Welcome to the 21st century. The humble golf cart
of old is now a flashy golf car.
Dropping the "t" from cart isn't just a
long-overlooked industry getting a little pretentious. Today's top
golf cars are real high-performance fairway flyers. And they're
not just for the golf course anymore.
"Increasingly, people are driving their golf
cars as if they were their second automobiles," says Don DelPlace,
the editor of Golf Car Advisor, a trade publication devoted strictly
to the golf car industry.
That's because the new generation can handle a lot
more than the cart path at the local country club. Essentially
miniature automobiles, the new buggies boast dramatically better
bodies, much stronger suspensions and motors so powerful that
they can cruise up to about 20 miles an hour and go as far as
50 miles before requiring a battery recharge.
They also can be customized to look just like a
Cadillac Escalade, a '57 Chevy or even a Mercedes-Benz SLK. And
just as the baby boomers have stoked the demand for classic cars,
so are they driving the demand for these eye-popping golf cars.
Custom golf cars have gotten so hot, industry experts say, that
they now account for around $20 million worth of the $200 million
annual business in golf cars overall.
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Mercedes-Benz Golf Car
courtesy of LuxuryCarts.com
Click image for larger view
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"They're well-built, and they sell well because
the autos they resemble sell very well," says Michael Hruby,
the owner of LuxuryCarts.com, a custom golf car dealership in
Mililani, Hawaii. "Also, they're status symbols, and alternative
modes of transportation that allow the users to reflect their
style and taste."
Growing golf-car selection
The selection is getting bigger every day. At LuxuryCarts.com,
for example, you can choose from a dozen or more high-end models,
with five more scheduled to debut in 2005. Phat Cat Carts in Clearwater,
Fla., offers a golf car decked out just like the black Monte Carlo
driven by late NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt, complete with a "3"
and authentic GM Goodwrench decals. In Montezuma, Iowa, Street
Rod Productions specializes in replica hot rod golf cars.
However, the ultimate in golf car panache has to
be the Tonino Lamborghini models imported from Italy by Leewood,
Inc., of Palm City, Fla. They're even good enough for Pope John
Paul II. At Christmas, the Vatican City police got four of them
to more conveniently patrol the famous city state.
The little Lambos come complete with a McPherson
independent front suspension and a four-wheel hydraulic braking
system. They don't quite match the 200 mph performance of their
supercar counterparts, but they do top out at 25 mph and can go
about 50 miles on a single battery charge. Those specs make them
the, well, Lamborghinis of golf cars. And they are several hundred
thousand dollars cheaper than the real thing.
The Lamborghinis and other custom cars also come
with an amazing array of options. "Basically, anything you
can put in your car, you can also put in your golf car,"
says DelPlace. "Air conditioning, AM-FM radios, CD players,
even DVD players. You can hook up a cell phone or a TV. Some even
come equipped with hard sides that open and close like a shower
door."
Check out accessories dealers such as GolfCarCatalog.com,
and you'll find chrome spinners for your wheels that'll make your
golf car bling with the best of them, along with woody kits, Formula
1 steering wheels, a variety of vinyl graphics and even running
boards. More special products, such as TVs and air conditioners,
generally are available directly from a customizer.
The price of luxury
All this golf car cool doesn't come cheap. Though most custom
golf cars are made by specialty companies, they're usually built
on the standard chassis from one of the major golf car manufacturers
such as Club Car, E-Z Go and Yamaha. Then the unique bodies and
accessories are added, just as custom cars are assembled.
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-- Posted: Feb. 15, 2005
