Because basic utility vehicles can serve a wide range of applications, the first step in buying one is to know exactly how you’ll be using it. Many of the major manufacturers produce multiple lines of utility vehicles for different purposes, but there are two main categories to choose from: standard golf carts for personal and golfing use, and commercial or industrial models.

Golf carts and personal vehicles
The standard golf cart (or “golf car”) holds two to four people and their clubs. This category also includes individual vehicles sold for personal use – getting around a neighborhood or gated community, for example. These golf carts can include all manner of accessories and options.

Golf carts are generally not street-legal. However, there are exceptions. When outfitted with appropriate safety features, including turn signals, headlights, brake lights, a windshield, and seatbelts, golf carts can meet the requirements of some localities. There is little Federal legislation governing the use of golf carts that operate at less than 25 mph, so states, counties, cities and towns are mostly free to make their own regulations.

Some communities actually encourage the use of golf carts as the primary mode of transportation. For example, some retirement communities focus on golf: they encourage their residents to drive their golf carts from home straight onto the course. Other communities simply prefer the quiet, low-pollution golf carts and take measures to promote their use within certain boundaries. In these locations, you may even qualify for a rebate or tax write off for using an electric vehicle.

Commercial and industrial utility vehicles
Golf course groundskeepers appropriated golf carts for their own use before there was a “utility vehicle” concept. Now there are dedicated utility vehicles for a wide range of uses that sport larger engines, higher suspensions, knobbier tires, and can carry bigger payloads.

Utility vehicles are used in a variety of ways. Facilities with extensive landscaping needs, like colleges, universities, office parks, sports complexes, and cemeteries, use them to carry tools, sod, and fertilizer.

Maintenance personnel in large manufacturing plants use utility vehicles to haul tools, parts and get to far-flung locations quickly. Foremen and managers use them as a quick way to get around and keep operations running smoothly.

Heavy utility vehicles called burden carriers can be used to complement other types of material handling equipment, like fork trucks. The biggest models can carry several thousand pounds of cargo and tow even more, yet they’re small enough to go spaces fork trucks can’t.

Trail utility vehicles carry hay, seed, and other essentials around large farms or ranches. Like ATVs, they can get around on the dirt tracks of the back woods. While they can’t go 40 mph like an ATV, they can carry two people and a large load – a huge improvement over ATVs for farming work.