You’re correct that the price for a new SR is just outta sight (many repeat buyers have complained). But there are quite a few mildly-ridden pre-own’s out there whose price tags are easier to swallow. This SR is a special scooter with many first’s, sure you know them.

Gotta give it to Stella for bringing the 4T, great effort! But I say buy it because you wanna ride it; not just to dress up head-to-toe in Ben Sherman looking cool (these may be the same people who confuse “is sexy” with “looking sexual). The true nostalgia (not manufactured) can only be relived properly by people who were once in the midst of the movement; not by some well-heeled twenty-something hipsters who weren’t even born back then. Imo, it would be as ridiculous as for me to celebrate the 60’s (even though I was born then); because I really did most of my growing-up in the 70’s and 80’s (and still a work-in-progress today).

Lastly, I hope the Aztek will never, ever make a “come back”. Never, ever, ever! To quote a local musician, that would just “drive me to drink”, AGAIN!

I’m not saying Stellas are the Beanie Babies of scootering, but just like with muscle cars, the ‘collectible’ cars of the future are guaranteed to surprise you. Kids who grew up in the 90s will be paying a quarter of a million for a cherry Pontiac Aztek. or a Honda Odyssey minivan (I’m betting on the Element, actually, I can see an Element rally in 2045)

The new minis, new beetles, new vespas, new everythings, are never going to be worth that much, because they’re overvalued to begin with, ha. And all those muscle cars and vintage Vespas probably aren’t even beating inflation as far as value, except in rare cases. A vehicle is NEVER an “investment”

Re: the SR50, I think the price is too high for what you get, especially with upgrades, but it’s indisputably still one of the most high-tech scooters around, several years after it came out.

You’re absolutely right about sentimentality being a main factor behind collectability, but I think the extra layer of nostalgia might throw it off… People (even young people) buy Stellas now out of a sense of nostalgia for the early days of Vespa, or the Mod scene, or whatever. I think in 30 years, they’ll either want to remember the 90s/00s with a vehicle they ASPIRED TO (I bet most muscle car buyers are little brothers of people who had one!) or, having the money, they’ll track down the real thing (a Vespa, vintage or modern.) That said, Stellas will retain value much better than most other contemporary scooters.

I think (Thanks to scooterworks) that the Buddy’s going to be the real winner in the nostalgia wars, though. There’s an emotional attachment between buddies and their owners that can’t be matched.

Oh, and the more fluid version of the quote is “If it has Tits or Tires, you’ll have troubles”.

The Chetak 4T’s were supremely reliable – until recently…which is weird. We saw guys who put 20,000 miles on in their first 3 years with no problem whatsoever. Now we’re seeing a few problems cropping up. I still think it’s an excellent design, if a bit underpowered.

The P Series was a tank, but it wasn’t exactly “maintenance free” either. Top Ends routinely need a rebore around 10,000 miles. Most of the ones we’re seeing these days need flywheels remagged, flyside seals last around 3 years, insulation on the wiring was never any good. CDI’s have much too short of a lifespan etc.

Anyone else have input for this off-the-top-of-my-head listing?

Stella Phase 1 – 2002 – Turbo Cushions / Black tail light housing
Stella Phase 2 – 2002 – Turbo Cushion sticker gone / Chrome Tail light housing
Stella Phase 3 – 2005? – Neutral Light / Stop Light / Gabriel Chrome Shocks
Stella Phase 4 – 2007/8 – Relocated Coil / Halogen Headlamp
Stella Phase 5 – 2010 – 4T

I’d bet the cowls will look like that rather than the prototype pictured above, but I haven’t confirmed that.

I don’t know anyone who ever said that no body cares about muscle cars. That said, clearly you’ve never visited a Bajaj service center. Great scoots, but they just break for different reasons than the razor thin margin for overheating that taxes two strokes. A wise man once said, “If it’s got tits or wheels, it will give you heartache”. Well, he may not have been wise. Though surely crass, likely drunk and probably wearing a Peterbilt hat, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

When I was in high school, people said, oh God, nobody cares about those muscle cars, nobody’s gonna want to collect them. Seen the Barrett-Jackson auction on SPEED? See all those Mustangs and Camaros and GTOs going for six-figure prices? Vehicle collecting is about recapturing lost youth. In the year 2040, there are going to be people who are wistful about the Stella 4 they bought in high school or college with the money from a summer job. Or about the road trip they took on their Burgman…

People opine about how a new Stella’s better than a old P-series. That may be true, but the old P-series was certainly better made, and will probably retain it’s value better. It’ll be interesting to see how they fit into scootering history and collectability. My guess is that the 2-stroke Stellas will probably be around for ages and someday be considered a second-rate but respectable vintage scooter, while the 4-stroke ones will tend to be more disposable, especially if they don’t last long and parts are hard to get (like the Bajaj 4T Chetaks, which are about worthless if the engine blows out).

Genuine is probably hoping that the 4T Stella will start the (what wave are we on) of mod-style-scootering and remain popular for generations. And it might. We’ll see.

It will only be a thing of the past because the 4T Stella won’t need any DIY maintenance. Four-stroke engines just run. Change the oil & filter, change the spark plug. Y’know, like a lawn mower. Hand most Americans a wrench or a screwdriver and they would have no clue what to do with it. This will be good.

I was rather surprised to see the LML Star 4 125cc engine has a Kehin carburetor (sez LML’s French Web site), not fuel injection. Since you’re not pumping 2-stroke oil through it, the carb probably won’t need cleaning anywhere near as often, though to pass CARB it’s probably completely sealed anyway.

Surely someone will come up with a noisy pipe, for those who want that…

POC Phil, tell us about how you are working on an adapter kit to use that ingeniously fool-proof EFI/ignition from a Royal Enfield on one of these (along with a new POC pipe right?).