Category: Vespa

The Vespa Experiment

Vespanomics is in motion for the Vespa Experiment, in which three singer-songwriters are in the midst of a Vespa tour of California nightclubs and coffee bars. A solid idea, everyone loves acoustic folk peppered with pseudo-environmental PiaggioUSA talking points, until you hear raging bullshit like (take it away, Paolo!):

“If the 69% of Americans who own two or more cars would just switch one set of four wheels for two, the reduction in fuel consumption, emissions, congestion and cost would be significant – not years from now, but right now,”

So all we need to do is immediately and permanently change the transportation habits of a mere 69% of Americans? If only America’s 21 million 2-or-more-car households* bought a scooter (a Vespa, natch), we’d se a significant change?

Am I cynical? Am I a big hater? No. That’s just a ridiculous dream.

Piaggio sold 15 million Vespas worldwide between 1946 and 1996. VespaUSA bragged a few years ago that with new plants in Brazil and Asia, they could supply the American market with 1 million scooters a year, even that was a pipe dream, seeing as how the MIC reported that only 222,000 scooters were sold in the U.S. 2008, the best year for scooter sales in decades.

(Feel free to quote those numbers if you go to one of the shows.)

Also, here’s a bit more detail on Vespa’s Pandora music channels (is that ANOTHER ad agency?) and news that Vespa’s doing a promo tie-in with that sad new Da Vinci Code-prequel.

*The exact number here is arguable, but we’re probably being more conservative than Timoni. First, we’re assuming he’s talking about households, not individuals, it’s ludicrous to think 65% of Americans own two cars personally. We found stats citing 21 million multi-car households in the U.S in 2005, and went with that. If Timoni’s “69%” was applied to all US households (105.5 million in 2000), that would mean 72.5 million multi-car households. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and stick with 21 million rather than 72.5 million. Or! Maybe he meant “69% of the Americans” rather than “the 69% of Americans,” that would get him down to only 15 million scooters. The gist remains the same.

Piaggio targets Continental Airlines

airportNo, Roberto Colannino isn’t looking to acquire another airline,* Piaggio USA is marketing directly to Continental employees in Newark, NJ as part of a Continental Airlines alternative-transportation program featuring designated scooter parking and giveaways. It’s actually a pretty neat idea, though it might be tough to implement on a wider scale.

*It’s easy to forget that the Vespa’s roots are in aviation. Piaggio Aero (an entirely separate company, but still bearing the Piaggio name) still makes airplanes. It’s odd that with all of the news about Colannino’s acquisition of Alitalia, that factoid never came up.

Tuk Tuk USA lineup features… Ape Calessino?

Ape Calessino or Tuk Tuk USA?

Jeremy Korzeniewski of Autoblog reported today that Tuk Tuk USA has “officially been granted both DOT and EPA approval for its line of Mitsubishi-powered three-wheelers.” Jeremy’s clearly a big tuk-tuk fan, he’s been following Tuk Tuk USA for about year, and he also posted an elegy for BajajUSA’s three-wheeer.
Continue reading “Tuk Tuk USA lineup features… Ape Calessino?”

POC’s morning-show charm

POCphil and POCmerritt on Cleveland’s That’s Life with Robin Swoboda. Could two people be more charismatic ambassadors of scooterdom? Throw in POCrenee and you’ve got a hit reality show, one that I get to watch live, every time he’s around. People accuse me of being a Phil Waters groupie, but Phil’s met African-American preachers, racist skinheads, models, racing superstars, cops, soccer moms, hillbilly gun nuts, Tom Jones, and even my parents, and charmed the pants off of all of them, often literally. Who could blame me for loving the guy, his wife, and everything they stand for?

Note that even the best scooter dealers tend to bend the truth a little (Genuine Buddies start around $1999, but that’s a top-of-the-line Black Jack) but props to Phil for drilling home the safe-and-legal message right from the start.

MotorcycleUSA’s “Vespanomics” conclusions

We mentioned last spring that MotorcycleUSA was planning on commuting on a Vespa for a few months to see if PiaggioUSA’s “Vespanomics” held up. We just noticed they posted their conclusions last December, which match what we’ve been saying all along: It’s hard to justify the cost of a new scooter (including maintenance, insurance, and) if you already own a car, but it’s a great substitute for a new car or second car, for a single person without kids. They didn’t really explore the ecological benefits, which are usually overstated, but worth mentioning, but they do mention that it’s a fun way to get around, which we think is the biggest selling point of a scooter.

Vespa Loves You, Man

Apparently there’s a Vespa in that new Paul Rudd movie. So VespaUSA, finger placed firmly on the pulse of their immature-frat-boy-comedy target market, is running a contest. I’m trying to fit in a Vampire Weekend joke, but it’s not coming.

UPDATE: Did I say “finger on the pulse?” They’ve got a contest on MySpace. too. You might remember MySpace, it’s an old website from back when Vampire Weekend was popular.

Pinasco Revisits The “Swinging 70s and 80s”

et3biancaSeveral weeks ago the performance tuning house of Andrea Pinasco announced the addition of a throw-back exhaust for smallframe Vespas. The exhaust is of the ET3 ‘banana’ variety with the addition of some special cosmetic touches. The silencer section of the exhaust is painted with an eye-catching, white, high-temp, enamel paint. Additionally the classic Andrea Pinasco logo is applied and is claimed to be able to withstand the test of time. A perfect addition to your ET3 or 50 Special with full UTAH accessory kit.

Scooter (back in) the Sticks

Last spring I posted that Steve Williams of Scooter in the Sticks had decided to stop publishing his blog. Back then I pulled the site from my RSS feed and hadn’t checked it for months. Today I was surprised to find Steve’s retirement was apparently short-lived, and he’s been posting regularly to the site for months. It’s embarassing how long it took me to notice, but I’m happy to see him back, and happy we have lots of his new posts to read through.