The drivers swapping their cars for GOLF CARTS to avoid high gas prices

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 7-4-12

[az_gila]

I did a little googling about licensing and I found at least one state, AZ, requires you to have a license on your golf cart and a license to drive it, if you drive it on a public road. I would think other states perhaps similar requirements, including perhaps an insurance requirement.

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In AZ, I believe the “golf cart” must be registered as a NEV - Neighborhood Electric Vehicle - and is limited to roads signposted at 35 mph or less. They do have limited safety equipment such as lights, seat belts and wipers.

Towns may have specific ordinances allowing true golf carts to use bike lanes or roads, but only in smaller areas.

There were a lot around since the state "gave" them away for 100% tax credit around 2000.

[EyeGuy]

“Figure the cost per mile from the increased electric bill; I’ll guess that savings are minimal or non-existent.”

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This.

My guess is these people are deluding themselves.....

[gunner03]

More and more roads are being opened up for ATV’s here in NE Washington state. Only restricted on major federal and state highways. They’re very popular in this area, with miles and miles of logging trails throughout the forests.

[Cyclone59]

Is the auto industry severly overregulated, driving up the price of vehicles far beyond what consumers are willing to pay?

I will disagree with you on that. Consumers like having safe cars, car makers know that it sells cars. I buy cheaper cars, always new and keep until they fall apart. I recently had to buy a new car, a 2012 CRV EX - $23600 - my 1997 CRV EX cost me $22095 - the amount of features that my new one has blows my old one away, especially when you consider I paid $1500 more. I will agree with you on the upper end models of GM.

[Darren McCarty]

Still saving up for my Harley..

[Cyclone59]

Still saving up for my Harley..

Now that is the way to drive and save gas. However, my Harley - V-Rod only get 35 to 40 mpg, where as my Honda Shadow ACE gets 55 to 60 mpg

[Publius Valerius]

Figure the cost per mile from the increased electric bill; I’ll guess that savings are minimal or non-existent.

Let's see about that. My car gets around 15 mpg in the city, but that's probably below average. Let's say the average car gets 20 mpg in the city. These golf carts can drive four miles on the road (I assume that's one way), so to make things easy, let's assume that the store is 2.5 miles away (5 miles round trip).

Gas is about $3.25 a gallon where I live. If I get 20 miles a gallon, it costs me $.81 cents in gas to drive to the store and back. If you're getting 15 miles a gallon, which might be more realistic for that type of stop and go driving, it's $1.08. We'll ignore the other costs of driving (the IRS gives businesses $0.55 per mile) to make it easy.

Golf cars go about 20 miles on a charge. According to the below site, it takes 5 hours to fully recharge a battery at a 1.2 kilowatt hour. My electric bill is about $.08 per kilowatt hour. So a full 5 hour charge costs $0.48, from which I can make 4 trips to the store. Each trip costs $0.12.

That's not a bad savings.

http://greenmyfleet.com/conversion-solutions/hybridconversion/solarhybridconversion/188-roihawaiiprincesolargolfcarts.html