WHAT YEAR IS MY GOLF CART?

It is extremely important to have the correct Make, Model, and Year whenever you call to get prices on parts for your cart, or if your cart needs service. Especially if you plan to do it yourself, knowing how to determine what year your golf cart is will save you time, frustration, and money.

The majority of our customers have either a Club Car or an EZ-Go. First and foremost, you will need to determine the manufacturer of your cart. It’s often clearly marked on the front of the original body of the cart, but if for some reason it is not, the serial number, along with its basic design features, will tell you a lot.

Club Car prior to 1981 placed the serial number under the seat on the I-beam frame section closest to the batteries on the driver’s side of the car. If your serial number plate is missing or illegible, you can at least narrow down the year of your cart by looking at the pedals. Models between 1975-1980 will have two brake pedals – one to stop the car and the second on the extreme left side used to park the cart on a hill.

In 1982 the DS Club Car model was introduced, and along with this major design change, they began placing the serial number plate under the glove box on the passenger side of the vehicle.

Mid-year 2000 brought several design changes to the DS. The industry refers to this as a ‘split year.’ The roof struts changed from silver aluminium to a black powder coating, and the front seat back changed from two separate seat backs to a full seat back.  A third significant change was the roof which became thicker and with the addition of handles on each side.  Interesting side note, rumor has it that Club Car eventually moved its roof handles to the inside portion of the roof to provide more hand protection for its riders, reducing the chances of obtaining scratches on their hands while navigating in and around brushy areas while searching for lost golf balls. Although it may be rumor – it seems to make a lot of sense!

In 2004, Club Car came out with the Precedent Model in addition to the DS model.  The Precedent has two ‘sub’ models known as the Champion or Professional. The easiest way to tell these models apart is by looking at the steering wheel. If your cart has a square center it is a Professional, and if its round you have a Champion. The serial number plates on the Precedents can be found either on the passenger side below the passenger side cup holder, or on the passenger side on the inner dash.

Now that you have located your Club Car serial number, you can easily determine its year.

The one or two letters at the beginning of the serial number indicate the vehicle model. The following four digits indicate the model year and production week during which the vehicle was built. Club Car production week typically begins in August, and EZ-Go will vary based upon year but generally starts in July. The last digits following the hyphen represent the unique sequential number assigned to each vehicle built within a given model year.

For example, if you have a Club Car DS with a serial number A9303145678, this is a 1993 and was produced in the third production week that year. If you have a Precedent with a serial number PH1305-345678, it’s a 2013 produced in the fifth production week.

Any current Club Car owner can easily request a digital copy of their manual by going directly to Club Car’s website and placing the necessary information into the requested fields. The URL is http://www.clubcar.com/us/en/resources/manuals-search.html. Easy, right? Speaking of Easy…

If you have an EZ-Go, there are three common serial number locations to check; the base of the steering column by the floor mat, inside the passenger side glove box, or underneath the front seat bottom. Similar to Club Car, you can determine the year of your cart simply by looking at the serial number. The last two digits in the manufacturers code will be the model year.  EZ-Go has manufactured several models as well, however the most common seen in our shop are the TXT (1994-Current/Re-designed in 2014), the RXV (2008-Current) the Medalist (1993-1999) and on occasion, a Marathon which was manufactured (1980-1994)