Club Car Precedent or Tempo: what changed

Two generations doing one job

Both cars were drawn for the same duty: carry two players and their bags round a full round, several times a day, get washed down, get charged overnight and get serviced quickly when something goes. The Tempo followed the Precedent in that role. When a manufacturer replaces a fleet platform the brief is rarely a leap in capability, because the capability was never the complaint.

What gets revisited instead is serviceability, presentation on the first tee, the cost of keeping a fleet running, and the ergonomics a member notices from the seat. That is worth saying plainly, because a buyer expecting the newer car to do something the older one cannot will be disappointed. It does the same job in a more recent idiom. The practical consequence for a used buyer is that the decision moves off the model name almost immediately and onto the individual vehicle, which is where it belongs.

What a buyer actually notices

The visible changes are the ones people report: restyled bodywork, revised seating, different storage and cup arrangements around the dash, and a general updating of how the car presents when a member walks up to it. On a club fleet that is not vanity. A tired-looking fleet is a standing complaint at committee, and a fresher one buys goodwill that has nothing to do with engineering.

The driving differences are harder to pin down honestly, and we are not going to invent them. Both drive like fleet cars. What people describe when they move between them tends to be subjective and depends heavily on the individual vehicle's age, tyres, tyre pressures and battery health. A drive on the ground you will actually use settles more than any comparison written from a distance.

What does not change is the daily routine. Both need charging, both need washing down without soaking the electrics, both need brake adjustment and battery care, and both will punish a season of neglect in the same way. If a fleet has been run properly, either platform will show it. If it has not, either platform will show that too, and it shows in the same places on both.

Why so many Precedents are still working

Two things put Precedents everywhere in the used market. The platform ran for a long stretch, so a large number were built. And clubs replace fleets in batches rather than one car at a time, which pushes groups of similar cars out into the trade together whenever a contract ends. That second point is why used stock arrives in waves rather than a trickle, and why several cars of much the same age and history often turn up in one place.

The result is a deep supply of both maker parts and aftermarket ones. Body panels, seat covers, windscreens, roofs and the usual mechanical wear items are all obtainable, and the panels unbolt individually, so a scuffed car can be tidied without bodywork skills. Most engineers who touch buggies at all have worked on one, which is worth more than it sounds when something goes wrong on a Friday.

The identification plate matters more than the model name

Club Car's electrical arrangements changed across the Precedent's life, and the cars were offered in both electric and petrol form. So an advert that says Precedent has told you about the body and very little else. It has not told you the drive, the controller, the charger or the generation, and those are the things that decide what a repair looks like.

The identification plate on the vehicle, read against the maker's documentation for that serial, is what answers those questions. Ask for a photograph of it before you travel to a viewing, along with a photograph of the charger and its plug. A seller who sends both without fuss is usually a seller worth dealing with. It also saves an engineer a wasted visit later, because the first thing they will ask for is exactly that number.

• The identification plate, photographed clearly, before you commit to the journey.
• Whether the car is electric or petrol, and which charger comes with it.
• The age of the battery set, and whether it was replaced as a complete set.
• What the car did before: fleet duty, private use, or work in a hire fleet.

Weighing a kept older car against a neglected newer one

This is the comparison that actually faces most buyers, and the model name is the least useful thing in it. The battery set is the single largest item on the vehicle, and it ages far more from how it was charged and stored than from the calendar. A Precedent charged after every use and watered on schedule can be in better health than a Tempo left flat through a winter in an unheated shed.

Neglect looks the same on both platforms. Corrosion at the terminals and on steel brackets, brake components seized after standing, perished tyre sidewalls with plenty of tread left, water sitting where it should not, and a charger that has been swapped for something generic because the original went missing. Any one of those is fixable. Together they describe a car nobody has cared about for years.

Age on its own costs you cosmetics and small parts: faded and crazed panels, worn upholstery, tired bushes and a slow accumulation of fixings that need replacing. Those are irritating rather than serious, and most of them can be dealt with a weekend at a time. They are not the same order of problem as a mistreated battery set, and it is worth keeping the two apart in your head when you look at a car.

Corrosion on an aluminium framed car

Club Car frames are aluminium rather than steel, and that is a large part of why so many older cars survive at all. It also misleads buyers, because a car whose frame cannot rot is assumed to be sound. Steel is still present in fixings, brackets, spring hangers, seat frames and assorted hardware, and salt-laden coastal air and repeated wash-downs find every bit of it.

There is a second effect worth knowing about. Where aluminium and steel are in contact and water gets in, the joint corrodes at the interface, which shows as white powdery deposits and fixings that shear rather than undo. That is a job which gets worse the longer it is left, and it is entirely invisible from the driver's seat. It is also why a car that has lived near the coast deserves a longer look underneath than one that has not.

So inspect from underneath rather than from the side. Look where water sits and stays: the battery tray area, the floorboard edges, under the seat, and around anything bolted through the frame. A torch and a few minutes on your back will tell you more about a car's next few years than the paint ever does, and it costs nothing but dignity.

Which car suits which buyer

A club replacing a fleet is buying presentation, availability, a warranty and a supply relationship, and increasingly the fleet management side as well: knowing where cars are, keeping them off greens and tracking rounds. That is a real argument for the newer generation and it has very little to do with how the car drives. It is also an argument that only works if somebody at the club will actually use the system once it has been installed.

A hire operator or a private owner is buying something else entirely: a sound vehicle, parts that are easy to get, and somebody nearby who can fix it. On that test a good Precedent is a sensible purchase and will stay one for years. Nobody can tell you from the model name which of two specific cars is the better buy, and any guide that claims to is guessing.

Common questions

Is a Club Car Tempo better than a Precedent?

Not as a rule. The Tempo is the later generation, with restyled bodywork, revised seating and storage, and telemetry options for fleets. Those matter to a club and rarely to a private owner. Between two specific cars, the battery age, the charging history and the general condition decide the purchase far more than the generation does.

Are Club Car Precedent parts still available?

Yes, widely, from both the maker's channel and a deep aftermarket, because so many cars are still in service. Body panels, seats, screens, roofs and the ordinary mechanical wear items are all obtainable. Confirm anything electrical against your car's serial with a dealer, since the arrangements changed across the platform's life.

How do I tell which generation my Precedent is?

Read the identification plate on the vehicle against the maker's documentation for that serial. The model name alone does not tell you the drive, the controller or the charger, and those are exactly what an engineer needs before ordering anything. Photograph the plate and keep the image with your records.

Can a Precedent or a Tempo be driven on a public road?

Not as it stands. Road use is a separate matter of construction, lighting, registration and insurance, and DVLA is the authority on what would be required. On private land the landowner sets the rules, including age limits and briefing. A crossing between two parts of a site is its own question and worth raising early.

Is the aluminium frame really rust proof?

The frame does not rust the way a steel chassis does, which is why so many older cars are still going. Steel fixings, brackets, spring hangers and seat frames corrode as normal, and joints between the two metals corrode at the contact face. Inspect from underneath with a torch rather than judging by the bodywork.

Should I buy an ex-fleet Precedent?

Often a reasonable buy. Fleet cars are serviced on a schedule and records may exist, which is more than most private sales offer. They have also worked hard, so expect wear. Ask for the service history, the age of the battery set, and precisely what was done to the car before it was offered for sale.