No More Makin' Fun of THIS Ol' Guy

We live on the golf course at our country club -- hole number five of the Bridges course, for those of you who are keeping score. I bought a golf cart when we first moved to Houston from a guy that lives across the way. I paid a grand total of $700 for the old ... 10-year old, in fact ... cart. It ran OK mostly, but was so slow it could hardly get out of its own way. I was embarrassed because the guys I play with would make fun of me and how slow I was. If I was first in a line of carts going down the path, I could fairly hear the people behind me sighing with impatience as we putt-putted toward the next hole ... or hum-hummed toward the next hole actually, since we have to use electric carts on our course. Basically I was a moving roadblock. Plus everyone knew it as "Jack's old cart" and they'd made fun of him too when he had it.

I dumped another $200 into the old cart when the solenoid went out a few months back. Fortunately it had crapped out on me right by the house, so I pushed it back into the garage and called for help. Got it fixed. No big deal.

Still, we could do better so we started looking at the two shops near us. One was a bit of a drive north up I-45 ... Golf Carts of Conroe. Gregg The Salesperson there was really nice. His prices seemed good. He was happy to work with us. Had good suggestions about what accessories we should get. Knew all about the carts. He sold EZ-GO and Club Cars.

The other place was nearer the house: prices were not as good and salesperson not too knowledgeable. He did however have a street-legal Star electric car[t] that we could use on the course. Looked just like a golf cart, but had seat belts, turn signals, etc ... and went like a bat outta heck. It looked really good too. Wife was sold, but I didn't want to hassle with insurance, title, registration, etc. even if the Prez was willing to give me a 10% tax credit for buying a (supposedly) "green" vehicle. Even with the credit it was quite a bit more expensive ... and we really weren't going to use it on the street anyway.

In the end we decided to go with the cheaper cart from Gregg. It's an EZ-GO Freedom RXV. It jumps when you put your foot down and looks great. You can see for yourself in the pictures at the end of this post. It has a ball/club washer, sand bottles, a cooler. We bought the "Sun-brella" package in maroon, white and black. The Club's carts are maroon, so we fit right in. I was going to feel like one of the real people. No more making fun of this old guy.

Gregg was even was going to give me $600 for my old cart. (The other place was only going to give $200.) I thought that was generous. The new cart was to be delivered in three weeks, after they put all the accessories on it. I could keep using my old cart in the mean time. And, guess what: I'm playing one night and blam, the old cart stops dead in its tracks. This time I'm quite a ways from the house. I walk back home ... it's 94F, by the way ... and hope that the batteries just need water. I carry back a couple jugs of water and try pouring them in. No go. Fortunately a buddy, Keith, comes by and agrees to use his cart to push me back to the house. Once home, I fiddle with some more things and can't get it to go. I call Gregg, who says, "Don't worry about it. We'll straighten it out. If we can't, I can only give you $300 trade." I'm still happy with that.

A few days later they drop off the new cart. The delivery guy finds a corroded wire in my old cart. He fixes it and drives the old cart right onto his flatbed and drives it away. I got lucky for once!

I'm happy; Wife's happy ... and so are the guys behind me on our course when we're driving down the cart path. What do you think? Cute, eh?