Melex buggies explained

What the marque covers

Melex is a long-established European maker of electric vehicles, and the golf car is only one part of what it builds. The range has always run wider than golf: flatbed and platform vehicles, box-bodied service machines, tipping bodies and personnel carriers sit alongside the passenger models. That breadth is the first useful thing to know, because a Melex you meet on a British site is at least as likely to be a works vehicle as a golf machine, and the two are bought for entirely different reasons.

The design tradition is functional rather than decorative. These are vehicles specified around a job: a load to carry, a distance to cover, a shift to survive. Owners tend to keep them a long time, which is why so many older examples are still working. For current models, options and any published capacities, go to the maker or its representative in Britain. We do not print specifications for a machine we have not measured.

The utility half of the range

The works versions are what most British sites end up with. A flatbed carries tools, materials, sand, waste or catering. A box body keeps stock dry and lockable. A tipping body saves a groundsman a great deal of shovelling. A personnel carrier moves a team and their kit between buildings. None of that work is glamorous and all of it is constant, which is why an electric works vehicle earns its keep anywhere with distance in it.

Choosing between them comes down to what is being moved rather than how many people ride. A vehicle bought for passengers and then used for loads gets abused. A vehicle bought for loads and used for passengers is uncomfortable and often has nowhere safe to sit. Decide the primary job first, then accept that the secondary one will be a compromise. That is a better outcome than a machine which does neither properly and irritates everybody who uses it.

• Loads and materials across a site: a flatbed or tipping body, sized around the heaviest regular load.
• Stock, tools or catering that must stay dry and secure: a box body.
• Moving staff between buildings: a personnel carrier with proper seating and handholds.
• Golf and light passenger duty on turf: the passenger models, on turf tyres.

Where they turn up in Britain

These vehicles appear on golf courses, holiday parks, industrial estates, hospital sites, schools, farms and large private grounds. A good proportion of the ones in circulation here are second hand and have already done a long first life. They come onto the market when a site changes its fleet, when a business closes, or when a grounds department replaces something that still works perfectly well. Auctions, plant dealers, groundcare dealers and private sales all carry them.

That means condition varies enormously and paperwork is often thin. A vehicle that has spent its life in a covered yard is a different proposition from one that has stood outside on a coastal site. With no deep pool of comparable listings for a low-volume make, judge the machine rather than the model: the state of the chassis, what the battery has been through, and how straightforwardly the seller answers questions about both.

Simple to work on, and what that is worth

Older electric works vehicles of this kind are usually straightforward under the panels. A battery pack, a contactor or controller, a motor, a transaxle, a brake system and a wiring loom, with little hidden and not much that needs a laptop to interrogate. An engineer who understands electric vehicles in general can usually follow the circuit and find the fault, and that is an advantage which grows every year a machine gets older.

The counterweight is age itself. Looms harden and chafe, connections corrode, switchgear wears, and the fault you are chasing is more often a poor contact than a failed component. That is cheap to fix and time-consuming to find. Budget for the diagnosis rather than the part, and be wary of a machine described as needing a small electrical job, because that phrase covers everything from a loose terminal to a loom that wants replacing end to end.

Parts routes and the questions to ask first

This is the question that decides how a used one will feel to own. Split the parts list in two. Wear items and general electrical components are usually available through the wider trade, because motors, controllers, contactors, bearings, brake parts, tyres and chargers are not unique to any one marque and can often be matched on specification by somebody who knows what they are doing. Those are rarely the problem.

The other half is marque-specific: body panels, deck and cab parts, glazing, seats, steering components and trim, plus anything on an older model that has been superseded. Those come from the maker or its appointed representative, from a breaker, or not at all. Establish before you buy who supplies them for Britain and what the position is on an older machine, because an obsolete panel on an otherwise sound vehicle is a genuinely awkward problem to be left with.

• Ask who represents the marque in Britain now, and ask them directly rather than relying on a seller.
• Separate consumables from marque-specific parts, and press only on the second list.
• Find out how the model in front of you is identified, so parts can be matched to it correctly.
• Check the position on superseded parts for an older machine before money changes hands.

Batteries, chargers and the cost you cannot see

On any used electric vehicle the pack is the largest single cost hiding in plain sight. Find out what chemistry it uses, how old it is, whether it has been charged properly and whether the charger supplied is the correct one for that pack. Lead-acid packs need topping up with distilled water and suffer badly if they are left standing discharged. Lithium packs do not need topping up but bring their own management electronics and their own service record.

Test the vehicle from a genuinely charged state, and on a gradient if the site allows it, because a tired pack often behaves perfectly well on the flat for the first few minutes. If a seller cannot say when the pack was last replaced, treat it as due. Changing to a different chemistry is straightforward on some machines and awkward on others, and the honest answer for a particular vehicle comes from an engineer who has looked at it.

Going over a used one

Start underneath. Chassis corrosion is what ends these vehicles, particularly around suspension mounts, the deck frame and anywhere water is allowed to sit, and it is the one fault that is rarely worth chasing on a low-value machine. Then check the deck or body for cracks and previous repairs, the steering for play, the brakes for even bite, and the tyres for the correct type as well as an acceptable amount of tread.

Electrically, run it through its full range of speed in both directions, listen to the transaxle, and watch for anything that only misbehaves once warm or when the steering is on full lock. Ask for whatever records exist, even informal ones. On a works vehicle a maintenance sheet in a folder tells you far more about how it has been treated than a fresh coat of paint, which sometimes tells you the opposite.

• Chassis and suspension mounts for corrosion, checked from underneath and in daylight.
• Battery age, chemistry and the matching charger, evidenced rather than assured.
• Steering play, brake balance and tyre type as well as tread depth.
• Full-speed running in both directions, warm as well as cold.

Where one fits, and where it does not

A machine of this kind suits a site that needs a working electric vehicle and has somebody able to look after it. Estates, courses, parks, industrial sites and institutions all fit that description. If you already run other electric machines, have a charging point and have a competent person on the payroll, adding one is straightforward and the running costs are the attraction rather than the purchase.

It fits less well as a hire fleet machine, where uniformity matters and every vehicle has to be swappable at short notice, and less well again for an owner who simply wants a current model with a dealer nearby. Road use is a separate question in every case. What a vehicle may do on a British public road is decided by approval, registration, tax, insurance and lighting requirements, and the authority on that is DVLA rather than a seller or a previous owner abroad.

Common questions

Are Melex vehicles still made?

The marque has been in the market a long time and the range has changed considerably over that period. The current position, including which models are available and who represents the brand in Britain, is something to confirm with the maker or that representative rather than from a listing or an older article. It matters more than it sounds, because it is also the answer to where new parts come from.

Can you still get parts for an old one?

Usually yes for wear items, and it depends for the rest. Tyres, brake parts, bearings, motors, controllers and chargers are broadly common across electric works vehicles and can often be matched on specification. Panels, glazing, seats, deck parts and trim are marque-specific, and availability on an older model is the thing to check with the brand's representative before you buy.

Is a Melex a golf buggy or a works vehicle?

Both exist, and on British sites the works versions are common. Passenger models are set up for turf and for carrying people. Flatbeds, tippers, box bodies and personnel carriers are set up around loads and shifts. They look related and they are not interchangeable, so decide the primary job before you look at any particular machine.

What should I check first on a used one?

The chassis and the battery, in that order. Corrosion around suspension mounts and the deck frame is what finishes these vehicles and is rarely economic to repair on an older machine. After that, establish the battery chemistry, its age, how it has been charged and whether the correct charger comes with it, because the pack is the largest cost you cannot see from the outside.

Will a golf buggy engineer take one on?

Most will, because the mechanical and electrical layout on older machines is conventional and readable. Where they hesitate is on marque-specific body and trim parts, or on a model old enough that nobody stocks anything for it. Ring the engineer you would actually call out, describe the machine and its age, and ask before you buy rather than afterwards.

Can one be used on a public road?

Not simply because it is capable of it. Road use in Britain depends on the vehicle having appropriate approval, being registered and taxed, being insured for the intended use, and meeting construction and lighting requirements. A vehicle used on a private site has none of that by default. Ask DVLA about the specific machine and your insurer about cover before assuming anything.