Why is there so much of a price difference between scooters?

Question

Hi I am confused as to why a newish scooter would cost me about £1600 cheapest, but yet on ebay they are selling them for about £600 brand new and taxed and registered. Is it only because they are not the best brand names? Are they as good as the more expensive ones? Are they really c**p and only fools would buy them? I am intrigued by this phenomena. Does anyone know the difference? Thanks Sue

Answer 1

ordepends on the engine speed e.g

50cc is cheapest and slow 250cc is expensive but whizzy

Answer 2

They're all Chinese bikes on Ebay. Unfortunately a lot of Chinese manufacturers suffer from poor build quality and reliability problems. Also in the UK the spares back up is appalling. I think only Baotian have a proper spares back up in the UK. However you can get good bikes as well. I myself have a Jonway 250 which really flies. Unfortunately I have no spares back up if something goes wrong.

So at the end of the day you 'pays yer money and takes yer chance'.

Answer 3

Becuase the ones you are probably seeing are chinese brands such as SunL or Rocketa.  The reason they are so cheap is because within a month of purchase, you'll be purchasing parts and having it serviced.  You should definately stick to reputable manufacturers such as Kymco, Vespa, Piaggio, Geniune, SYM, and eve Yamaha and Honda.  These scooters will actually be cheaper in the long run and you'll end up having a good experience instead of a bad one.

http://www.scootforum.com

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Answer 4

Its the same with cars, different brands get higher prices. I would buy one that has a good track record.

Answer 5

Basically some are good, some are bad.

Generally Anything from China should be avoided, they cannot make anything with more than 1 component that will last longer than the warranty.

Stick with well known makes, Piaggio, Honda etc. even classic Vespa's and Lambretta's are well serviced for parts but do fetch a similar price to some new.

Personally I like the Honda(Phantom?) but the bars are a bit wide.

Best scooter/moped of al time has got to be the Honda step through 90cc.  20Milloin Pizza deliveries cannot be wrong!

Answer 6

different:

brands, engine sizes, ages

Answer 7

I bought a new Honda scooter for £2,500 even though I'd seen the cheap Chinese ones on Ebay.  They have a very poor build quality, you often have to final assemble them yourself and many nuts and bolts start rusting from day one.  It is not unusual that nine months later they are cream crackered, cannot be serviced and no-one wants to buy one - so it's £600 for a risky 12 months of riding (probably)

On the other hand after 12 months my safer, regularly serviced, properly built Honda may not have depreciated in value much more than the cost of the Chinese bike.

Safety was my primary concern.  My local Honda dealer doesn't want angry injured bikers on his door, but there is no real recourse to the Chinese bikes and I really don't want to entrust my safety into anything but a quality build and certainly nothing that I had to put the front wheel on and put in all the fluids etc.  The front wheel comes off on a car I'm in at 50mph that's one thing, the front wheel comes off at 50mph on a bike that's completely different.

Answer 8

Dear Sue, I recently purchased a Roketa Bali 150cc scooter on-line from scooterus.com. This dealer is located in Connecticut. The mans name is John Dikov. He seemed very honest and sincere. He was very helpful to me.The transaction went very smoothly and the price was great. It was $1,299.00 that included shipping to my door. I have seen the same scooter on other sites for as much as $2,500.00 plus shipping. I got a great deal on a great scooter. Well, It's been great so far (knock on wood)

I had never heard of Roketa before, But so far it has been a great scooter. It has an alarm system, remote start and remote turnoff, and an FM radio. I was a little afraid of buying something so expensive on the inter-net, but I said a prayer and put it in GODS hands. Like I said it all worked out. I am very happy with my new scooter. Remember that the prices of the scooters on e-bay are plus shipping I think. Anyway good luck with your purchase, I hope that my info. has been helpful. Sincerely, Dan Morgan [e-mail]

Take care, and may GOD bless.

Answer 9

The really cheap ones fall apart and the really expensive ones you are paying for the name. Look at Kymco and Hyosung they are good scooters and not all that expensive