Gas Scooters

I want to buy my husband a gas powered scooter for a birthday present. We live only 5 miles from where he works, so I thought it would be a great way to save on gas ... However, I have no idea who made scooters other than the Honda Silver Wing 2008 ($ 8.600) ... Does anyone have any suggestions??

Here are some suggestions:
Consider the size of your engine. If you do not plan on touring the highways on your scooter, 150 cc would probably be good for your 5 mile shuttle. In fact, you may be able to get away with a DC 50 if the speed limit does not exceed 35 mph. Yeah, the label may say that the top speed on a DC 50 is 45 mph, but you really want to "ground," for an extended period of time? What's great about a CC 50 is that you do not need to register in some states.

New or vintage:
New would be more reliable. Probably more difficult to fix with electronics. Most new scooters have automatic transmission. Now, one day, a scooter is a style like an old vintage Vespa or a modern style and resembles a wasp.
Vintage is fun, but if you have a Vespa, the parts are very difficult to find. Most vintage scooters manual removal.

Price:
If you were to buy that $ 8600 Honda, it would take a long time to recover the price of gas savings. I do not know what kind of car you have, but for the sake of calculations, a scooter has about 2 gallons of gasoline and can get 40-80 mpg depending on the size of your engine.

Some brands Scooter:
Vespa - probably the name of scooters. Manufactured by Piaggio. They have many models available from a 50cc to 250cc, and range from $ 3,000 - $ 8,000 depending on the engine size and features you want. I have an old Vespa P series. The good thing is that Vespa, you can fix yourself with some knowledge of engines and a manual Haynes. If you go vintage, however, I remain with a P-series, because they have turn signals, and parts are readily available. Of course, stay away from "Viet Bodger," ill restored Vespas Vietnamese that look really pretty on the Internet.

I know more about Vespa, but I heard good things about other brands:

Genuine Scooters - an Indian company that produces similar patterns to other companies. Their Stella is an exact replica of a P series Vespa. Their parts are interchangeable. For a while, some Vespas were manufactured in India for the design has spawned many clones. Their rattlesnake is similar to a Honda Ruckus.

Kymco - I've heard that they are very well made. They have a more modern look. Several sizes of engines.

Schwinn also make scooters. I do not know anything other than what I have seen people win them as prizes on game shows.

Tank - Chinese scooter. Really cheap in price. Probably the best way to really save gas and recover the cost in a short period of time. If you go this route, make sure you buy in a store. And make sure the store has a shop in the back that the fix when they break. Place Tank scooter scooters in my area bought extra just for the parties.

Basically, do research, shopping, visit to assess your lifestyle. I hope this helps.

Looking to Kymco, SYM, Genuine Scooter Company, Piaggio, Vespa and. There are others that are well defined in the site below.

http://www.scootforum.com
Sign up today for great scooter resources such as downloadable owners and repair manuals, tips and tutorials!

Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki are the best. Find a motorcycle dealer in your area. They should wear these brands. Do not buy Chinese scooters that some car sales lot. Chinese products are a waste of money.

Vespa
Burgmans Suzuki
Yamaha
Other Honda
Aprillia

Look on craigslist for a used