I bought a new (to me) 2008 aGem e2 a couple weeks ago. Its a cherry 2008 special edition 2 seat with [U]all[/U] the bells & whistles and a factory issue 7.0 motor. The gentleman that I bought it from was the second owner and had all maintenance done by a GEM dealer in the three years that he owned it in ‘the Villages’ large gated community in central FL.
To get around Florida’s insurance law 's for street legal vehicles, He had the dealer set the vehicle up so that it can not exceed 19 mph. After paying the dealer $250 to neuter the poor GEM, The dealer gave him a sticker for the car stating its was not able to exceed 19 mph and papers to take to the FL licensing authority and file, cancelling the vehicle’s title.
This did save me from having to pay sales tax and buy license plates or insurance (About 1K)… I appreciate that, thank you please. I do not attend to drive my handsome blue boy on the city/state streets. But occasionally we old boys will still be boys and after the snow turds leave, we have friendly short drag races here in my gated complex.
With the 7 hp motor and the 15" tires, I believe that I may have a 35+ mph winner here? You already know the question… don’t you? How do I change my handsome blue boy back into a winner 7 blow the doors off these old fashioned style 48 volt golf carts here…
I’d call the dealer who did the ‘snip’… if you don’t live in the Villages… tell him you need it to be back to street speed and what do you need to have done to switch the car back… if he has a number or something that will go back to him and can in any way be held to the car’s speed… then you’d better insure and plate it… I understand you’d take the heat but he might lose his license or have to pay a fine
If you don’t have a title you better enjoy it cause it will be all most impossible to sell. You should have gotten the title. Without a title your car is worth less than $2500 . STRONGLY urge you to go back to the dealer and get it.
The controller will just have to be reprogrammed. Not a big deal. 20 minutes.
[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;23500]If you don’t have a title you better enjoy it cause it will be all most impossible to sell. You should have gotten the title. Without a title your car is worth less than $2500 . STRONGLY urge you to go back to the dealer and get it.
The controller will just have to be reprogrammed. Not a big deal. 20 minutes.[/quote]
Thank you very kindly… But, my local market may be very different than where you base your opinion of sale ability on. A title here in my complex (Del Tura) does not seem to be a problem. We are a gated community with access only to I-41 highway. There have been two sales of used GEM cars in the last year, one 2005 standard base version e2 for 5K and a 2006 base version for 6K, both no titles. Both did have the state papers from when they were neutered and photo copies of previous titles, as I also have. The affluence of this area may also affect the price people are willing to pay for non titled GEM vehicles versus yours?
The overall area of my Fort Myers location is mid to high traffic (in season) area. Most roads including secondary appear to have over 45 mph speed limits. We are not the typical Florida wide open spaces one stop light town area. I have lived in this metropolis (Ft Myers/Cape Coral/Naples) for close to 20 years and have never seen a street legal golf cart or a GEM on any road outside of any gated complex. As a FL Cert R.E. appraiser I had access to all the area gated communities before my retirement two years ago and saw many custom street legal golf carts that were not licensed.
We have several street legal carts in my complex. My survey of current street legal cart owners here reveals that they all elected to not title to save the sales tax, insurance ($800+),and license plate fees. They all have other vehicles for out side complex transportation.
Per my attorney and a trip to the local Florida tax (licensing) office revealed that there would not be any problem obtaining a title if needed. In the last two weeks I have been offered in far excess of what I paid for my gem of a GEM.
[quote=eS GEM Colo;23497]I’d call the dealer who did the ‘snip’… if you don’t live in the Villages… tell him you need it to be back to street speed and what do you need to have done to switch the car back… if he has a number or something that will go back to him and can in any way be held to the car’s speed… then you’d better insure and plate it… I understand you’d take the heat but he might lose his license or have to pay a fine
Bob[/quote]
Bob,
Thank you kindly for your timely reply. As I am a “car guy” and a retired certified 12 volt auto/marine electrician. I have decided to contact Malcon (sp) for his cables and instructions to learn how to program my GEM myself via laptop computer.
Were in Tavares Florida. I never heard of the paperwork your area uses. Can you post a copy?
I believe your 2008 controller is hard limited to 25/27 MPH. Your larger cicumference tires help. For higher speeds you will have to change the motor sensor magnet to fool the controller. About $50+/-.
Jerry sounds like you have it covered… there was a guy in SC who was looking for a GEM car to be used on the road… I found one that I thought was a deal but when the seller was contacted there was no title… as Rodney pointed the lack of a title can hurt if the car is to be taken on the street vs a gated community… the seller of the car in the SC case had planned to take his to a community but was told he had to have the car plated… he said it was too much of a hassle… he’d try to sell it… I know about the FL insurance… and as long as you have the title to pass along you are ok on that… I think I’ll drive my car into the ground and there won’t be anything to sell by the time I tire of it… yours sounds really nice… have fun with it… I have a favorite parts guy near you… Lee at Beck Chrysler… GEMcarpartsdirect.com … on the site is a parts manual and his toll free number… during business hours there is a chat box for quick questions as well
I did a follow up and this is the procedure Jerry refers to.
It is legal to turn a Gem car into a golf car since July 2013.
The Governor signed a bill where this can be done.
The dealer does the work and the customer sends his title, $40.00, a letter stating he has had the cars speed put to not over 19.9 mph and his tag if applicable.
Then the DMV in Ocala sends out the sticker to the customer.
IMO, turning your expensive GEM (w/ a title) into a less-expensive golf car (w/ no title) is a really poor choice since it crushes it’s resale value unless you can get it easily retitled back into a GEM in the future if you change your mind.
For example if you decide to sell it in-state but outside a retirement community or to another state which doesn’t have the same concept - what do you do then? Your GEM is worth no more than a golf cart.
Might be worth it IF the cost of keeping it titled and insured is really high OR you live in a larger retirement community where there is sufficient demand to ensure it will easily sell OR you are going to keep it on your own large “estate”. Other than that I’d opt for keeping the title just for resale value if nothing else.
Agree with you Al. I paid the tax and title fee to get my cart in my name. However: I insure it as a golf cart and don’t buy tags. There are 6 of us in our subdivision that all do the same. It seems that in our area a GEM cart is worth half or less without a title. In our area we don’t need a title or tags cause Tavares Florida is “Golf Cart Friendly”
If it can mount a bag carrier it’s a Golf Cart. Our local Police has a registry for Carts.
They register us and give us a sticker. We are told to mark all the major parts of the cart with that number. It’s almost eleminated Golf Cart theft in out area.
as always… well most of the time… I really agree with Al… I’d want to keep the door open to be able to re-title it as a full power GEM… I know we got off topic on what Jerry really talked about but I truly think this is a subject to address… have found people with GEM cars who have made no move to register them… whether because they bought them from a private party or golf cart place who only gave them a bill of sale… not a title… there was a guy who had an MSO in the FB group… Lee at GEMcarpartsdirect was ably to steer him in the right direction… not sure where he was or the story behind his not having a title… there was another guy in AZ who said he got a bond and got plates right away… after a time he was sent the title… have no idea how that works… a guy in CA is selling some eS’s really cheap… he says for an extra he can get a title… no idea where or how… BOTTOM LINE… if buying a GEM car it’s best to have a title from the seller or WALK AWAY…
[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;23507]Were in Tavares Florida. I never heard of the paperwork your area uses. Can you post a copy?
I believe your 2008 controller is hard limited to 25/27 MPH. Your larger cicumference tires help. For higher speeds you will have to change the motor sensor magnet to fool the controller. About $50+/-.
Marlon can supply.[/quote]
Your right… the controller is limited to 25/27. A 2007 Gem here in Del Tura has the motor sensor magnets modified. His speedometer reads about 1/2 of what his GPS tells him. I have not had time to talk to Malcon about my needs computer or motor wise.
Busy enjoying my new gem toy and cleaning up the old (1985) Melex cart to sell (60 volt two speed motor conversion). My first conversion done in 2001 when I moved to FL. I have a elderly lady that’s interested in it… I have to slow it down a bit.
Regarding the back and forth posts on my new Gem carts title situation… Per my attorney and a trip to the local Florida tax (licensing) office revealed that there would not be any problem obtaining a title if needed. In the last two weeks I have been offered in far excess of what I paid for my gem of a GEM. And, I am not really to concerned about value at this point in my life. I only paid 5K for it and I’ll soon be 74. I’ll let my heirs worry about it. I lost more than that on a new pontoon boat last year in resale… You can’t take it with you folks…
Not as common here in Fort Myers (South/West FL) as in “The villages” in central Florida. Hundreds of GEM cars and thousands of regular golf carts there. The villages is about a 40 mile square retirement community with cart paths connecting all the Villages together including over forty separate golf courses and shopping centers.
I made the 200 mile trip from Fort Myers to buy my GEM there. There are three Gem cars in my 1,300 home complex. Del Tura is about 3/4 mile square with 5 swimming pools and 36 holes of Golf. My Gem is quite a novelty here. Its the lots of Bling 2008 ten year anniversary model. I had one serious offer today, close to double what I just paid for it… Wealthy snowbird. Now leave your money and Please go home (LOL).
(An Update) On what the Stealer did to slow my baby down to 19MPH (see 1st post) .
I took the control pod apart and found that stealer had disconnected the high speed wire (blue). He placed a 1 wire to 2 wire jumper on the upper male prong post, connecting the yellow low speed wire and a jumper to the lower prong post where the blue wire had been originally connected. The blue wire was hanging loose in the Pod.
I reconnected the blue wire back to the switch (bottom) male prong. Disconnected the jumper from the top male prong and connected the yellow wire back to it.
Now she does 31 GPS with 15" tires and factory 7.0 motor. Better than the 19.6 that I was getting. Its has about 25% more torque of the line and in the mid range also. A lot more fun to drive. I would still like to see more speed (37-40) and keep the low and mid speed torque. I’ve been told that a magnet change on this factory motor is not possible and I must buy a R4Fun motor to change magnets to fool the controllers 25 mph ceiling.
A very well thought of senior poster here said that I will burn the stock motor up if I change the magnets due to over speeding the motor because of my 12/1 ratio transmission… and poke my eye out.
Good thing that I have not found magnets to fit the motor… so far. Calling Marlon next.
Jerry you have earned the distinction of ‘GEMolalogist’… I thought the magnets controlled the speedometer… when I changed to Marlon’s 9.6 my speedometer reads half of the speed and miles that I’m traveling… not a big thing to me I always have my GPS to fall back on it I need to and makes my car be low mileage for the insurance… either way GOOD JOB… thanks for sharing