The Adventures of Buying a Golf Cart

    I thought buying a golf cart for shooting sporting clays courses would be a simple process.  However, the opposite was true.  Everywhere I turned seemed to have an obstacle as big as Goliath.  Here is how my adventure unfolded.
    First, I owned two 4-wheelers and I enlisted the help of Craigslist to sell them so I could afford a good used golf cart.  Wow, I sold both of them in less than a week and received the asking price for each.  Cash in hand, I searched the local Craiglist for carts and found at several I was interested in.  Some friends said a battery powered cart was the better choice while others said replacing old batteries was very expensive and a gas powered cart was the way to go.
    The first cart I considered was a gas powered Yamaha.  It had fancy wheels and a rough faded exterior and when I looked at the motor, it was dirt covered at least an inch thick.  Wouldn't you think a guy would clean it up to sell it?  The price was non-negotiable and I thought I could do much better.  Have you ever noticed that a seller has an inflated idea of what their item is worth?  I walked away from that one quickly.

    Next, I considered a nicely kept ten year old battery powered cart.  The owner said the batteries were as good as new (yea, right) and he hadn't bothered to charge them all summer, so they were dead.  Buying six batteries at $140 to $160 each is not a good situation.  He wanted a ridiculous price and the cart even had a flat tire! Thanks, but no thanks.
    I made reservations to see other advertised carts and found out that most of them were being sold because they were pretty well used up.  Some owners had a new cart hidden in their back yard or garages and were eager to get rid of their old filthy ones at an unreasonable price.  I even visited certified dealers of golf carts.  What an experience!  The salesmen were not interested in helping me (unless I wanted to buy an $8000 new cart) and were arrogant.  They must have thought my IQ was really low when I mentioned I wanted a cart for sporting clays.  I finally asked one of the managers if he was interested in selling any golf carts and I didn't appreciate the way I was being treated.  He told me the market was very good at this time and I had better get used to it.  OK,  I took a roll of cash out of my pocket, waved it in his face, and left.  He did sputter a lot!  Ha!

    My final adventure occurred when I responded to a beautiful gas powered, red colored, lifted, chrome wheeled cart being sold on Craigslist from a nearby city by a "newly divorced mother" for only $1600.  I knew the page looked too professional, but I responded with an email.  I received a prompt reply that a purchase must be handled through Ebay's buyer protection program.  Hum... Ebay on Craigslist?  No way.  As I feared, it was a complete scam.  Did they think I would pay for an item I had not even seen?  There are scammers everywhere!
    At this point, I gave up buying a golf cart for at least this year.  I found it a lot cheaper to ride in a friend's cart.  If money is no object, plenty of shiny new carts are available to the buyer.  Good luck for the rest of us!

    I hope you have a better experience purchasing things than I did.  Now, I can get back to writing about sporting clays.

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.           - William Arthur Ward
Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.
          - Yogi Berra