Category: Manufacturers

New Peugeot Vivacity 50

Peugeot has redesigned their Vivacity 50, I’m not in love with it, a little too “executive” for me, but it’s very distinctive and clean-looking. As reporter earlier, Peugeots will be sold in Canada in 2009, I’d expected to hear an announcement (or at least rumors) about the U.S. by now, but sadly, there’s been nothing but crickets. Can’t they see that AMERICA NEEDS SCOOTERS!?

I’ME: the next Genuine scooter?

PGO’s new fuel-injected I’ME 125 won a 2008 Taiwan Excellence Award and got some press coverage (videos below) in Taiwan, but there’s a strange lack of information about it on the internet. The Republic of China’s new emissions laws require fuel-injection, so it’s likely all of Genuine’s PGO-built 2009 models will feature EFI, (UPDATE: maybe not,) but PGO claims the I’ME is the first to pass the new “fifth stage” emissions regulations. Aesthetically, it looks like an updated Kymco Agility, sort of the Vespa LX to the Agility’s ET, if that makes any sense, which it doesn’t.

With the current drought of scooters in U.S. showrooms, it’s a safe bet Genuine would love to get their hands on the I’ME, but PGO’s likely focused on development and production of domestic-market fifth-stage-certified bikes. That should give Genuine just enough time to re-brand it, and apply for DOT homologation. In any case, we’re adding the I’ME 125 to our Genuine ’09 wish list, along with the hybrid Buddy and the return of the Blur (hopefully the 4-valve 150 version and the 200 with this cool LCD dashboard).

Modern Buddy crash data

EP Scoot tallied up the responses on the everlasting “Who’s Crashed” thread at Modern Buddy to come up with a Modern Buddy “Hurt Report” of sorts. It’s not entirely scientific, but the results are pretty interesting, especially because they confirm what most of us know but choose to ignore. Also interesting: the long-held suspicion that orange Buddies are more crash-prone holds true, though pink is surprisingly less crash-prone than black. Nice work.

Are they still around?

BigAssMotors is trying to breathe life into TNG by taking over their distribution in the Southwest. Though TNG has seen a couple promising stretches, they’ve been plagued by Costco’s return policy, quality control issues, Schwinn, manufacturer changes, dozens of importers selling identical-looking bikes, several years of disappointment regarding the Lambretta/Scomadi/L-Series, and rumors of lapses in business ethics (notably a BBS post about their warranty manager selling warranty-returned bikes out of his garage on Craigslist). Needless to say, the announcement was less-than-enthusiastically received on the BBS. (Thanks for the link, Matt)

New Yamaha Zuma 125 for 2009

There has been some speculation about a new 125 Zuma model from Yamaha.  But now it’s official as a Yamaha shows the impressive offering in place in it’s 2009 scooter line up along with the T-Max.   The specs/features list a 4  valve, fuel injected 125 four stroke and the photos reveal a very impressive look.  It’s priced at 2999.00 and should give the Genuine Buddy 125 a run for it’s money.  My only problem with the new offering is what appears to be a lack of a kick-start.  Don’t fret 50cc 2 stroke scooter lovers, the 50cc Zuma will still be available for all your Ipone and Motul burning needs. The scooter that started off known as the BW back in 1990 has come a long way.

No Dragsters, No Rollercraft, Few Surprises

Last Friday Steve Guzman from The Scooter Scoop and Italjet USA announced some sad news. They have decided to “…re-evaluate our requirements for the current season,”. Their press release quoted on The Scooter Scoop cited the lack of the new Italjet products, such as the Dragster and Rollercraft. Steve went on to explain some issues with the development of the new lines. Apparently Italjet just didn’t have the capabilities to build or find partners to build the new bikes.  Unfortunately, this resulted in Steve leaving the company effective May, 30th.  Interestingly, the Amarcord was cited, originally shown as a prototype back in September, 2001 (yes, almost 7 years ago), as one of the scooter designs that didn’t get off the ground but Italjet has already diluted the name and put it on a Mainland China-made bike of dubious appeal.

This sad news goes beyond a good guy like Steve Guzman having to find a new job. It demonstrates again how difficult it will be for any non-fully established firm to ever create something new. It would be great to see an upstart make a great new design from scratch and bring it to the masses. But that scenario is probably not likely in the current environment. We very sincerely wish the best of luck to Steve and Italjet USA. That stated, to the latter I suggest no more ‘coming soon’ news until trucks leave your warehouse on their way to dealers.

Aussies: goodbye PX, hello $10K MP3

The Courier-Mail in Australia reports Piaggio has shipped their last containerload of Vespa PX scooters to Australia. We reported that Vespa PX production effectively ended in December, 2006, though the U.S. received 2007 models (likely manufactured in 2006) and a 30th-anniversary limited edition of 1000 white PXes was released last October in Europe. It’s unclear whether the anniversary and Aussie-market PXes were leftover stock from the 2006 batch, or a later production run.

Also from that story: after a recent AU$1000 price drop, the price of an MP3 250 in Australia is close to US$10,000. I’ll never complain about U.S. scooter prices again.

GTS 250 Super to U.S.?

The talk on Modern Vespa suggests the U.S. will get a Vespa GTS 250 Super, and not the 300, though it may eventually come. (thanks for the link, John!) Since the early days of the Vespa, Piaggio’s often brought popular models to the U.S. long after they’d become old news in Europe. Sure, our requirements are different and our market is smaller, but after Colaninno’s pre-IPO talk of making America a top priority, it still feels like we’re getting Piaggio’s leftovers. Most Piaggio dealers report that popular bikes in popular colors are barely trickling in, while PiaggioUSA tries to dump older and less-desirable models.

Lambretta Pato commercial

A TV commercial for the European-market “Lambretta” Pato (aka the Lance Milan, ZNen ZN151T-F, Flyscooter LaVie, etc.), not to be confused with the Lambretta International Uno and Due sold in the U.S., or an actual Lambretta. The only thing sadder than a Chinese Lambretta is putting end credits on a commercial on YouTube. (Via motoblog.it.)