The Dog Pooped in the Truck and other Golf Cart Stories

The Excellent Half said she would clean the upholstery in the truck where the dog pooped. Here’s the back story.

We didn’t buy a “new to us” golf cart. We purchased an honest to goodness brand spankin’ new 4-wheeled, trick-painted, jacked up, gasoline-powered, Ez Go golf cart. And let me tell you golf carts are darned expensive. It cost twice what my first car cost. But it sure is pretty.

The Excellent Half has been craving a golf cart since we moved to the lake. Her initial dollar limit was between $2,000 -$3,000. And that’s a lot of money. But what that gets you is a 20 year old machine with all the attendant problems. Just to be clear, I am not particularly mechanically inclined. I make things work by having other people fix them when they break. When the pain of the repair costs get too high I will trade it in for a newer model. (I only hope my Excellent Half doesn’t do that to me.) Anyway, if you start with a 20 year old POS what are you going to trade up to, a 15 year old POS?

I finally talked her into looking for something a little newer, 3-6 years old and $5,000 to $7,000. We can put enough down and borrow the rest and keep the payments around $100 a month. That’s really doable.

She got a little more excited about looking for a cart and finally decided that we should go to several golf cart dealers to look at some used carts she picked out. The next morning she grabbed the dog, and we jumped into the truck. She had told me where we were going but it didn’t really dawn on me that we were going to be running all over a good portion of western Ohio. We started out by driving to Van Wert, Ohio where we allowed ourselves to be cornered by a lot shark. The Excellent Half got him to take us to the golf cart of her dreams.

It was a 6 year old refurbished golf cart. It was indeed, the golf cart dreams are made of. And she loved it. I was having nightmares about the color and the styling. (In case you didn’t put it together, nightmares are dreams.) Absolutely horrid. If you’re riding around in this cart, you should put a bag over your head. Make that two bags in case the first one breaks. But she loved it. And it was $7,200. I looked it over and declared it sound. (Keep in mind I am not mechanically inclined. My opinion about something being “sound” is like radio static, it means nothing and the sound is annoying.) And the fact that she thought it was pretty tells me a little something about her taste. I already knew she likes things that may be a little homely. I have two good eyes and a mirror.

She started dickering on the price and asking more about the cart. While she was doing that, I went over to the new carts. The really, really nice ones, The ones we can’t afford. The ones put there to whet your appetite. But, there were a few new ones that were just outside our price range. But too much is still too much even if it’s close.

We stepped outside to talk about the deal she was making on a golf cart that would probably get driven into the lake, by “accident”, and she decided to get the dog out of the truck to let it go potty. Unfortunately, we had waited too long (15 minutes). It’s a good thing I carry lots of McDonalds napkins in the truck. And a plastic bag. And a small blankie for the seat. The aroma was…Let’s just say that I have smelled cleaner cattle barns. Oh well, at least it wasn’t quite full blown diarrhea and it was on the passenger seat. Small blessings.

Anyway, as I was cleaning up the truck I got to thinking about those new golf carts. And I was thinking about having to run all over Ohio looking at what is essentially the same cart over and over and those carts were going to be selling for basically the same money. I really did not want to do that and I’m pretty sure she didn’t want to either. But she had gone full bulldog on this and was not going to let it go. On the other hand I really wanted her to have a cart. And if we bought one, then I could legitimately write about a dog pooping in my truck. That’s a win for both of us.

So when we walked back in, the cart I had my eye on is right there in the front row. It’s waaaaayyyyyyy prettier than what she’s looking at (my opinion), it’s 6 years newer, has a modern fuel injected motor, and is only $900 more than the one she is looking at.

To top it off the interest rate is 1.99%. The payments are a little more but still doable.

But the best thing is that I won’t have to wrench on the damn thing for several years. I’ll tune it up, change the oil, and keep it clean. And if we sell it in 6 or 7 years, we’ll get $5000 to $6000 for it. Another huge selling point is if the dog poops in the golf cart, we can just hose it off.

So we sat down with the salesman and made the deal. The next day we ordered a new longer top from the dealer and a grab bar for the back. The pics here are dealer pictures without the upgrades. It will be delivered to us in a few days. The Excellent half is champing at the bit to drive around the hood in her new cart and visit all her buddies. I’m writing about dog poo.