No more Aprilia Scooters in the U.S.

[inuyasha]

Hi
Im at a loss for words

What can they be thinking with that decission

Take care and ride safely my friend
Yours Hank

[qwertydude]

Originally Posted by inuyasha

Hi
Im at a loss for words

What can they be thinking with that decission

Take care and ride safely my friend
Yours Hank

Unfortunately Aprilia is already a low volume dealer in the US so it's just that much harder for them to compete. Especially with the flood of cheap Chinese scooters depressing scooter prices and simultaneously turning people off of scooters because of the perceived lack of quality.

Honda also is holding the line introducing very good models like the PCX 150 and the simplified Metropolitan with fuel injection. Yamaha is doing really well with their Zuma 125.

Couple this with even tougher emissions effectively banning 2t's making Aprilia's 2t power advantage moot and you can see why they're having such a tough time.

The thing keeping Aprilia scooters afloat overseas in Europe and Asia is that getting bigger bikes is significantly more difficult. Licensing, registration and insurance is a major expense and 50cc's avoid a lot of that over there so hopped up 50cc scooters are all over the place. And Aprilia's pretty much the Ferrari of small scooters.

Here once you get your license you can essentially buy a used 1000cc sport bike just as easily as a new 50cc scooter. They'll cost about the same. So it's also just as easy to get a 150cc scooter.

So there's multiple reasons why Aprilia just can't sell their fantastic small scooters in the US. Same reason why 250cc motorcycle selection is so bad in the US.

[kz1000st]

Sadly Aprilia is just suffering the same fate that many other motorcycle manufacturers did when the Japanese moved into Town. They all but wiped out the British bike industry. Not only are China scoots in a crate being sold out there but also Puma, Bintelli, Wolf and Lance being sold through B&M establishments for hundreds, even thousands less.

Since the amount of scooter owners are so small (motorcycles sell at a rate of 10 to one scooter) there's only so much room. There are two bright spots in this. The first is that Chinese scooter dealers like the ones I mentioned are sending feedback to the Chinese. Justin at Bintelli stated that he spends time talking to them for improvements that actually come through. This will ensure that eventually the scooters will attain solid reliability.

The second is that even though they will cost a little more than now, a person who wants to buy a 150cc scooter won't have to spend $3500 to $4800 to own one. That might assist in the growth of scooters among non-riders (Gen X, Y and Millennials) who would buy one for fuel savings. Things change, companies change and the Chinese are here to stay.

There will always be high priced brands, BMW and Harley didn't disappear in the face of the Japanese onslaught, they just might be fewer in number. Vespa isn't going anywhere for sure.