Comments on: PiaggioUSA’s “Test Ride”

By: illnoise

illnoise — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:51:43 +0000

Vespas have a very good resale value, but they’re easy enough to sell on Craigslist, why eat the financing and then give resale profits to your dealer? The problem is all the people who spent $8000 on a scooter and think they’re doing you a favor by selling it for $500 under MSRP, after they’ve been crashing it for a year. Like you don’t have to pay taxes and title again anyway.

The main point is, it’s pretty stupid to take out a 3-year loan to buy something you don’t really want or need.

By: femsatronic

femsatronic — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:03:09 +0000

Dealers are not impressed. Resale for used Vespas is rather poor. Because Vespa is a premium brand, few people seeking Vespas are interested in hand-me-down machines.

By: illnoise

illnoise — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:56:17 +0000

Another though: Pete’s “43%” reasoning is based on 10% down, and 33% of the payments. That’s not exactly correct, because the payments would be about 30%, since youv’e already paid 10%.

That said, you’re also paying dealer prep, taxes, delivery fee, etc, and worse yet, you’re paying an unspecified financing APR, so your cost at the end of 12 months would almost certainly be MORE than 50% of the MSRP. Obviously, you’d be paying those fees and taxes any time you buy a bike, and financing always costs you, but paying half the MSRP of a scooter to ride it for a year (and don’t put more than 4000 miles on it!) isn’t doing you any favors.

By: illnoise

illnoise — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:39:59 +0000

Also note the offer includes the Vespa S 50, LX 150 and GTS 300 Super and the Piaggio FLY 50, FLY 150, BV Tourer 250 and MP3 250.

It’s a good cross-section of models, but it seems strange they wouldn’t offer it on all models, or only more-expensive or less-popular or more-outdated models. Are these all lower-dealer-margin models, compared to other Vespa and Piaggio bikes?