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Looking for a personal golf cart - suggestions

wubears71

wubears71

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Albatross 2024 Club
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My wife and I are looking to purchase a golf cart to cruise around the area. We want 6 seats. We are thinking of something similar to this —
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Is there any advice out there on what to look for or what to stay away from?
 
Lithium? I have a lithium Onward two seater. Great cart.

Best option with its aluminum frame. No rusting.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks @gbtrsc! We are definitely going lithium batteries. I like the high end club car carts I’ve used at Shadow Creek and other courses, which is why we are looking there.
 
I was just in the market for the same type of cart. If I wanted Lithium batteries, then I would go with the EZGO Elite 6. But be warned, it is about $18,000 even before you get fancy with upgrades. I thought that was too much for me to justify, its basically like buying a car. The Club Car carts are nice, but I don't have much experience with them. Either way, I am sure you will have no problem finding parts and upgrades. If you were looking for a gas one, I would suggest a Yamaha. To me they are the best gas option.

For me, I went with an ICON because of price. A lifted 6 seater with 48 volts and street legal is about $12,500. To me, that was a reasonable spend. I have had it for about 6 months and its been great. I have had one issue with the display not showing the correct state of charge, and the dealer came to my house and replaced it. I was also able to use a simple software program to modify it to go 30 MPH, a must in high traffic areas to better keep up with traffic.

I started my search with trying to buy an EXGO, but the pricing was out of control, and inventory was so low because of the pandemic demand. I would look into what the final cost to you and, and make a decision whether it is important to you for it to be street legal. Just getting mine registered with a plate was around $600 here in Florida, and I have to maintain PIP insurance on it just like a car.
 
My cart. I’m going to get the seats custom done this month at a cost of about $500.

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Little different but I bought a Yamaha gas powered one 2 months ago and it's a 4 seater. Price, reliability, availability and customizations are what did it for me. I can work on it myself, parts are easy to find and if it has to go to a shop, I have multiple within a half hour.

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Do not sleep on the brands Star EV and ICON EV.

Star is made in Greenville, SC and their Sirius carts are loaded. ICON is made overseas, but the owners are based in FL. I see @BigDill has one and is enjoying it. They offer tremendous bang for the buck and are far from generic carts with labels slapped on there. Both are well thought out and pretty ahead of the game as far as tech goes.

If gas, Yamaha is king and its not close. Their Quiet Tech is about as good as it gets.
If electric, you have to sit in them. EZ GO is a great cart, but the interior quarters are a bit tighter than that of others. Club Car Onward is a fantastic cart as well.
 
JB said:
Do not sleep on the brands Star EV and ICON EV.

Star is made in Greenville, SC and their Sirius carts are loaded. ICON is made overseas, but the owners are based in FL. I see @BigDill has one and is enjoying it. They offer tremendous bang for the buck and are far from generic carts with labels slapped on there. Both are well thought out and pretty ahead of the game as far as tech goes.

If gas, Yamaha is king and its not close. Their Quiet Tech is about as good as it gets.
If electric, you have to sit in them. EZ GO is a great cart, but the interior quarters are a bit tighter than that of others. Club Car Onward is a fantastic cart as well.
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No gas for us. We definitely want electric. I see ICON advertisements a lot and what I see I like. We will have to look into them.
BigDill said:
My cart. I’m going to get the seats custom done this month at a cost of about $500.

View attachment 9016314
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Is that the Icon that JB is referencing? i do like how they look!
Achilles515 said:
Little different but I bought a Yamaha gas powered one 2 months ago and it's a 4 seater. Price, reliability, availability and customizations are what did it for me. I can work on it myself, parts are easy to find and if it has to go to a shop, I have multiple within a half hour.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
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Thats a really good point on parts availability. I’ll keep that in mind!
 
wubears71 said:
Thats a really good point on parts availability. I’ll keep that in mind!
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No matter WHAT brand you buy, make sure you have a dealer that services nearby. If you do, you are safe with most brands. The Big Three of Club Car, EZ GO and Yamaha have long lived on that idea, but others have entered the space with a very solid dealer network. For example, in our Nashville area, the two largest stores carry Star and/or ICON as well as either Club Car or EZ GO.

I have an article upcoming on this very topic and have been researching heavily and speaking to everybody in the cart game. Its a fascinating story on brands, parts, etc.
 
wubears71 said:
Is that the Icon that JB is referencing? i do like how they look!
Click to expand...
It is. I have had mine since December and I do not have a single complaint, other than it being based on the 48v technology, and the EZGO offering the 72v lithium option. In a perfect world, I would prefer lithium just because acid battery maintenance can be tedious, and they tend to smell a bit when the off-gas when being charged to the max. Common with Trojan batteries, but annoying nonetheless. One of the nice features of the ICON is that it has an on-board charger which doesn't sound like a big deal, but is really convenient for longer drives. I charge mine on a 15 amp circuit, but I would recommend at least a 20 amp if you are doing a lot of deep charges.

My one concern is part availability, since everything is essentially factory. There are very few aftermarket parts currently. Hopefully that changes over time, but I have not had a problem yet.

JB said:
No matter WHAT brand you buy, make sure you have a dealer that services nearby. If you do, you are safe with most brands. The Big Three of Club Car, EZ GO and Yamaha have long lived on that idea, but others have entered the space with a very solid dealer network. For example, in our Nashville area, the two largest stores carry Star and/or ICON as well as either Club Car or EZ GO.

I have an article upcoming on this very topic and have been researching heavily and speaking to everybody in the cart game. Its a fascinating story on brands, parts, etc.
Click to expand...
I think the ICON is a tremendous value, and I am definitely asked about it all the time. It looks slick as all heck, with the body-color extended roof and the factory lift if you get the L model. The brand is definitely growing in popularity.

I will be looking out for your article, I am really interested in what you have learned and to get a more in depth idea of the market.
 
@BigDill Listen to Off Course this coming Friday. We are going to talk a lot about golf carts
 
Thanks for the info! I have been looking at the Icon carts online and one thing I can't figure out is; with the 4 seat version, how do you put clubs on it? The videos I have found show them folding the rear seat down to make a flat storage area, but it doesn't look like it goes up to make room for clubs?
 
Briantime said:
Thanks for the info! I have been looking at the Icon carts online and one thing I can't figure out is; with the 4 seat version, how do you put clubs on it? The videos I have found show them folding the rear seat down to make a flat storage area, but it doesn't look like it goes up to make room for clubs?
Click to expand...

In most 4 person carts, there will be an attachment on the back that you add to hold your clubs. None of them are done really well, but they work and are functional. You can in a few cases, remove the extra seat when you want to golf and have traditional wells.
 
JB said:
In most 4 person carts, there will be an attachment on the back that you add to hold your clubs. None of them are done really well, but they work and are functional. You can in a few cases, remove the extra seat when you want to golf and have traditional wells.
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Thanks!
 
My new cart.

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I'm in the ICON camp too...

Recently visited our friends in AZ, they live in a golf community where everyone has cart(s). Saw the ICON for the first time on our last trip recently and was impressed! We were there over a week and saw dozens of new ICONS, seemed like it was the only new cart everyone was buying.
 
Tony Romo in his golf cart with sliding doors and A/C


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JB said:
In most 4 person carts, there will be an attachment on the back that you add to hold your clubs. None of them are done really well, but they work and are functional. You can in a few cases, remove the extra seat when you want to golf and have traditional wells.
Click to expand...

Pay attention to this - most everyone I know with a 6 seat has ended up disappointed with how their clubs attach.

IMO Yamaha (and I believe ICON are on the same platform) have the best 'interiors.' It always gets on my nerves in EZ Go and Club Car carts where the cupholders block access to the storage compartments. The seating position is much more comfortable also. Also, depending on how much you drive don't immediately rule out regular batteries. Lithium is definitely the future here, but I'm not sure its the present. I made it 6 years on my last set of Trojans (batteries :)).

Finally, at least around here, golf carts are hiiiiiiiiiigh right now. A lot of our members have been selling their carts for substantially more than they paid even as many as 8 years ago.
 
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