Twenty things every new owner should do.

Do it the day the cart arrives. ALSET's two-year cart warranty and ten-year battery warranty are both measured from the purchase date on your registration, and a claim is faster when the cart is already on file. It takes a few minutes online: serial number, model, purchase date, your dealer.

Keep the serial number in your phone too — it is the first thing anyone at the factory or the dealer will ask for.

You do not need to read all of it on day one, but the charging, storage and cleaning sections are where new-owner mistakes happen. Twenty minutes with those pages is the best-spent time of your first week. The manuals are on the site under Owners & Support, so you always have a copy.

Sit in the cart in the driveway and go through the touchscreen: where the state of charge is shown, what the warning indicators mean, how forward, reverse and the parking brake are confirmed. Pair your phone — Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard — so navigation and calls are set up before the first real trip, not while you are driving.

Put the spare key fob somewhere you will remember. Replacing a lost fob is a dealer job.

Golf cart rules are set by your state and again by your city, county or community. In Florida a golf cart belongs on roads designated for cart use with a speed limit of 30 mph or less, and drivers under 18 need at least a learner's permit. Your community or HOA will have a map. Look at it before the first neighborhood drive, not after the first conversation with a deputy. The Buyer's Guide has the Florida, Texas and Alabama summary.

The single best habit an electric-cart owner can have. A lithium pack has no memory and is happiest living between a partial and a full charge, so topping up after every drive is exactly right. The onboard charger plugs into an ordinary household outlet and stops by itself when the pack is full — you cannot overcharge it by leaving it connected overnight or over a weekend.

Plug straight into the wall. A long, light-duty extension cord drops voltage and warms up; if you must use one, make it short and heavy-gauge.

The onboard charger is matched to the pack's voltage, chemistry and battery management system. An aftermarket or lead-acid charger does not speak the same language and can push the wrong voltage profile into a lithium pack. If the charger ever fails, it is a warranty item — call your dealer rather than substituting one from a hardware store.

Lithium does not mind sitting; it minds sitting flat. A pack parked for months at a very low charge can drift below the level where the battery management system will allow it to charge again. If the cart is going to sit for more than a few weeks — snowbird season, a long trip — charge it to roughly half, unplug it, and top it up when you are back. For a normal week, just plug it in.

Charge in a spot with airflow around the cart. A hot Florida garage is fine; a closed cabinet, a tarp thrown over the charging cart, or a pile of pool toys against the cowl is not. The charger and the pack both manage their own temperature, and the easiest way to help them is to not trap the heat.

This is the one that costs owners the most. A pressure washer drives water past seals, lifts the edges of paint and graphics, and can ruin the touchscreen — water forced behind the bezel does not come back out. Wash the cart the way you would wash a new car: a garden hose at ordinary pressure, a bucket of pH-neutral car soap, a soft wash mitt, and a rinse from the top down.

Do not aim the hose at the dash, the touchscreen, the charge port or the switches even at garden pressure. Wipe those areas with a damp microfiber cloth instead.

A dry or slightly damp microfiber cloth is all it needs. No glass cleaner, no ammonia, no paper towels — they haze the anti-glare coating and leave fine scratches that show in sunlight. If the screen gets sunscreen or bug spray on it, wipe it off sooner rather than later; both soften plastics over time.

Salt air, beach sand, lawn fertilizer and wet grass clippings are the four things that attack a cart from below. None of them does damage in a day; all of them do damage over a season if they are left to sit. After a beach run or a drive across a freshly treated lawn, a gentle rinse under the cart and inside the wheel wells is enough. Let it dry before parking it away.

Florida sun is the hardest thing your cart will face. Ultraviolet fades seat material, chalks plastics, dries out tires and cooks the interior. A garage, a carport or a fitted cover when the cart is parked for the day makes a visible difference by year three. If it must live outside, a breathable cover is worth far more than it costs — and take it off before you charge.

ALSET's metallic paint is automotive-grade, and it responds to the same care as a car's. A coat of wax or a modern paint sealant every six months keeps water beading, blocks UV and makes the next wash easier. Skip abrasive polishes and anything sold for oxidized paint — those are for rescuing neglected finishes, not maintaining good ones.

Wipe the seats down with a mild cleaner and use a UV-protectant conditioner made for automotive vinyl or leather a few times a year. While you are at it, look along the roof edge and the windshield mounts for gaps or cracked seals; a seal that has let go is a small fix now and a water leak into the dash later.

An electric motor delivers full torque instantly, and a cart that is launched hard at every stop sign wears its tires, its suspension bushings and its range. Roll on the pedal, cruise a couple of miles an hour under top speed, and brake early rather than late. Smooth driving is also what makes passengers — especially the ones in the rear-facing seat — comfortable.

Every seat has a seat belt or a grab handle and a seat back for a reason. No one rides standing, on the rear cargo deck, on a lap or on the roof rack. A four-passenger cart carries four; a six-passenger carries six. Overloading is the fastest way to find out what the suspension's limit is, and it is not covered.

A cart is not an off-road vehicle even when it is lifted. Cross a curb slowly and at an angle rather than head-on at speed; climb and descend steep grades straight up and down, not across; and remember that a lifted cart carries its weight higher, so it will lean more in a fast turn. A rolled cart is the most common serious golf-cart accident, and nearly all of them start with a sharp turn taken too fast.

Four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes stop the cart; the parking brake is what holds it. Set it whenever you step out, on level ground or not — a cart that rolls into a garage wall or a neighbor's car is an expensive and entirely avoidable phone call. If you park on a slope, turn the wheels toward the curb as you would in a car.

Soft tires are the most common cause of lost range and the easiest to fix. Once a month, check the pressure against the figure in your owner's manual or on the tire sidewall, look at the tread for uneven wear (a sign of alignment trouble or a bent wheel), and run a hand around the sidewalls for cracks or cuts. Lifted carts on larger tires deserve the same attention — the tire is the only part of the cart touching the ground.

Once a year, have your dealer put the cart on a lift: brake pads and fluid, wheel alignment, suspension bushings, fastener torque, a software check on the controller and a look at the battery's health report. Between visits, do a monthly walk-around — every light and turn signal, the horn, the mirror, and a listen for any new noise. Call the factory or your dealer about anything that changes; small noises are cheap and big ones are not.

And if the cart ever has to travel, it goes on a trailer, strapped at all four corners. Towing a cart on its own wheels behind a car spins the motor faster than it is designed for and can destroy it in a few miles.