Newbie Looking For First Golf Cart

[Scott_in_FL]

First post!!!

We live in South Florida and its finally time to join the neighbors and locate a golf cart for the family. We need a four-seater. Would love a six, but there's not enough room in the garage. I've been researching and I think I've narrowed down my decision to Club Car Onward, EZ-GO Express, or Icon i40l.

For the Club Car, the quality seems to be best, love the alum construction (I am a bit of a snob when it comes to everything mechanical and will pay up for better materials/construction, and I prefer made in America for all of our vehicles).

My biggest concern is acceleration/speed. There does not seem to be any way to make these things faster, aside from increasing wheel diameter. Is that still accurate?

The EZ-Go 72v's seem to be able to be re-programmed to nearly 35mph, but I'm a bit put off by the steel construction.

The Icon seems to be the easiest to turn up, but now we're into Chinese products.

This is purely a street legal "bop around" town vehicle for taking the family to the beach on the weekends, cruising the neighborhood, dropping the kids off at school (when the weather is cooler), etc. No hills, no off-roading. I don't need the lifted height, but it seems the only way to get the larger wheels onto the cart. I also need to squeeze into a normal sized garage door opening, so 80" may be the max possible height.

If anyone has recently gone through this dilemma, please share your experience and your eventual decision.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[tylem_28]

we just bought a new to us 2017 club car precedent. We love it. 4 seater, lifted with 23" tires. I just installed a navitas AC conversion (will be 35mph easily) Still fits in our garage fine with no issues. Added a bazooka sound bar. its a blast and the family loves it.

[Scott_in_FL]

Originally Posted by tylem_28

we just bought a new to us 2017 club car precedent. We love it. 4 seater, lifted with 23" tires. I just installed a navitas AC conversion (will be 35mph easily) Still fits in our garage fine with no issues. Added a bazooka sound bar. its a blast and the family loves it.

This sounds like a great option! I'll look into it. I'm certainly not adverse to building one up myself if there is a somewhat easy roadmap to follow.

[TX Ragin Cajun]

What was you decision? I'm on my 2nd Club Car because of the aluminum frame as ours will be a beach cruiser as well. We could all use more vitamin SEA! =)

[BballBeast]

I'd go with the club car they seem to be better quality in my opinion. I live in florida near Vero Beach and every1 around me that has ezgo have rusted frames or floor boards. At least the older ezgo's but I have seen a few newer ones with tons of rust. As far as speeding them up it's likely going to be the same price for any brand. They are all expensive to make faster but it's worth it lol.

[CP241]

I’d also go club car. I bought a few carts from the city of Fernandina Beach a few years back. The 2007 ezgo’s were rusty, the 1993 club car had run so long it wore out the rings and had no compression. It was beat to death literally but structurally still perfect. Rebuilt motor, some aesthetics and it looked and ran like new. One of the ezgo’s I was able to salvage and sell cheap, the other one I parted what was good and scrapped the rest. Frame was wasted.

As for new vs. built It depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking for performance and speed there’s more options and flexibility to an older cart you can build the way you want it. The newer carts don’t have a lot of aftermarket support yet for mods and upgrades so you may be limited in the performance category for a while. But they do come with a warranty.

Me personally, I’d find a 10 year old cart and build it bad