Street Ready Golf Cart
 

There has been a previous thread on the $4500 rebate for some street ready Golf carts. Someone told me he took advantage of the rebate and bought a street ready cart. His intention is to keep it street ready and pay the registration and insurance for one year and then cancel everything and use it as a golf road vehicle only, no longer street ready. Any comments on whether Motor vehicle would allow him to do this?

If stopped or involved in an accident it would be the same as driving an unregistered vehicle. If it has a title and is used on the road it has to have plate and insurance.
Even if you take it on golf cart paths.
It is not a golf cart. It is a low speed vehicle.

I suspect that this is not correct. All one need to do to convert it to a golf cart in the eyes of the law is to have the computer adjusted to limit the speed to 20MPH. Anything with a top speed of less then 20 MPH is defined by the law as a golf cart and not an LSV.

Lets say I have a plated 90cc scooter and I put a governor on it......can I get by without it being registered? No (maybe if I don't get caught:angel:)
I would suggest anyone thinking about doing that to check with the authorities first. Florida is very harsh when it comes to vehicle laws.
Also if the vehicle was stopped, try and prove it to the officer that it has been adjusted to a lower speed.
HihoHiho it's off to court we go

Let's take the Star car for an example. The exact same cart is used for both golf cart usage as well as street legal. To make it a street legal vehicle they add a few safety items and crank its top-end speed up to 25 MPH. Are the safety items the things that require registration? I don't think so. It's the speed. Hence, to down-convert to a golf cart, all you would have to do is crank down the speed. What's a cop going to do, give you a ticket for having seat belts on an unregistered golf cart? I don't think so.

I just called the Sumter county tax collector and gave her the scenerio of a Star street legal being detuned to go under 20mph.
She told me that it must be plated and registered as a vehicle since it has a title. She also said to check with Lt. Wolfe at the sheriffs dept. because he conducts cart safety programs here and that this is one of the things he lets everyone know......they will cite a person if it is not registered.
I had a street legal (lc3, 4 passenger electric) and got rid of it. I would much rather have a regular golf cart.
People should not take the tax credit and then try to figure out a way to "work" the system. Take the credit, get it registered or just go buy a nice golf cart.

To be truthful, we had also thought about doing that. We were told by the Star car people that they can either make a cart a LSV or a regular golf cart, but that once it is a LSV, it could not be converted to a regular cart as DMV did not allow it.

How does the math work out?
You're going to save $4500 when you purchase it. What's the insurance? What's the annual registration fee?
If any of my back-of-the-envelope calculations are close to correct, you'll save money even if you register it, insure it, and use it the way it was titled. If it cost $200 per year to register and insure, you'd have over 22 years before the cart cost you more as a street legal. You gonna be driving that golf cart around in 22 years?
Just keep it registered and insured, you'll be way ahead of the game, and you won't have to look for a loophole to save you a few dollars.

Steve,

That's what my calculations say as well (except my break even point isn't 22 years since registration and insurance is a bit more than $200/yr)

NJBlue - Approximately how much is it for each per year?

steve, even at $400 per year it's an 11 year pay back.....GN

The quotes that I received for insurance was almost the same as for a car...anywhere between $450-$600 prt year. First time registration is about $300 for the first year and $45 per year after that. The Star people told me to call a certain insurance company who would insure it for $200 per year, but that was for a motorcycle policy with a $1500 deductible. The other reputable insurance companies are the above quoted prices. Also, there is no guarantee as to how long the insurance would stay at that price. All in all, it just didn't seem like a good deal. Bought a 2010 EZGO instead and am extremely pleased.

So it's about $500. Payback in 9 years. Still seems like it may be worth if from a financail perspective.

Still on fence, leaning towards NON street
 

Interesting thread, for what it is worth here is what I found....

I am attracted to the deal so I went down to Par Car. The info I got at Par Car was the tax credit was $5475.71. I was told insurance was around $400 per year and the saleman had heard it would drop to $200 in a few years <wink><wink>. I did a quick call to the Villages insurance and was given numbers that ranged from $600 - $1200 per year, there was no mention of a drop. I did not dig too deep and I would be very interested in anyone that actually has insurance on the real number they pay. There is quite a difference between $600 and $1200.

Based on the numbers I got would be a yearly cost of $600++ for insurance + $ 60 for registration. I figured about $370 in the first year to register it. Call it $700 per year at the optimistic end.

BTW, a new Par Car street cart is $11,551 including ALL costs. A non street cart at Par Car is around $1500 cheaper.

I am not recommending a Par Car, but they offered both a street cart and a non street cart for comparison.

This is a no brainier if you want a street legal cart, but in my case I was looking at a street legal cart for the tax credit only. I am very much on the fence as my decision I have to compare the cost of the street legal cart minus credit + other costs to what I could buy a non street cart for.

Unless I am off I would say the NON street cart starts to become cheaper in the 5 - 6 year period.

Alan

OK folks, time to clear this issue up. I registered my new 2008 Tomberlin E-Merge 2 LSV with Allstate for $210. It would have been more like 180 if I had also registered my full sized vehicle with them too.

The insurance policy is for an OFF-ROAD VEHICLE. That’s important to understand because that’s why it’s so low. Those that were quoted $400-500 for insurance is probably because their insurance company doesn’t offer that kind of policy. Google “off-road vehicle insurance” to find other insurers that offer this and get quotes from them.

So let’s say you’re insuring your regular and LSV vehicles with the same company. $180 for insurance and $45 for annual registration is $225. But since the annual insurance for a regular golf cart is ~ $70 the net outlay for the LSV is $155/yr. So it would take 29 years to offset the $4500 tax credit.

Edit Note: The Off-Road Vehicle insurance was actually the wrong type of policy as noted in another post I made further down in this discussion thread.

So edvin, after the rebate what is the ballpark cost for the Toberlin (I realize there are a lot of different options to be had) just looking for estimated cost...GN

Well, a new 2010 E2 has an MSRP around $7500. So figure a fairly equipped one with a custom Sunbrella enclosure and registration/dealer processing fees etc. will probably push that up to $8500. The official IRS tax credit for the E2 is $4239.

There’s a new Tomberlin dealership that opened on 301 in Wildwood 352-330-0359. You should be able to test drive one for yourself. Remember that the tax credit is only for new vehicles. Tomberlin essentially did not make a 2009 model and went from 2008 to 2010 but the new model includes several improvement, the most notable is rack and pinion steering.

Due to the awareness of the big LSV/NEV tax break, you’d be hard pressed to find a leftover 2008/09 model at this point.

Isn't it fun to live in The Villages? Where else could you walk out your front door, hop on a golf cart or LSV and go anywhere you want to go. Life in The Villages is great.

What I heard on Off Road
 

Let me preface by saying I am not a lawyer or insurance salesman, but am very interested in the whole discussion. With the tax credit I have been thinking about a new Par Car street car.

I have talked to several insurance companies in the last day or two, including two Allstate agencies. They have all told me that you cannot insure a street legal golf cart with Off Road Coverage. They tell me you must carry Personal Injury Protection. They said they had heard some brokers had been doing this but it is not correct (not my words). The quotes I am getting are around $600 per year to insure properly.

Not trying to stir trouble or saying I know which is right, but it may be worth checking for folks who have off road coverage to verify you have what you need if something were to happen.

Ask your ParCar sales rep to provide you with an insurance agency for NEV/LSV insurance and call them for a quote.

While I don't contest what this poster heard from insurance agencies, I think this points to the fact that the insurance companies don't have a clue in terms of how to assess the risks involved with a street legal golf cart. $600 is close to what I pay for my SUV. Compare the liability risks of a several ton vehicle that typically goes 70 MPH along with other vehicles of comparable size going the same speed for 12,000 to 20,000 miles per year to an LSV. The LSV can go a maximum of 25 mph and would be lucky to see 5,000 miles of usage per year with the majority of these miles being on roads and trails exactly the same as used by golf carts, which are insured at a MUCH lower rate . The biggest thing from a liability perspective is that if the LSV were to be involved in an accident in an environment that differentiates it from a golf cart, i.e., on a road such as Morse, the amount of personal injury that it would do to the other vehicle's passengers would be negligible.

Hence, if insurance companies say that they need to charge premiums comparable to a car or SUV because of liability, they are blowing smoke (or are too lazy to look at the actual risks involved). While I can see an increase in the premiums over a standard golf cart, when they get to be in the range of 10 times what a golf cart is assessed, it seems to me that someone has failed to do their homework.

I was wondering how the Tomberlin owners rate their experience with the cart and how good local service is. I would appreciate knowing more about this cart. Thanks.

It turns out your sources on this are correct because I decided to follow up and called my agent to talk about it. I was informed that my agent is no longer with the agency. Hmmm, that didn’t sound good.

I was informed by the new agent that an off-road vehicle policy cannot be used to verify proof of insurance for registration purposes because it does not include the Florida required Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage. I looked at my policy and sure enough, no PIP coverage. I asked if PIP can be added and he said no.

I then immediately ordered an upgrade to a minimum level auto policy which will be $190 for 6 months. That’s enough time to get my LSV registered and then sort things out. I have to agree with NJblue that the insurance industry has not gotten their act together on this and mistakes are being made.

In the meantime, based on information I found in another forum, I called two different State Farm Insurance agencies including the one in Lady Lake and they say that they can issue me an actual LSV insurance policy including the required pip coverage if I also insure my regular vehicle with State Farm too. They both stated that the cost for the LSV coverage is in the 180-250/yr range depending on how much coverage and the deductable amounts. And that’s what I’ll do once I’m down there.

But check this out yourself for sure.

Love . . .love . . .love mine (at least so far). Tomberlin has been in operation for many years making ATV, scooters, etc. so this is not a fly by night company. Their carts have brakes on all four wheels, front disc and operate on hydraulics . . . unlike most other cart out there.
I laugh at the info on insurance that some people are posting . . . I'm with USAA as a retired military officer and pay $130 per year for my LSV insurance which includes Bodily Injury ($300,000), medical payments, property damage ($15,000), uninsured motorists ($300,000 per accident), full comprehensive loss with no deductible, and collision with a $50 deductible. I'd have the same insurance even if this were just a golf cart instead of a LSV, given the way some people drive on the golf cart paths and they fact you have to cross streets.

The Tomberlin carts that are street legal come with two key switch positions . . . just put the cart in the second (golf course) position and you cannot exceed 20 mph . . . therefore you would never get a ticket for speeding and if you never intend to drive faster than 20mph or drive in the street then that there is no reason to put plates on the cart after the first year and you have the rebate in hand.
That being said, I think the yearly cost of the plates are cheap enough to keep it registered so that one can use the higher speeds to pass while driving on street like Oak Forrest, and cross 466 w/o using the tunnels.

Gongoozler, you won't be ticketed for speeding but you will be ticketed with the much more serious and expensive violation of "Driving an Unregistered Motor Vehicle". And the police won't care how fast you were going when they pulled you over or whether you have a high/lo speed switch, etc.

Remember this phrase:

If it looks like a golf cart, drives like a golf cart, sounds like a golf cart, but is capable of exceeding 20mph, It's NOT a golf cart and must be registered and insured if you want to drive through TV.