Golf cart makeovers
Humble golf carts get facelifts for life after the links
BY AARON KREMER
Richmond Times-Dispatch Staff Wriyer
Monday, July 3, 2006

Chad (left) and Travis Dunham own Virginia Golf Cars, Inc. MARK GORMUS/RTD

Virginia Golf Cars Inc.'s Richmond store looks a lot like its used-car-peddling neighbors -- only miniaturized.

Carts with nubby tires and flaming paint jobs face the Midlothian Turnpike traffic. Pre-owned carts undergoing repairs are up on the garage lift. A deluxe model with wood paneling, a custom steering wheel and a CD player inlaid in the roof glimmers in the showroom. Nearby, a stack of after-market tires and rims beckon.

"What we do with our carts is take them off the golf course and accessorize them for use outside the golf community. We customize them for use in farming, camping, apartment-complex maintenance, university use or even for individual home sites," said Travis Dunham, who runs the family business with father Ron, mother Jeanie and brother Chad. "We do anything from adding utility boxes to doing lift kits with big rims and tires."

Cheryl Kay already drives a Lexus, a Corvette and an SUV, but she cruises to Jimmy Buffett songs in a hot pink golf cart with lime-green wheels when she arrives at her condo in Duck, N.C. "I wanted it to be beachy, like a Margaritaville car," she said of her $7,500 cart.

"Everybody has their own design, so I definitely feel like I'll stand out in the crowd with my hot pink."

Jimmy Battle drives his metallic black cart with six-inch suspension chrome rims and matching fishing-rod holders at the Thousand Trails campground in Gloucester County. "I use it to ride around the different places down there inside the campground. I also have another one I use to pull the jet skis in and out of the water. That's a lot nicer to use than a car because it's smaller and more convenient."

Battle figures he fills his cart up with gas once a month. Gas carts typically get 50 miles per gallon, while electric ones travel 20 miles on 50 cents of electricity, Chad Dunham said.

Golf carts are prohibited from public roads in Virginia, except in Colonial Beach, where the local government legalized them. But other states and communities, especially in the South, have legalized them as a safer and more environmentally friendly mode of transportation for short distances. Golf-cart sales have climbed steadily over the past 10 years, and their use in private communities has exploded.

Golf carts have even become the latest accessorizable item. Online cart retailers with brick and mortar stores as far away as Hawaii proclaim no theme too outlandish.

"That show 'Orange County Choppers,' we do a lot of that same type of work to golf carts. Everybody wants one a little different than their neighbors," said Travis Dunham, referring to a television program in which custom motorcycles are built by a family of mechanics.

Within the state, Virginia Golf Cars competes with Metro Golf Cart Rentals in customized cart sales. In 10 years, Metro, which has a store in Ashland, grew from one store and 24 carts to five stores and more than 1,000 carts, according to A.W. Smith, the Ashland store manager.

Virginia Golf Cars stays clear of the rental-fleet business and instead focuses on selling used carts. Chad Dunham estimates that only 2 percent of carts the company sells will roll over the manicured fairways of a golf course again. In fact, many golf courses don't allow private carts on the course.

As the company has grown, so, too, has its customer base. Chad Dunham said he has shipped carts to customers in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Germany.

About 70 percent of carts are sold to individuals for recreational use, but it wasn't always that way. Twelve years ago, Ron Dunham made his living selling generators to farmers near the family's Harrisonburg home. He and his wife had a hunch that golf carts might appeal to farmers, and so they bought six to test the market.

Turned out farmers loved them, preferring the safe -- carts typically travel 15 mph -- reliable and gas-efficient carts to ATVs or farm-use trucks. Slowly the business grew, and six years ago, Travis Dunham left a job at a tape manufacturer to work with the family.

Three and half years ago, the brothers expanded into central Virginia with the Richmond store. Sitting on more than 8 acres, the Harrisonburg store is the still the main shop, and still run by Mom and Pop.

Between the two locations, Virginia Golf Cars employs 35, has an inventory of more than 1,000 carts and sells between 2,000 and 3,000 carts a year.

Through all the growth, though, the strategy has remained the same. The company buys used carts directly from golf courses and from companies that lease carts to golf courses. Because golf carts are so resilient, some running for 25 years, Virginia Golf Cars refurbishes old carts with fresh paint and new parts, and then attaches utility boxes, extra seats, or even stretches them to carry six people. A basic used cart costs in the $3,000 range, while a tricked-out mini-Hummer costs upwards of $11,000. Past projects have included reproduction jeeps, '57 Chevrolets and even a Mercedes.

"When we first got into this, people thought we were crazy. But we adapted, and whatever the market wants, we provide," Chad Dunham said.