Paolo Timoni is feeling good about Aprilia’s future, based on the popularity of the Tuono 1000 R Factory sportbike, but it looks like Aprilia’s biggest growth was in the scooter market. From a Piaggio Group press release:
Aprilia’s U.S. scooter retail unit sales, which rose 56 percent over the 12-month period, were aided by the addition of two models: the newest and most powerful addition to the Scarabeo family, the 500 ie, and the sophisticated, urban-dwelling SportCity 250.
Aprilia scooters are in a tough spot, marketing-wise, They’re expensive, and their Piaggio and Vespa brethren get all the attention from scooter fans while the sportbikes get all the attention from Aprilia fans (and, often, dealers). The situation is further complicated by the Scarabeo line being marketed separately from Aprilia’s other scooters. Scarabeos have their fans, but the SportCity seems to be a pretty good bike that you rarely see on the street.
I went to my local (ex)Aprilia dealer to inquire about the SportCity. They told me they might think about carrying a Piaggio product again as soon as the head of Piaggio gets back out of prison. No kidding, that’s exactly what they said! WTF!!!
Well, Roberto Colaninno was sentenced to four years in prison in late 2006, but I don’t think he served any time. I’d been keeping an eye out for follow-ups, but haven’t seen anything, I’m sure it was all “taken care of” or put on some sort of endless appeal cycle. People that rich and powerful have ways of getting out of trouble, especially in Italy.
In any case, there are a lot of better reasons to not carry Piaggio products.