Retirement Community Car
Following the lead of other Japanese car and motorcycle companies that have diversified their product lines, Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A., headquartered in Cypress, is introducing a small, four-wheel vehicle aimed at Americans who live in small, closed communities--particularly retirement communities.
The so-called Yamaha Sun Classic resembles a motorized golf cart but has many of the features of a full-sized automobile, such as a tinted windshield, bumpers, horn, locking trunk and an automobile-style dashboard. Priced at about $4,500, the Sun Classic is capable of speeds up to 12 miles an hour and has a 6.3-gallon fuel tank that delivers more than 150 miles per tankful, Yamaha claims.
The new Yamaha cart follows a long line of specialty vehicles--ranging from all-terrain vehicles to riding lawn mowers--recently introduced by Japanese car and motorcycle companies.
Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki, have all had big success with ATVs, or all-terrain vehicles. Once marketed as recreational transportation, the rugged, fat-tired ATV machines are being used increasingly by farmers, beach patrol officers and people in other outdoor occupations.
Honda, which also makes ATVs, last year began marketing lawn mowers, a company official said. And for the past six years, Yamaha has been among the top three sellers of motorized golf carts.
Many residents of America’s burgeoning retirement communities have come to rely on golf carts, rather than cars, for inexpensive transportation within the communities.
The company said, for example, that a retirement community near Tampa has more than 3,300 privately owned golf carts, which serve as the main form of transportation for the residents. And more than 400 golf carts are in use on Santa Catalina Island, 26 miles off the coast of Southern California, because officials limit the number of automobiles allowed on the island.
“You see these golf carts throughout the Sun Belt,” Gary Jones, division manager for Yamaha leisure products, said. “In many retirement communities they use them like a second car because they are so convenient.”
