[Battlebasset]

Like others here, not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you have a gas vehicle, are you saying you want a vehicle for local trips, but don't want to use it on the golf course, and are ok with limited speed/range?

If you don't golf, then an alternative might be one of the electric golf carts that can be outfitted as a LSV (low speed vehicle). I believe they can have a top speed of 30 to 35 MPH. They are fully enclosed, can have AC/Heat, and have windshield wipers. The only one that comes to mind locally is Atomic, but I know there are others. There is probably an Atomic club in the Villages, you could reach out to them for more info on that.

If you are wanting something you can put on any road, and can go highway speed, maybe look into a used Nissan Leaf? It is fully electric, and until recently, had a range of 80 miles. You can pick up a used for around $10,000. Has all the features of any car, including safety, because it is a car.

Something to be aware of, however, is that depending on the age, the battery pack may have lost its ability to charge as much, and that range might be down to 50 miles or less. If you really only want to use it for a grocery getter, never going more than 30 miles or so round trip, that might work for you. However, at some point the battery pack could get to the point where it barely recharges at all. Then you have a paperweight with wheels. Again, do your research on this option.

Good luck!

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

We are concerning our 1st golf car and own a SUV with one driver in our house.
We also don't know anything about Hybrid cars.

I came up with this idea:
Wouldn't it be feasible to just buy a hybrid car (any size) which uses battery's for
short trips, same as an electric golf car?

Pros:
Maintaining one vehicle instead of two.
There would be one insurance premium to pay.
Garage one vehicle.
We would be in AC all the time.
Available for longer road trips.
Carry more grocery's.

Cons:
Couldn't use it on trails or golf courses.
If there were two drivers that needed transportation, this wouldn't work.

We would get the best of both worlds.

Your Thought Please

I'm not an expert on hybrid vehicles, but I don't think you can operate most hybrids on 100 percent electric power for short trips. You need gas.

[Vermilion Villager]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I'm not an expert on hybrid vehicles, but I don't think you can operate most hybrids on 100 percent electric power for short trips. You need gas.

There is the new variant of hybrid now called "plug-in hybrids" or PHEV. With these you can operate on 100% electricity for a short distance...usually 20-55 miles. I know of a woman in the villages who has a older plug-in hybrid Prius which was one of the first ones out. She said she gets about 26 miles on a charge, which according to her was sufficient range for about 75% of her inside the villages travels.

[Pixelpups]

My husband and I went from an SUV and a truck to an SUV and a gas golf car once we moved to The Villages. We plan our week on who needs the SUV and who can make do with the golf car. We live south of 44 and golf car accessible businesses are finally starting to propagate. Pro's: insurance is less, more garage space, most of our hobbies are 10 minutes by golf car. Con's: we have to plan. (When you live south of 44, many of the established clubs meet in Rec. centers that would take too long to drive by golf car and the same is true of shopping.)

[Pixelpups]

If you live south of the 44, you need a car. Two reasons come to mind: businesses that are golf cart accessible haven't propagated enough (think shopping) and if you join established clubs, most of the rec. centers are too far north for an easy golf car commute. However, quite a few of our recreation activities like swimming, billiards, pickle ball, etc. are a 10 minute golf car ride away. We just have a car and a golf car; sold our truck - save on insurance, save on gas, and have more space in the garage. We just share the car for any long trips.

[Blueblaze]

What do hybrids have to do with a decision to buy a golf cart?

Whether or not you can get by with just a golf cart has more to do with where you live than what powers it. Where I live on the North side, Walmart and our doctors are a 45 minute drive by golf cart. We also have kids we like to see more often than just their annual trek to Disney.

So we have a cart, but it's a luxury. The SUV is a necessity. Neither is electric, but that's a whole other discussion.

However, if we had to, we could get by with just a golf cart. That's part of why we live here -- for when we get too old to drive. Judging from the number of times incompetent drivers have taken out our mail center and street lights in our neighborhood, I'd say there are a lot of folks here who haven't figured that part out yet.