Scooter info help

[jeffpa]

Hi ,

I live between York,PA and Baltimore, MD and I'm looking for informational help in purchasing a scooter mainly for commuting to work (about 50 miles round trip) but with an occasional trip to Washington DC (70miles) or the Eastern shore of MD (120miles). I am mainly looking for safety, quality, maintenance and cost (this includes fuel savings)

I have two different ways to commute.
1) A 65mph highway (people usually drive 75) (route 83 if your familiar with the area)
2) two lane back road that people drive 50mph (York Road).
3) Both ways have 1-2 good sized hills on them.

My issues:
1) I am a newbie and have no experience with scooters or motorcycles at all.
2) Limited budget (don't we all).
3) What size scooter should I get? I’ve had a dealer tell me a 150cc and another tells me to get a minimum of a 250cc.
4) I’m looking for personal experiences with scooters in regards to quality and factual information. As I’ve gone to several scooter dealers in my area, and they are giving me info that is conflicting with the research I’ve been doing on the internet.
5) While I'm looking for a bargain, I don't want to get stuck with junk. I've heard about too many bad experiences from ordering online.

I've been looking at the 150-250cc scooters and I'm finding the 150 falling into the price range that I have. However, I don’t want to buy a scooter only to find out it doesn’t meet my needs.

Scooters I’ve looked at:
1) Vespa – a 150cc at the area dealer was way out of my price range
2) Buddy 150cc from Genuine Scooter Co. – upper end of what I can afford
3) Lambretta Uno 150cc – about mid to upper range of what I can afford. Issue, I can’t find a dealer near me (this dealer is about 70 miles from where I live) that would be able to fix it.
4) Xing Yue model XY150T-7 (ITA) – best price for a 150cc that I’ve found but I don’t trust the dealer (1) to be around if I need repairs and (2) he told me that it could go fine at 65mph for extended periods of time and get 90mpg (both of which I;ve found conflicting info on the internet).

Any other suggestions for scooters that may be able to fit my needs would be welcome.

Thanks
Jeff

[jrsharp21]

Hi Jeff,

Welcome from one newbie to another. I am just like you. I knew nothing about scoots when I started this quest two weeks ago. Now my wife asks if I plan to write a book with all the research I have done.

I don't know a whole lot yet. But I do know that if you are looking to drive in the 60-65mph range, you are going to want to get a 250. The local dealer I talked to said the fastest he ever got a 150cc was 63mph. This was at optimal conditions, full throttle and he was ducked behind the windshield for less resistance.

[mafunsalow]

Hi Jeff , welcome!
First of all since you have no experience I wouldn't do any riding on 83. A 250 scoot might get you to just over 70mph but I wouldnt recommend it. I'm new too and I stick to back roads. If I hit the highway it's only for an exit or too. If you find you must ,then you might need to look for a used Burgman 400.
There is brick and mortar sales in York which I would use instead of internet purchase. Might cost little more but way much safer.
One example - www.marketscooters.com/aboutus.html
They don't list prices so it is hard to guage. Don't know if you had checked them out.
As far as salesman well they are salesman. Thats what they do for a living, thats how they feed their families. As deplorable as we may think it is And marketscooters was mainly a car dealership getting into scooters. The salesman might not know about scooters, thats not what he's there for. You will more than likely be dealing with a "used car salesman" . We all know the type. Here's an article that might help with your understand what your dealing with. www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html
hope this helps ya some Jeff