The Golf Cart Isn’t A Golf Cart Anymore

Streetrods

Streetrods bring a fresh style to golf cart transportation. Brue & Yin believes that having neighborhood electric vehicles in certain communities allows people to get around while creating reduced emissions when compared to the automobile.

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Streetrods began in 1995, the brainchild of Craig Schmidt, who started his company – like many do – in his garage in Montezuma, Iowa, and opened a dealership in the Villages.  In 2015, his operation was purchased by the Pritchard family of northern Iowa.

The Pritchard interest in vehicles dates to 1913 when the family opened their first Ford motor dealership, ten years after the first Model A rolled off the assembly line.

Streetrods manufactures the vehicles from the tires up. Convertibles, hardtops, coupes, and crazy designs like firetrucks and police cars are available, all from Montezuma. They can create just about any color or design you want on a golf cart.

Scott Floy of the Pritchard Companies explained in a phone interview with me how Pritchard customizes its product:

"That’s the beauty of a small operation such as ours; everything can be customizable. For example, company branding. We can do logos, and it’s not just putting on decals. We can do custom paint, whatever anybody has for an idea we can accommodate it, so it’s really the imagination is the limit as to what we can do."

Floy noted that most of their sales are to retirement communities around the country, with the lion’s share being in The Villages. The golf carts sold there are mainly gas, according to Floy because The Villages has 140 miles of golf cart pathways between the communities and the charge on their electric vehicles lasts just 40 or 50 miles.

Pritchard explained why distance is an important consideration in deciding between an electric (battery powered) or gasoline-powered cart.

"As recently as the last couple months we have seen the electric demand increase quite a bit, because we are selling into other retirement communities where the distance and range isn’t quite as important."

The Villages Streetrods location is their one owned dealership, but they have authorized dealers across the country from California to Washington to Miami, Florida.

Their newest product option is going to be what’s called a low speed vehicle which meets specific Federal DOT requirements. These are vehicles that can be driven on any road where the speed limit is less than 35 mph.

According to Floy, the decision as to where the low speed vehicles can be used varies from city to city across the country.

Prices on new Streetrods are in the $20,000 range.