New 50cc scooters are now $575 in Florida

[vintagegarage]

I just found a bunch of ads flooding craigslist from a new offer in the Miami area:



https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mcy/d/ ... 67831.html


Yes, they are possibly junk, but my point is that if this is really true, it will now be impossibly hard to sell a cherry 2001 Honda Elite SR in Florida for more than $400.. looks like this comes with disk brakes, free top box, $575 out the door implies no dealer fee..

[eclark5483]

That's a Taotao ATM50-A1. My daughter has one. Out of the crate they are garbage. I had heavy modifications done to the engine on hers (BBK, A9 cam, new carb, Polini variator/ clutch) just because I wouldn't trust one of those even crossing the street. Acceleration is, believe it or not, worse then a poor running Spree. If you buy one, first thing to do with it, is pull the carb and toss it in the trash.

[Meatball]

Just like other junk Chinese scoots, they are mass produced and shipped unbadged to many different re-seller companies. Anyone can slap on a badge and sell it as their own brand. The cheapest possible parts, metals and machining tolerances are used in the manufacturing process resulting in an absolute hunk of trash.

The manufacturer in China makes them and sells bulk orders to re-sellers. Then the re-seller must absorb the shipping fee and add a margin to the sales price for a profit. Bottom line: The re-seller AND the manufacturer are both making a profit at the $575 sale price...so how much does it actually cost to produce one?...like $300?!?!?

Its really not a contender for selling against the Elite...or even a skateboard.

[vintagegarage]

It wouldn't surprise me to find they cost much less than that:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 823fm5whHY

[ped]

Sorry guys thumbs down on that poor quality Chinese scooter. No comparison to the elite.

[eclark5483]

Yeah, it isn't just the engines in these things that are junk, but the electrical is bad too. Defective headlights, defective switches, etc, etc.. First day we assembled my kids from the crate we had problems with the hi-lo beams and had to get a new one from eagleatv (TaoTao's American parts distributor). I paid $650 with free shipping on my kids. I was gonna buy her a Kymco at first, but decided against it because 1, she was only 14 at the time, and 2, I couldn't trust that it wouldn't get damaged, scratched, banged up, etc. So $650 seemed reasonable enough, and yep, sure enough, she has dropped it from the side stand a couple times, crashed it once (first week she got it), and had other electrical problems that I finally got fed up with trying to figure out and ended up taking to Stan at the shop to fix. All in all, I would NOT recommend anybody ever buy one unless they want to use it as a pit bike and wanna experiment with 4 stroke engines tearing them apart and making them go faster. For that, they are a cheap thrill, but there is no way they would even come close to even a POOR CONDITION 2001 Elite SR.

EDIT: Oh yeah, as for the free top box, yeah, that's garbage too, even the top box on my Sprees have a bigger capacity. You couldn't even get a half helmet in the "free" trunk. I have 2 of them sitting in my garage right now, a pink 1 and a blue 1, I couldn't give those things away. I use them as junk boxes for spare parts.

[vintagegarage]

I need to be more clear. I am not suggesting that anyone buy one of these. My point is that the average scooter buyer in Florida is too young or too stupid to care about Honda quality. If you advertise any Honda scooter for sale in Florida for $400 or more, you will get 20 or more $100 offers, as there are dozens of $100-$200 running two-year old Chinese scooters for sale on craigslist. All anyone cares about now a days, is "does it run", and if so, it is worth no more than $200. It took me 8 weeks to sell a 1988 Elite ES SB50 in extremely nice condition for $400. I see now that the reason I have so many Honda scooters is that I have been paying too much for them.. hahaha.. easy to buy, hard to sell.

[daChurchPcGuy]

This isn't going to make me popular but:

My daughter bought a pink Taotao three years ago for $699. The dealer replaced the carburetor and battery before we picked it up, his standard procedure. A couple weeks later it died, I took it back to the dealer it had a crimped fuel line. She rode it a year and wanted a bit more power so we upgraded the jug, piston, head, and camshaft. The kit cost under $100, I did some website work for them so the labor was free. The scooter is too fast now, she has to pay attention to make sure she stays under 35mph.

Battery died over the winter, she had moved in with her fiance and didn't keep it on the battery tender. Replaced the battery, switched over to Mobil 1 synthetic.

That's it, it starts, runs, stops and costs almost nothing to run.

I have made a decent amount of money buying them used and not running. Drain the gas, put in a carburetor and battery, sell it for $300. Once in a while I have to replace the ignition. CDI, coil and new plug cost around $25. I don't bother troubleshooting the parts, it takes 20 minutes to take off the plastics and replace everything. The worst repair I've run into so far was a knucklehead that had installed a 79cc upgrade with no valve clearance. I paid $150 for it, it's my son's daily rider. I usually replace the carb on it every spring if he forgets to run it dry.

I bought 8 hybrid scooters from a guy a couple years ago. Yes, gas, electric, or hybrid drive modes. After wasting my time getting the hybrid and electrical side working I decided to simply sell them as gas scooters. I didn't lose a dime but I learned to stay away from the Chinese electrics.

Honda and Yamaha scooters still get a premium around here, it just takes longer to sell them. The Chinese scooters are cheap and sell fast. If you want to make money fast the Chinese scooters are the way to go. If you want a quality scooter you just pay a bit more. I have an old Yamaha Chappy project waiting in the wings, I'll dump a Chinese scooter and keep the Chappy in my fleet once I get around to it.

I learned how to ride on a Japanese bike back in the 70s, I'll always keep one around, but I've had good luck with the Chinese crap. Use good gas and oil, tighten everything on a regular basis and you're good to go.

[Meatball]

Nobody here cares who is popular anyways...none of us are.

Chinese scooters have their place. Theyre great for re-selling for profit if the margin is there. However, if your profit is a mere $150/scooter, youd need to sell 7-10 every week to make a decent living. The market isnt that hot to move that many....maybe in China?

For my personal ride, my trust is in Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, etc...Chinese scoots have longevity and reliability issues and I dont like the idea of being stranded 50miles from home with a dead bike. Sure, a failure happens with every motor eventually but less often with Japenese built.

[daChurchPcGuy]

Chinese scooters have their place. Theyre great for re-selling for profit if the margin is there. However, if your profit is a mere $150/scooter, youd need to sell 7-10 every week to make a decent living. The market isnt that hot to move that many....maybe in China?

The local dealer sells Scooters and ATVs, I'm pretty sure the ATVs have a much higher profit margin. They've been around for years so they must be doing something right. Plus, like the auto dealerships, service has the highest profit margins and Chinese scooters that aren't maintained properly need lots of service.

I sell a few a season to cover my bad habit of things following me home. I do much better selling used snow blowers in the winter.

[noiseguy]

I spent several months flipping bikes in AR when I was between gigs. What I like about working on JP / EU bikes is that everything's high quality... materials, metals, fasteners. You can usually just clean things and get them going with no new parts required. China bikes... everything you touch breaks and you need new parts. From the buy side (acquisition) people wanted as much for broken China bikes as Hondas/etc, so there was no savings there, and I could sell the bikes for more money. I think if I'd gotten into fixing China bikes I'd have found a direct source and bought parts in advance in bulk (carbs, US-produced fasteners, whatever else commonly breaks) and do exactly what you're describing here in terms of replacing commonly trashed parts.

[Paul123]

Are they still selling?

[vintagegarage]

Yes, sort of.. normal everyday price is $699, they were $599 during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weeks. I haven't seen $575 since my first post in this topic

50s under $700
https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mcd/d/ ... 69556.html

150s under $1,000
https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mcd/d/ ... 45490.html

[vintagegarage]

Now $500 new-in-the-crate this week in Miami. I'm not saying anyone should buy one. However, in the age of disposable phones, and one year upgrades to most electronics, very few new buyers care if their new $500 scooter will last more than three years. These are killing the resale value of quality used scooters. On the plus side, if you are looking to buy a used Honda scooter to ride and not re-sell, Honda used prices have been coming down steadily because of the cost of the these, and there are a lot of good deals now on used Hondas. I bought a like new 2017 low mileage used Peace Sports 50 for $400 two months ago, just to educate myself these Chinese scooters, and the quality is not as bad as I was expecting. I put a $30 new carb on it, and a new battery, so my first cost is getting close to $500. After researching new prices more carefully, I clearly paid too much for it. However, it starts instantly on the first spin after sitting for a week, runs well, is faster than a stock 2001 Elite SR, and parts are cheap to buy. Everything works on it, and it is a "no fuss" scooter. It basically does what you need it to do for a few years... no need to ever check the oil or ever change it unless you are using it for a daily commute, and then I guess you would ad oil if it gets low. The biggest downside is that neither the underseat storage nor the rear top box are large enough to hold my helmet. To me, that problem is "huge" and a deal breaker. I had to fabricate a helmet hook at the front of the underseat storage similar to that on a Spree to be able to use the scooter, and a helmet hook is not nearly as good as being able to store your helmet out of sight. The biggest upsides are that it has a nice opentop glove box like a Genuine Buddy, and that it can hold two people. The glovebox is good for storage of dog treats and cheeseburgers and you can access it without a key. The Peace Sports 50 is in the way in the shop now, and I am looking to give it away free to a good home, with clear Florida title in my name. It has essentially no resale value even though there is nothing wrong with it. In any event, here is today's ad:



and the ad:
https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mcd/d/ ... 14369.html

[noiseguy]

I suspected the Chinese scooters would improve in quality as purchasers got more sophisticated. Honda scooters are still expensive where I am, but I chalk it up to lack of availability.