FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car review – I would have killed for this car when I was a kid

REVIEW – I was always envious of other kids with battery powered cars when I was a kid, but as I grew up I found out that those 80’s era children’s cars tended to have battery lives in the 10’s of minutes and you were lucky if they could go faster than 2 miles an hour. I hadn’t thought about them for decades, but with a new toddler running around our house the offer to review the FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car was an easy yes for me. I thought it might be fun for him as an alternative to stroller rides around the neighborhood, and very soon he’ll be old enough to take the controls himself and cruise around the sidewalks.

What is it?

The FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car is a ride on vehicle designed for children ages 3 to ~8 (depending on size) that features four wheel drive, direct or remote control steering, two seats (for toddlers), and even a media playback system.

What’s in the box?

• FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car partially assembled
• External components like wheels, guardrails, cosmetics
• Installation tools, nuts, washers, bolts
• AC charger
• Front and rear axles

Hardware specs

Design and features

The FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car is obviously a JEEP Wrangler style. It’s interesting that FUNTOK advertises licensed Toyota models, but makes no mention of make/model on the particular version they sent me to review. Being a JEEP Wrangler design, you have wheels styled to look like off road wheels (more on that later), guard rails around the body, an open top, spring suspension, and four wheel drive! I like the orange and black styling a lot. Most of the exterior is sturdy plastic, while there is some metal in key parts like the axles.

The doors have a little latch to keep them in place once closed. It’s easy for our toddler to climb in and out, even though he’s a bit under the minimum suggested age.

The dashboard features some toggles and controls (that he luckily can’t reach yet when strapped into his seat: we tested entirely with the parent remote control since he hasn’t mastered the concept of steering yet – be it with JEEPS, bikes or anything else). The steering wheel has two buttons, the left one honks a horn and the right one activates the sound system. The sound system has some built in generic-sounding songs and stories (audiobooks), an aux-in cable for anything you want to connect to it, and a USB and SD card slot for MP3 digital files. It doesn’t sound great, and I couldn’t find any volume control anywhere. It took me a while to figure out that the seemingly meaningless numbers on the LCD panel indicate the battery’s voltage – very handy for gauging how much life is left. I’m going to print out a 24 volt battery’s usual charge levels and stick it on the back of the controller so I can get an accurate feel for when to turn around and come home on walks!

Below the steering wheel in the usual spot is the single pedal which is not analog, it’s either full power or none (at the speed setting selected by the driver). Kids have a toggle switch to pick between “fast” and “slow”. To stop, they simply let off the pedal and the car stops quite quickly (though not so much as to cause whiplash, even at the higher speed setting our little one was fine).

The seats have 3 point harnesses, and some cosmetic rails on either side and above that work well for me to grab and move the car if needed (like to maneuver it into a tight spot for storage in our garage). The lights above the seat are non-functional (there are functioning LED lights front and back, but not these ones).

From  the above back view you can see the rear LED lights (these are always on when the car is on).

The suspension does include small springs in both the front and back. The white components above are the motors, these 4x 100 watts motors do a great job of scooting this little car around.

The remote control is simple and feels like a cheap plastic toy, but does the job. First, you power on the car (power button on dash), and then you click the center button on the remote which wakes it up and connects to the car. Forward and back are on the left side, while left and right are on the right side. The “S” button on the left changes between 3 speed modes. The “P” button on the right cuts power to the motors immediately and stops the car. I like that they have this function in case you get flustered while controlling, but I did hit it multiple times while trying to make left/right adjustments, so I wish it was just a bit removed from the L/R steering buttons.

The front of the vehicle has some decently bright LED lights. I really like the overall look of the car, hopefully FUNTOK doesn’t get hit with trademark/rights issues.

Setup

Setup of the FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car took me just over an hour, and was easy enough for one person to do (as long as you can lift ~50 pounds. The manual was pretty straightforward for the installation, though there were a few parts I had to figure out by deduction when the illustrations didn’t quite tell me how things should go.

I charged the car for about 8 hours before our first ride, and setup and installation was done!

Performance

The FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car was a blast from the first ride! We did all of our testing in near freezing or below freezing winter conditions, which is hard on any battery powered vehicle, but still got ~30 minutes at least on each ride as long as I fully charged it. I’d imagine the 90 minute runtime is on the lowest speed setting and only rear wheel drive (an on/off switch under the dash turns on/off the front motors), so my best guess is that at our preferred medium speed setting and 4WD we’re looking at 45-60 minutes in summer months which will be great for longer walks and trips to the  nearby park.

Speaking of four wheel drive, the car has no issue going up minor hills, but traction can be a problem on even gentle hills. The battery and passengers are near the back axle, so the front wheels (and thus the steering) can struggle a bit, especially if the car is set to 2WD. I would have preferred that they’d positioned the battery in the front area to add a bit more weight over the wheels. On top of the weight and drive configuration is the fact that the all-plastic tires are really just riding on a thin strip of plastic, so they don’t have great grip. It would have been nice to see some durable rubberized coating or something to aid in traction. Once the kid is old enough to use the steering wheel, I think the shift in weight forward will help with the steering traction issue (which was only a problem on smooth concrete a few times, I had to manually push the car in the direction I wanted it to go since it was just going straight despite wheels turned to the side).

What I like

• Great styling/looks
• Drivetrain and steering seem sturdy
• Much better battery life than the cars of my youth

What I’d change

• Some parts feel cheap, like the controller
• Speaker/media system is annoying at best (unless your kid loves low-quality loud blasting speakers).
• 2WD mode results in loss of steering control (all the weight is at the back of the vehicle).

Final thoughts

The FUNTOK 24V 7AH 2 Seater Kids Electric Ride on Car has earned a permanent spot in our garage for years to come. Our toddler loves it, and asks to ride daily. I like that it has a second seat for cousins and friends, and can’t wait for summer months and longer walks/rides! No mention of battery longevity is mentioned in the manual or on the Amazon listing, so hopefully it gets us through years of fun (though I’d imagine I can find a 24V replacement fairly easily if it does start to die).

Price: $349
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by FUNTOK