The Poverty Jet Set

My friend David tools around Philly on one of these bad boys (albeit an orange one), and man have I been salivating over this one on eBay. Hot damn.

‘Tis the season to be buying less gas, right?

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jeff

it looks beautiful right. but it is a huge can of worms. made in viet nam(PHUK DUP). the viet scoots were run into the ground, then, like a firebird born again. they took a turd and polished it. buy a scooter in the US.

Mark Schoneveld

Huh, that's strange. Maybe someone ripped off the photo from my blog? Looks like that post has been flagged now, tho. That scooter is in Vietnam, btw.

Texadelphia

Oddly enough, the same pictures have been posted on a recent philly craigslist ad...I smell a scam.
http://philadelphia.craigslist...

Vespa Fan

I don't see gas prices going down anytime in my lifetime (call me a pessimist) so scooters will just increase in popularity. Several friends have ditched their gas guzzlers for the scooting lifestyle.

Chris

The Genuine Scooter company still makes Vespa clones. They're very well made, and look pretty classy (a bit boxier than the older scoots). It's called the Stella

Oh, and one note about the decreased gas usage... Yes, they get close to 100 miles per gallon, but they're 2-stroke, meaning they burn oil with the gas, and that means their carbon footprint is huge.

Mark Schoneveld

@Chris - you make a good point. I probably wouldn't buy a bike from Vietnam on eBay. But I would love to have a bike like this. I find it supremely annoying that classy bikes like this aren't made any longer.

Chris

It looks nice, but the location reveals that under all that shiny chrome and paint is a deathtrap. Southeast Asian Vespas are HUGE no-nos. People will fix them to "just good enough" condition, slap a new coat of paint, and lots of chrome parts and try and sell them to gullible Americans. When you try and drive it and find that half the body is Bondo, and the engine's piston was replaced with a bean tin, you'll want your money back, but they'll be in another country!

Trust me, as a long-time scooter enthusiast, buy one from someone you know, where you can get the history of the bike. Mine looks like a mad-maxian creation, but I know the engine runs strong, and everything works the way it should.