So many questions
 

Our house is sold, our settlement date is August 31. We have rented a home for 2 months and will be arriving on September 1 to begin our new life in the Villages.

We do have friends there, we have visited many times over the years, but this is different, this is our turn.

I have already read a lot of the threads in this newby forum as well as pertinent threads in other forums on here and have gleaned a ton of information. Some of it is very helpful and we appreciate that. It's nice to know that there are voices out there for our questions.

One of the contradictions I've noticed surrounds the rental of a golf cart. Some folks say yes, get one right away, others say to hold off, being new to the Villages and trying to navigate your way around in a golf cart can be dangerous. Never one to shy away from danger, my first instinct was to throw caution to the wind and go ahead and rent one. I thought I'd get some advice before doing that.

Should we hold off on the golf cart until we are familiar with the proper way to drive one around TV?

Also, if we were to rent one, where is the best place to go to make that happen.

Thanks so much, looking forward to getting down there. So as not to complicate things, I'll ask my other questions later.

Vince

I say rent one right away. Learn by doing. It's not that difficult. You can take shorter excursions at first. I should say we just closed on June 30 and will be part-time Villagers. We did the lifestyle visit a couple months ago which comes with the use of a golf cart. I was a little nervous at first and didn't drive it any long distances mostly from Alden Bungalows to Brownwood. Our second visit when we bought about a month ago we rented a cart at Sumter Landing and drove from there to the most northern part of the Villages, Phillips Villas, where we bought. We drove from there to Spanish Springs and then back to Sumter. I had one driver in a car yell that I had left my blinker on which is a mistake I made often. Rent one. Buy one.. You'll be fine.

I'm not sure what the long term rental rates are but the daily rate at Sumter was $25 including a full tank of gas which I thought was pretty reasonable. I'm planning on buying one (Yamaha gas) when we get back there in mid August for an extended stay.

I would was it t o buy a cart after you purchacss a home. As for being dangerous our oldest does not like driving a cart, the rest loved it. It's a personal preference. Rent a two seat gas for a week, try a four seat gas and then rent an electric. Gives you an idea of each.

So many questions
 

If you plan to be here long term look at buying a gas Yamaha EFI. If you have a smart phone down load the villages app because it's gps works both on the roadways and cart paths.

I say wait until you are here a couple of weeks to get the feel for the place. Definitely download the Villages Golfcart GPS on your phone. It even talks to you, if you have a smart phone. We like our gas cart. It's a Yamaha 7 years old with 17,000 miles and still going strong and looks like new. The only maintenance so far has been about $400 total. Not bad for 7 years of pleasure. We did spring for the expensive luxury seats (worth every penny). We spend a lot of time in our golf cart and it was the smartest purchase we made.

Do not forget insurance for the golf cart.

Much ado about nothing new Villager. The only way to see up close the true beauty here is by way of the golf car. Always drive defensively and you'll be fine.


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60 days rental x 25.00 = $1500.00 I think I would put that toward a purchase of a cart seeing your going to live here now.

The best way to learn The Villages is by golf cart. A cart is a MUST!

Wow, 17,000 miles. That's a lot of cart driving in 7 years-I did not realize that you would be spending that much time driving a golf cart. We're so used to using our cars for everything.

I was leaning toward an electric cart, but after thinking about the size of the Villages and the distances we may have to drive to visit friends and such, I guess a gas powered cart makes more sense. It would be embarrassing to drive somewhere and then not have enough power to make it home.

Does AAA make service calls for our golf carts? :1rotfl:

Thanks.

You'll find very quickly that you'll be using your golf cart for about everything. It was my first winter at TV last year, a snowbird from Maine. I only put 200 miles on my Caddy in 6 months. Take your time look around, used carts in very good condition go for ~ 5 K. Enjoy TV I can't wait to get back in October. Most of the full timers advised me go with gas, which I did. I only used about 12 gallons of gas in 6 months !

What an excellent idea!

After you've test-driven the three, I'd say buy right away. I have a Yamaha gas 2-seat that I love. I put about 100 miles a month on it. I fill the gas tank about every two or three months for ten bucks (how can you beat that?). Find the off-road cart paths. You can go a good distance safe from traffic.

Oh, and DO get the most expensive seat possible. (And seatbelts.) You'll be very glad for the extra comfort--cart seats are hard plastic and bad for the back IMHO.

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.

Yes there are tow companies for golf carts. Ours broke down once on the way home from golf and I called the Villages Golf cart store. They sent out a huge wrecker truck with a tandem trailer and he maneuvered the cart on to it. The tow cost me $15.00 and another $50 for a checkup and a new spark plug.

K A R T-Aid is one of the companies available for getting you back home or doing a simple repair, such as a nail in your tire, in the event of a problem. They are $30/year and worth it, in my opinion. They are a 24-hour operation so you will never get stuck if you have an issue after the golf cart stores close for the day. If you have AAA, they may also work. The thing I like about K A R T-Aid is they fix flats for no additional charge.

Wait
Pay attention to the type of cart you want - gas or electric. Once you own a home you can chose as distance to where you want to go is important.

Rent. One-- great way to learn your way around!!

Get a $5 map. Get a $5 map. Get a $5 map. Available at the sales offices.

Rent a cart and get the villages GPS app it shows how to get around using the cart paths.

When you rent one make sure it will do 20 mph a lot of the rentals only do 15 mph.

Once you own a golf cart you feel like a true Villager. To find our way on a golf cart I would look in the Daily Fun, map out various garage sales using my Villages map, hop in the cart and go. It not only taught us the golf cart paths but also introduced us to all the different villages and the residents.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to my questions. Sorry for not responding sooner, the sale of our home is taking up huge quantities of our time right now.

Based on your responses and some additional research that I've done since my original post, I've come up with the follow conclusions:

We will rent a cart for at least a week. We are going to be very focused on finding our permanent home the first two months, I don't see us having a lot of time to do much exploring in a golf cart. I managed to find a couple of places that will rent carts for about $125 per week, sounds reasonable.

It sounds like the Yamaha gas cart is what we need. It just makes more sense, because of the distances we may have to travel.

The more comfortable seat makes huge sense based on how much time everyone seems to think we'll be driving around in our cart. Maps, GPS, all that stuff makes sense, at least until we learn the way around.

Sorry, all this research created a couple more questions:

Everyone talks about 20mph. All of the information I've been able to find on the Yamaha gas carts says a maximum of 15 mph. Do you slip the salesman a few extra bucks to get that extra 5 mph out of the cart?

I'd like to get lights and turn signals. Is this what they refer to as a "street legal" cart?

Do we want to install the side curtains for inclement weather? Is it worth the extra money? Can we purchase and install that stuff ourselves from the aftermarket?

Are the carts covered under our homeowners or car insurance? Is there different levels of coverage that you can ask for?

It seems like most of the reviews on the various cart dealers are all over the place........some good, some bad, which is typical these days. Can anyone give us a recommendation on a really good dealer to talk to? We're probably going to be looking for a used/pre-owned vehicle.

Thanks again for all your help, so appreciated.

So looking forward to getting down there.

Practice makes perfect and it is not hard at all. Drive in your immediate neighborhood...to and from the pool and mailboxes until you feel confident. Once you have mastered that area, then venture a little further. Remember that excitement when you first received your automobile license....its nice to have that feeling again. Enjoy it! I personally had never driven one and got the hang of it the first week. Drive the electric and the gas carts. Electric are quiet as a mouse and have no smell. Gas offers a little more acceleration and have greater versatility in driving range (without refueling). The each have their advantages. Enjoy the learning curve.

I second the suggestion to try electric, gas and brand new (2017) gas. I love my electric cart. It's fairly new, so can get from our house up to Lopez, play a round of golf, down to Brownwood for dancing and home on one charge. We tend to plug it in every night. I like that it is very, very quiet, and much faster off a full stop. Very zippy.

I also like my 2017 quiet tech gas cart. It's not quite as quiet as the electric cart, but I don't worry at all about how far I'm going. It also has a yesteryear truck body, so I can haul all sorts of stuff, and the hard half doors keep my legs comfy on cold winter mornings. No cart blanket needed. It also is a tad faster than the electric when the gas is floored.

I've rented the older gas carts, and was even given a 2017 non-quiet tech gas cart as a loaner for a few weeks. I can't drive them. They are so noisy they give me a headache. But lots of people like them just fine.

Depending on where you buy new or used couple homes may come with golf cart. I would get the feel where I want to live, figure out how much I plan on using the golf cart (lots if golfer), then decide on what brand and type of golf cart. New carts priced state out around 7k up to maybe 20k. Gas or electric personnel choice based on use IMO I had both and was satisfied with both, but leaned towards gas for unlimited mileage. IMO Figuring everything in up keep costs about the same IMO. As suggested you really have to look out for the other person (car, cart, bike, or walker)

Thanks to all who have taken the time to respond to my questions. I apologize for not responding sooner, but the sale of our home is taking up quite a bit of my spare time lately.

Based on all the comments and also some additional searching, we will be renting a cart for at least a week just to get the feel. Most of our effort during the first two months will be dedicated to finding our new home, I don't think we'll have a lot of spare time to do much exploring in a golf cart. I found a couple of places that will rent them for around $125 per week.

I've decided on a gas cart. I like the quietness and the green nature of the electric carts, but the Villages has become so large, it just seems that a gas powered cart makes the most sense. I do have a couple of additional questions though:

In most of my research, the Yamaha gas carts are shown as having a 15mph top speed, yet everyone keeps saying to get a cart that will go at least 20mph. Do you slip the salesman some money to get that extra 5mph? I'm a big car guy, I guess I could always hop up the motor a little bit.

I'm thinking lights and turn signals are definitely needed for night driving, is this what they refer to as a "street legal" cart?

Do we want the side curtains for colder weather, or would you just take your regular car if it was cold?

Do I want to pay all that money for a super sound system, or add it myself later?

Sounds like the locking glove box is a nice option, should I get it?

As always, thank you, your responses have been very helpful.

See comments below in RED.

And show your Villages ID and get 10% off on it!

Is there a Kelly Blue Book for carts? If I'm looking at a used cart, how do I know if the price is fair, or is it just a matter of looking at enough of them to get a feel for pricing?

Is there a Kelly Blue Book for carts?
No there isn't.

If I'm looking at a used cart, how do I know if the price is fair, or is it just a matter of looking at enough of them to get a feel for pricing?
It's a matter of getting a feel for it. This isn't hard if you're shopping for used at golf cart stores.

So true.

We have a 2014 Yamaha Gas EFI with many extras on it for sale. If interested, please send me a message. The reason we are selling it is because we live in a villa with a one car garage and we had one car and 2 carts. I just bought a car, my husband decided that we don't need 2 carts especially with 2 cars so he's selling his cart. He plays pickle ball close to our house so he rarely uses the cart.