High Gas Prices May Drive Scooter Purchases, but...

If gas prices stay high, we may experience another scooter buying frenzy like we did in 2008, although the economy may temper the hysteria a bit. TV news crews, local reporters and radio hosts may swarm local dealers for a few sound bites about exceptional gas mileage (100mpg?!?) but once they close their reporter notebooks and pack up the lighting rigs, they will likely have overlooked the total picture of the costs of buying a scooter.

I touched on this in blog posts that I wrote in 2008:
Is Money the Only Reason to Ride a Scooter
$4 Gas is Waking Up America

Truthfully, $4 gas prices suck, but only someone who already owns a scooter will be laughing as s/he passes up the pump. If you park your Prius, but a brand new Vespa and expect to see the money pile up in your bank account, you will be in for a surprise. If you drive an old V8 truck from the 70s 20 miles roundtrip to work each day, and decided to dig your old P200 out of the garage, give it a tune-up and do the commute on the scoot while parking the truck, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Most people are somewhere in between and will need to really crunch the numbers to see if buying a new scooter makes financial sense.

There are lots of other considerations: insurance, scooter maintenance, and how often one will actually forgo the car for the scooter.

Costs to conisder:

• Purchase price
• Interest if financing the purchase
• Scheduled maintenance (differs from cars)
• Wear & Tear (some scooters require new tires every 2K miles)
• Insurance (make sure your policy includes uninsured motorist)
• Riding gear (clothing, helmet, gloves, rain gear etc)
• Security (locks, parking)
• Oil (if you are running a 2-stroke, you have to account for the cost of 2T oil)

I realize that I may sound like a negative nan, raining on the "higher gas = buy a scooter" parade, but I want to get above the rote sound bites that the media may be offering now.  Scooters are seriously great fun to ride, but I consider the fuel economy to be a bonus. Already having a scooter (65mpg) in my garage that I bought 14 years ago makes the gas savings apparent when I choose it over my Mini (39mpg), but if I went out today and bought a new $3k scooter, I think it would take me a few years to realize savings.

Benefits above $$ to consider:

• Riding a scooter is fun!
• Better parking (scooters fit in smaller places; I park closer to my destination with a scooter)
• Taking up less space than a car (on the road, in the garage, in my life)
• Splitting lanes in California *only* (I like being able to move to the front of a long line of cars at a stoplight. I don't splits lanes when traffic is moving)

Whatever the gas pump says, it's a good time to scoot.

Blog entry soundtrack:

Scoot! Buyer's Guide Goes Online

In an effort to provide the most up-to-date and accessible information on new scooters, the Scoot! Magazine Buyer's Guide has moved online. Prospective scooter buyers can now access the guide 24/7 at www.scootmagazine.com and select the "Buyer's Guide" link from the top navigation bar. Not only does the online version provide all of the specs from our original print guide, it now has an interactive component that allows you to sort by model year, manufacturer, MSRP, displacement and tire size. You can also compare up to three different models simultaneously. By going online the Guide is now easily accessible, easily updateable and information can be updated when it is available rather than once a year in the print guide. Another convenient feature is the Reviewed by Scoot logo that provides a link to the Scoot! issue in which the bike was reviewed. This year many manufacturers are releasing new bike later than usual. Our team will be adding bikes as soon as their specs are available.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

 

Sample screen

Cheap Scooters...too good to be true?

The Scoot! staff has reminded readers over and over again to not be fooled by inexpensive scooters that can be found on the Internet, in auto parts stores or sold through retail chains not authorized to sell motor vehicles.

Here is a story about a Oregon woman who bought a $600 scooter from a liquidation service and discovered that the stated 90-day warranty would not be honored.

To be clear, I believe that if a company advertises a warranty, they should stand by it. A retailer should not be selling products that it is not authorized to sell, and it should be aware of how the manufacturer will service those warranty clams.

But it remains to be said that Americans are so blinded by the prospect of a "deal" that they will throw out all logic and common sense. We are so focused on buying things cheaply that we have no regard for quality manufacture, fair wages or fair mark-up that allows business to stay afloat.

I frequently receive calls from neophytes looking to get into scootering merely because of the cost savings (real or imagined). They are so easy to suspend disbelief in hopes of saving money that they are willing to make really dumb choices. One man called me looking for a restored vintage scooter and said he wanted my opinion on ordering from Asia. I asked why he didn't look closer to home since he lived near a major city on the East Coast. He said they were too expensive. YET he was willing to send thousands of dollars to a company in Asia that he had never heard of, and had no way of verifying. I asked him what he was going to do if it arrived damaged, or was a piece of crap. He had no idea, as he hadn't considered that option. He was probably too busy imagining himself riding down the street (with no helmet and in shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops, no less) basking with pride over his savvy shopping skills.

I then asked him if he would buy a 50 year old car from an unknown restoration company in a foreign country, and have it arrive at his doorstep in a box that he would have to unpack himself. His answer, "Well, I guess not."

Obviously, the woman in Oregon was only thinking about her savings. What do you think the actual cost of manufacture is for a scooter that sells for $600. Does the manufacturer put $300 into making it? How much is a worker paid to assemble a $600 scooter? If you buy the scooter from a liquidator, where will you get tires or a replacement turn signal lens? If I went to Costco and saw some new no-name brand SUVs or minivans in the parking lot selling for $5,000 I would assume that they were crap. And I would wonder what government agency allows a mass market retailer to sell automobiles. The situation should have set-off buzzers and whistles well before she made the purchase.

Am I the only person who feels that America has shot itself in the foot (and the neck) by being a country of self-centered cheapskates?

This past week I saw a news story about a local Chrysler dealership that was auctioning off their remaining inventory before closing at the end of the month. None of the cars sold because those who showed up thought that the reductions weren't good enough. The news reported that one man offered $4,000 for a brand new SUV. Now, anyone with a brain can see the faulty logic and predatory nature in that man's offer. First, Chrysler would not allow the dealer to sell that cheaply. It would make it doubly hard for the remaining dealers to sell cars at regular price if word got out that someone bought the SUV for such a pittance. In addition, the dealer probably paid much more that $4,000 for the SUV.

Do you think the man who made that offer cared anything about the dealership, the people it employed, the plant that made the car and those who worked there? No, he was just a selfish person who wanted to take advantage of the misfortunes of the car dealership,and the local folks that worked there.

People wonder how our country has lost its way, and why manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Maybe the answer is right in our hearts and pocketbooks.

Blog entry soundtrack: "The Gates of Istanbul" Loreena McKennitt

Misadventures in Buying a Vespa- LAist

I found this interesting piece at LAist, a community website for Los Angeles-area folks. It highlights the usefulness of comparison shopping for scooters. This summer, most scooter were in high demand with not enough supply to fulfill orders. I heard reports of many dealers adding on premium charges, which may be the case here, but I haven't followed up with the shops to see. Many dealers that I work with on a regular basis charge anywhere from $150-$250 for PDI which is the assembly and testing that they do when it arrives.

Even if you are buying a scooter from the only dealership in town, you should still call some other dealers to get prices and see if they compare. Additionally, I agree with the writer's suggestion to only buy from a scooter dealer, which I have said numerous times before.