Via Steve, a nicely-done Australian Yamaha TV commercial showing the economical aspects of their scooters. Genuine and even PiaggioUSA are working on pretty limited budgets, but you have to wonder why Yamaha and Honda, who actually do run national spots on cable TV, haven’t done anything like this here in the U.S. yet. If it wasn’t for the Australian coins shown at the end (and if they added a few models to their lineup), they could even run this one.
Category: Manufacturers
Pininfarina CEO killed in Vespa accident
Andrea Pininfarina, the 51-year-old CEO of Italian car design company Pininfarina, died this morning when his Vespa collided with a car near Turin. Pininfarina was the grandson of legendary car designer Battista “Pinin” Farina. The company was famous for their designs for Ferrari and many other carmakers.
Thanks for the links, AxeYrCat and Ericalm
Pretty Fly for a college guy
Piaggio USA is targeting college-bound students with the Piaggio Fly, a $50 gas card and a free topbox. When I went to college, a burrito was a luxury item.
Bulgogi and P.E.A.C.E.
Alix Bryan of P.E.A.C.E Scooter fame passed through Chicago while I was at Amerivespa. I’d hoped to meet her for dinner at a Korean restaurant Sunday night with some Modern Buddy folks, but I got back kind of late and some wires got crossed so I ended up eating with Ryan instead. Sorry Alix. We made this peace sign out of the banchan dishes, in your honor.
Alix got some news coverage in Cleveland the other day, and her months-long journey will end Friday (August 8, 2008) with a victory lap around the White House (a group ride leaves from Vespa Arlington at noon), then Scoot Richmond is hosting a party for her at 5pm on Saturday, featuring the final raffle drawing. Congratulations Alix!
PGO using Piaggio engines?
Does this PGO dune buggy really have a Piaggio engine? Interesting.
AGI on U.S. Boom and Piaggio/Vespa hybrids
I’ve long stopped linking to most stories about the scooter “boom,” gas savings, and supply shortage, every small-town paper in America has covered it to death already, but now we’re making news overseas. Italian news agency AGI posted their story today, with some details about Piaggio’s sales (up over 100% in May!), their plans for U.S. hybrid models, and some glaring errors about U.S. motorcycling laws.
“Yo, Martha!”
An excerpt from a Martha Stewart book:
Another entrepreneur whose intensity, curiosity, research, and devotion to quality impress me is a gentleman who first flagged me down on an East Hampton back road several years ago. I had decided to go for a ride on my turquoise Velocifero scooter and was zipping along when I heard a shout “Yo, Martha!” Across the street on his own turquoise scooter was Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rap star who used to be called Puff Daddy and then P. Diddy.
Thanks for the photo, Dawson.
Andretti X50 at dealers soon
PowerSportsFactory tells us that their sporty Andretti Benelli X50 will join the 150XT and M50 at dealers within the next week or two. While we haven’t had a chance to ride an Andretti yet, we were impressed with their display bikes at Dealer Expo 2008. We’ll try to get over to Ace Motorcycle and Scooter and check them out soon. If nothing else, PSF timed their delivery well, Andrettis arrived at dealers just as most other brands were announcing their inventory was wiped out.
Vespa South Africa: gay bishop marketing blitz
Maybe you can make sense of this column. I can’t.
Smart Money, it isn’t.
Oh, we were wrong about the Buddy, it sucks. So says America’s Scooter Authority, Smart Money. In other Smart Money news, the Honda Accord sucks when you compare it to a Land Rover, a Porsche Cayenne, an Audi A6, and a Unimog.
Joey, do you like Gladiator movies?
Sfidatela? WTF?
“This is How We Roll in India”
Texting from a Bajaj on the freeway, feet on the tank. Note the “mandals,” India’s a few years behind our flip-flop trend. Thanks for the link, Dana!
Buddy: Out Vespa-ing Vespa?
The LA Times finally said today what we’ve all been thinking: The Buddy is kicking the Vespa’s ass lately. Sure, Vespas are more glamorous, and have a 60-year history at the top of the scooter industry, but Vespa abandoned their ideals of economy and utility long ago, and Genuine has totally stolen their thunder by knowing the American market. Genuine found a cheap-but-reliable alternative (the PGO Bu Bu), priced it right, totally nailed the rebranding and marketing, and (most importantly) built a quality network of dealers and riders that instantly fell in love with the product and spread the word with fairly minimal advertising required.
Sure, they were also in the right place at the right time, but unlike many of the current players in the U.S. scooter market, Genuine (well, Scooterworks) has been prospering for years by knowing the market and their customers, and they’ll surely be one of the few that remain successful after this boom ends. If half the “new Stella” rumors I’ve heard are true, they’re just getting started.
Blur 3000km service
I had a Big Merchandise Announcement to make today, but instead I stayed up until 2am writing this step-by-step guide to changing the oil in your Genuine Blur 150. All 23 Blur owners in North America are totally thanking me right now. I tried to make it a little funny, so you might want to read it anyway, just to make fun of how little I know about changing the oil in a Genuine Blur 150. But stay tuned, we’ve got new t-shirts going on sale very soon.
Auto-Rickshaw Mud Flaps
If you’re riding a Bajaj, you need these, stat. (And here are more.)