This Kobalt 40V Max motorized kid’s car – think off-brand Power Wheels – has dropped in price at Lowe’s. The kit, which comes with a battery and charger, launched as a Black Friday special at $299, and the bare tool was (and still is) priced at $279.
Now, Lowe’s is trying to clear these out of stores, as they dropped the price down to $149.50. In other words, Lowe’s is discounting this Kobalt kid’s car by 50%.
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You can order it online for in-store pickup or pay a fee (I’m seeing $65) for home delivery.
Was: $299
Current Price: $149.50
Learn More:
Kobalt Powered Kids Jeep and Razor Scooter (Lowe’s Black Friday 2020)
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Should You Buy This?
Maybe?
Personally, I am extremely tempted to. I bought a Power Wheels dune buggy car for my kids a few years ago as part of an Amazon Prime Day special, and this Kobalt car has several advantages. First, it’s powered by a Kobalt 40V Max Li-ion battery, as opposed to a lead acid battery that takes a very long time to charge.
But also, it comes with a remote control (for grownups), working LED lights, and some sounds, in addition to a built-in music player.
$150 seems like a fantastic price.
If I wasn’t short of garage space right now, I’d have purchased one for my kids. And if/when they exhausted its play value, maybe I could still drive it around – perhaps with some custom accessories. (I can’t shake the mental image of how much cooler this could be with a semi-automated Nerf foam dart or ball blaster attached to the plastic roll cage decorative pieces!)
This car only has one seat. And, its max speed is lower than that my kids’ Power Wheels. Although, I haven’t increased the speed of my kids’ car from 2.5 MPH to 5MPH yet, that’s something I might do in the winter if I can fit their car in my trunk for a trip to the park. The Kobalt car has a speed range of 1.86 to 3.72 MPH.
I was tempted when this kit was $299, and then $249, and am even more tempted now that it’s another $100 less.
One of my local Lowe’s stores is sold out, but another is reporting 6 in stock, and perhaps they’re the same 6 that were in stock last week and the week before. Or are they cancelling orders and not selling any because they can’t find the inventory?
I don’t want to deal with unnecessary freight deliveries right now, and I have also been avoiding stores due to COVID, except for the supermarket.
Frankly, I expected this to sell out rapidly, but it didn’t. Is that because people are wary of the purchase, the price is a big high for an impulse buy, because this is the wrong season to buy for a kids toy like this, or is it simply because Lowe’s and Kobalt didn’t promote it very well and so people simply don’t know it exists?
The Kobalt motorized kids car appears to be made by the same company whose similar products are sold on Amazon under different brands. Here are two examples:
Costzon Ride On Truck: $260 – $14 coupon
Best Choice Products Kids 12V Ride On Truck: $270
If I did buy one of these, my kids would absolutely fight over it. Lights? Sounds? A USB port for playing music via flash drive? (I assume this is what they mean by “USB and AUX outlets allow little ones to listen to their favorite music while driving.”
At this time, the bare toy version is still $279. You can opt for free shipping, but you’ll need to supply your own Kobalt 40V Max battery and charger.
If I had space in the garage, I would almost definitely accept having to pay delivery fees, or order online for in-store pickup and simply visit the designated store location when I was sure it wouldn’t be too busy.
This seems like a great deal. The similar-looking Amazon cars have great reviews so far. So why hasn’t this sold out yet? Too bad this wasn’t a scale RC car – that might have sold really well. Ryobi had a 2017 Black Friday special that sold out rapidly.
Decisions, decisions.
John
Kids will stop playing with it in two months and landfill in two years.
Stuart
They last a bit longer that that. And then you sell it, give it away, or donate it.
Your favorite food is in and out of you in a day or two, so why bother over tasteless nutrition bars, right?
Big Richard
Wait until you start buying clothes for them, John. The real little ones need all new clothes every two months because they outgrow them. It’s ridiculous. May as well just put them in a burlap sac, keeps the landfill clear of baby clothes they outgrew.
Stuart
Except for a couple of egregiously stained pieces, we donated all of our kids’ baby clothes or gave them to friends and family who had younger babies. The same with baby toys.
For the things that nobody I knew could use, such as baby gates, I put them outside ahead of bulk garbage pickup, and salvagers took them either for personal use or resale.
My sister got her kids’ Power Wheels second-hand and only had to replace the battery.
A backyard swing set, on the other hand, is something I won’t be buying for my kids. They’d get use from it this year, due to the effectively pandemic keeping them away from nearby parks, but that’s something I’d be really stuck with when they outgrow it.
Big Richard
Agreed, I was being sarcastic. Virtually any baby/small child related item can easily be sold or donated, as there are always people looking for those items. We have “pay it forward” groups in my area, where we have donated all sorts of items to families who are struggling.
John
Big Richard, I have a 15 year old. Been through it. Clothes are a necessity like food and hopefully education for most people. You’re preaching to the choir. I have a nephew with one of the toy gators he road around in for a little while and then didn’t care anymore. Then his multiple cousins too. Toy cars are fluff, flash in the pan. But we live in a “me too” society.
Jared
No way. My experience is quite the opposite. Maybe it depends on your kid’s interests, but my son rode his DAILY from age 2-5. The only times he didn’t were when there was too much snowfall and those hard plastic tires would just spin.
I modified it for more speed and grip and had to make sure to plug it in every evening.
He would still be riding it, but he was becoming a bit too adventurous for a machine with no suspension and a throttle that is either on or braking. We tuned in it down and gave it to a neighbor – with a promise to my kid about a new toy to come.
As a bit of a digression, for those who haven’t heard about it, there’s a battery-powered “motorcycle” for kids called a Stacyc. I think that’s what we’ll end up getting for my kid – but my wife, perhaps appropriately, is a little worried about getting him that right now.
It essentially uses a power-tool battery, but proprietary (of course). It’s a proper machine though, with good components.
Compared to the competition I think it’s pretty awesome for kids. There’s other electric bikes from traditional motorcycle companies like Oset, Kuberg, KTM, Sherco… but those are all based on heavier duty frames and components and weigh a lot more.
The Stacyc in contrast is basically a balance bike with an electric motor. I’m a lot more comfortable starting a kid off on a bike he can pick up himself. It also has adjustable power levels and can be used without a battery at all for those who need to learn to ride on two wheels first.
Tom D
Very annoying that they use a non-standard pack and are out of stock. Just use dewalt or bosch or milwaukee or something!
Jared
There’s some homebrew conversions detailed on the internet – with quality directly reflecting the skill of the person undertaking the project (i.e. some irreversible hack jobs and others that could be factory). If you’re so inclined there are several 3D-printed or (Chinese-origin) injection-molded battery mounts that can be adapted to translate the power from your favorite pack to the Stacyc mount.
They’ve been going up in price in Canada too. Very irritating. When Stacyc came out they were ~$629 and $729 for the two sizes. I’m seeing prices up to $1184 now! That’s a crazy increase.
Cheapest 16″ version I can find now is $1049 or $1149 for the brushless version.
Hcs
I am debating between this Kobalt keep and the Power wheels Jeep. Power wheels has a higher weight capacity at 135 lbs, can be missed easily to work with ryobi 18v batteries, and has a higher top speed. So I expect it to be a lot more future proof than Kobalt.
While I appreciate your point about coming with a 40v li ion battery, the downsides seem to be more.
Thoughts?
Thanks for your write up.
Karl
John makes a fair point and even for $150, let alone $300 before the shipping, taxes and the time to put this together, that is a lot of money. My old man would laugh if he ever heard I wanted a toy that expense and so would I as well with my kid.
Good luck breaking this down as unless have a dumpster in your area, you’ll also have to pay for a haul away service only to have end up as John said in a landfill.
Toolfreak
The 24V scooter is also 50% off at the stores that have them remaining, plus seems available for shipping.
It went to 25% off just a few days ago, so it might drop to 75% off in just a few more days.
I’d guess they wound up with way more of these still remaining after black friday than they thought they would and they want to be sure and have them almost completely gone before Christmas.
Would have thought it’d be worth their while to ship ’em back on the trucks to a main warehouse and keep a few hundred of each on hand to sell throughout next year for store pickup, but maybe they already have plenty on hand for that and want to get rid of whatever is in the stores already.
I might go for a scooter if there’s any left and the discount goes over 75%, but I’m not expecting there to be many left by then.
Stuart
Thanks!
Scooter Link: Buy Now via Lowe’s
That looks great too, but it’s disappointing that the 120 lb weight limit rules out teens and adult riding.
I think they sold fewer than they expected to, but really it’s their fault for not promoting it very much. They didn’t even pop up on Lowe’s website until the day before Thanksgiving.
Interestingly, the bare toy version is still full price. It’s only these kits that are taking up space in stores that are half-off right now.
Toolfreak
The 120lb weight limit is probably just to cut down on the teen/adult crowd riding it, though I do expect the frame and motor won’t handle being overloaded and pushed hard, but there’s plenty of videos online now of adults scooting aroud on the thing and it’s probably okay on level ground and taking it easy.
Also, part of the reason they’re probably stuck with so many of these is the online ordering system is screwed up and seemed to be auto-cancelling orders around and after Black Friday. I’ve had lots of Lowe’s orders just cancelled for no reason and even the customer service people don’t know why it happens, since phone orders seem to go through okay even when the customer ordering online themselves won’t. Pretty sure a lot of people just gave up instead of going in-store to buy things or went to a competitor.
Stuart
Lowe’s has done that to me quite a few times as well, cancelled both in-store and delivery orders without explanation.
I decided to order one of these, and saw the inventory counter go down by 1 immediately after.
A short while later:
“Sorry, we don’t have any, our inventory reporting is inaccurate.”
Tom D
It may also be lazy employees – if they have to actually go out onto the floor to find the item and give up after a minute or two.
I know I had to work with Home Depot for over an hour to find their hidden stash of Black Friday left-overs (Milwaukee bit kits) last year around December; finally found them on a black-wrapped pallet high above.
Toolfreak
My orders were cancelled within 15-30 mins automatically by “the system”, or at least likely not a person, as they were sometimes placed in the middle of the night, long after the stores had closed.
Unless Lowe’s has employees cancel orders online in the dead of night, I’m guessing it’s just some glitch that cancels orders for whatever reason or no reason.
Brian Aeschlimann
Perhaps becaause the online listing doesnt say if it comes with the battery & charger…
Got the last 2 at my store tonight.
Tom D
120 lbs per just means you need two – one for each leg.
LUKE
Actually gave this some serious thought till I read the reviews on the 40V max lowes battery. To bad it seems nice. Its a good marketing ploy to get the parent units into buying into the system.
Big Richard
The 40v batteries are fine, people just run them dead constantly and then they lose their ability to fully charge. It’s a problem you see with a lot of OPE systems. Homeowners who are unfamiliar with lithium-ion batteries, think they are indestructible magic boxes. They run them dead, throw them on the charger for a few minutes just to get enough juice to finish their job, immediately run them dead again, then back to the charger.
I assume the 40v line is also made by Chevron, which is pretty decent stuff, imo.
Aaron
the 80v are made by greenworks. I think that the 40v are as well, but I’m not confident in that
Michael F
I could be wrong, but isn’t there really no such thing as “dead” with a Li-Ion battery? The tools utilize a low voltage detection system such that when they’ve sufficiently drained they turn the tool off specifically to not damage the internal structure of the battery. Li-Ion doesn’t drain down to 0V as do previous chemistries. In addition, Li-Ion doesn’t have “memory” like previous chemistries (although everything I’ve read from my RC hobby indicates “battery memory” is one of those things that hasn’t affected batteries for a long time and it’s just stuck in our minds).
All of which is basically to say that your use case here of running a battery until the tool turns off, bumping the charge for 5 minutes, and running it again until you finish the last 10 feet of yard is the exact use case which should be fine for a Li-Ion battery. I could do the same with any of my Makita and Milwaukee batteries and they’d be fine. So, maybe those 40V batteries aren’t as fine as you think?
Big Richard
Not quite. The cells used in power tool batteries are 3.6v nominal, they are charged to ~4.0v and discharge to ~3.2v before the tool senses the low voltage and cuts off power.
So you are saying that since it is “only” at ~3.2v and not 0v, that it is fine because it is not fully discharged. That is not accurate, at 3.2v around 95% of the batteries energy is used. The low voltage can cause instability and degrade the battery. The other point I was making is that homeowners tend to throw their hot battery right on the charger after they just killed it, also not good.
The low voltage cut-offs on tools may not always be 100% accurate, so if you are running your batteries completely dead, you could be dipping below 3.0v, which is bad for the cells. Period. This is nothing new, and I implore you to not take my word for it. Do some research, everything you will find (from reputable sources) will tell you to not fully discharge, avoid full charging if possible, avoid heat, and store at around 2/3 charge for extended periods of time.
Tom D
I’m still leaning to modifying a used powerwheels to take M18. My modification of the baby swing went well.
Richard C.
With a little modifications, you can have a 100lbs load capable motorized dolly .
PETE
I just wish it wasn’t only a single seater! I’d definitely buy one if it sat two.
Matt
These things do better than they should… I was given a dead Peg Perego John Deere tractor and brought it back to life for our (then) 2 year old. Over the years I replaced the tires at least three times and it turned into this Mad Max contraption with no body panels but it kept going, and going, and going. And he LOVED it! I strapped a flashlight on the front of it and he’d drive around at night. That 2 year old is now almost 9, his little brother even got 3 years out of it! It finally got a burial-via-dumpster this summer but after 7 years and a zillion miles it was still functional.
To this deal: If you’ve got space for your kids to ride and they enjoy being outside this is a no-brainer at $150. Like Stu I was tempted at $250 but yeah, at $150 I’m in. If it’s a flop and they don’t use it (unlikely) you can FB Marketplace it for at least $100, heck, maybe get your full $150. I paid about $300 for a Peg JD Gator about 2 years ago (so we could phase out Mad Max) and this honestly looks to be of better quality than that one.
Matt
I was able to pick one up locally. As I was leaving there was a guy about my age staring at the only one left and I said Hey, that’s a great price, you gonna buy it? And he says Man I DID buy it! I paid $300 for it three weeks ago! lol poor guy, maybe Lowes will price match for him. Thanks Stu! This was a score. 🙌🏼
Jeremiah Ducate
Looks like it’s coming up as oos now. Maybe some zips with in store inventory you can still get them.
Abner Diaz
I know this might sound wierd, but has anybody thought of modifying one of these cars to create a remote controlled tool cart? It just seems like it could work if someone had the need for one and was able to put in the time and money to modify it
MFC
You did it again Stuey. I just “happened” to be looking for this type of toy… I might take it apart and turn it into something entirely different once the kids have had their fun… Mwahaha
Stuart
=)
I told myself that if it doesn’t sell out, that gives me time to think about it, and then I might decided to order it.
So today, I ordered one. And… then Lowe’s emailed that they’re cancelling it. Should have ordered one right when I posted about the deal! Ah well.
That’s a big reason I wanted it too – it’s much less expensive as a robotics platform that I could build using off-the-shelf or DIY components.
I figured out where I could store it outdoors with a cover, eliminating the “I have no place to put it” dilemma.
The big problem with converting Power Wheels into robotic or radio controlled chassis is that you have to figure out how to motorize the steering, and if you can do that easily enough, you could probably put something better together.
With this, the lights, sounds, and remote control also made it seem very appealing.
I’m telling myself that part of why I now want one so bad is because I know I can’t have one. Even when I ordered one, I knew there was a good chance Lowe’s online inventory system has got things wrong and the order stood a strong chance of being cancelled.
I still have one in my cart, set for delivery, and the fee went from $65 to $79, and now to $90, which suggests that the only ones in stock are quite a distance away now.
It took a 50% discount for these to sell – I wonder how this will affect what Lowe’s and Kobalt might do next year.
MFC
Ah yes, the “You can’t have it” psychology.
If it’s any consolation the store near me didn’t have any so I had to drive about 30 minutes. That store had 6 left and a dozen of the scooters outside in the garden section “hidden” under a table. It’s really weird that they don’t have them out in front of people.
I mean, how cool would it be to drive down a mobile toolbox or storage container out of the back of my trailer when I get on a jobsite? I know it has limited weight bearing capacity, but I plan on loading it with some heavy things to see what it’s “true” weight limit is.
And I don’t know much about small electronics, but my next build is going to be wiring up a 40,000 lumens LED tripod. I have 3 DeWalt lights and 4 Milwaukee, but I need one that can light up a big room and don’t want to spend $$$ when I can make one for $150, albeit in a less cool color…
Ben
I used the 10% off coupon and got it for $135 today. Nice Christmas present for my 3-year-old
James C
Has anyone done battery conversions on things like this? I’m thinking it might take a boost / buck voltage converter (if needed) and a low voltage protection circuit (if the battery of choice doesn’t have one). A quick search on amazon shows lots of options that look easy to wire up.
Jared
I put an extra 6v battery in my kid’s 12v peg perego. Nothing broke or fried in his almost daily use for a couple years at 18v.
We also stuck a 12v battery in his 6v motorcycle. Same thing – nothing broke or fried… though I did have to remove some of the safety-wiring so it would stop cutting out.
The motorcycle also came with “permanent” training wheels, which i took off so he could ride it more like his bike. He found it a bit awkward to drive the bike at first with no training wheels, wide bodywork and a snappy on/off throttle, but he got used to it.
Maybe there’s a reason my wife won’t approve a Stacyc just yet…
Patrick
Thank you for the heads up yesterday on this, I think I got one of the last ones in the state.
Picked one up for my 3 year old. And for me. I get an oversized remote control jeep and he gets a ride on toy. We both win!
pablo mills
The Kobalt Razor scooter is also half off
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Razor-Kobalt-Power-Core-100-BL/5001226295