs and the lsv has the weight to prevent that, in the rare event that it did flip they have sturdy roll bars as opposed to the flimsy aluminum frame of a golf cart. im basing my comments on my tomberlin as opposed to my former ezgo golf cart.

[ijusluvit]

I think personal safety is the overriding issue. Golf cart accidents are very numerous in TV and the serious ones, with injuries and fatalities, almost invariably involve cart vs. car. In those cases, the cart operator doesn't stand much of a chance. A local insurance agent informed me that there were 12 golf cart accident fatalities here in the last year. She said the police do not keep separate statistics on this, and because the parent company wanted to know the actual number, her staff had to search all local accident records. I had no idea the number was this high. Maybe I don't read the Sun carefully enough.

We all have heard about the constant problems with driver error in the traffic circles. Just about everyone has seen an accident there. It's common for drivers to exceed 40 mph on the major TV roads. Safety crash testing destroys vehicles at that speed. How many driver errors do we witness on those main roads, even in straight sections?

I will never put myself in a vulnerable LSV in those situations.