Shorter and cheaper trip
The warmer weather and the soon-to-be-set summer have brought back not only motorcycles but also their smaller family members – scooters – to the streets. Car drivers and other road users should remain vigilant, as these low-powered vehicles may appear on the roads in increasing numbers. While their main purpose until now has been entertainment, scooters have recently been increasingly used for work.
A modern person can no longer imagine a day without a smartphone, which helps save time and sometimes even money. We can see similar trends in the transport market. Previously, a scooter was often an expensive gift for a teenager on his birthday or an incentive for good academic results. Now the circle of consumers is much wider.
The main criteria are minimal operating costs and unmatched maneuverability on busy city streets. In addition, for many it helps to solve the problem of lack of parking spaces, especially in central parts of cities. As a result, not only pizza delivery people, but also representatives of other professions are eagerly looking for vehicles that can reach their destination several times faster and several times cheaper than by car.
Buyers have become accustomed to choosing more carefully
Previously, customers had to prove that at least one scooter in the company's office would significantly speed up work and save on transportation costs. Now, many customers come back and repeat the same arguments.
Car drivers' tolerance for two-wheeled vehicles is gradually growing, so you shouldn't be surprised to see a man in a suit or a woman in high heels safely driving a scooter on the streets.
The interviewee, who lists the changes in the culture and image of scooters, notes that when purchasing a new vehicle, one no longer has to open one's wallet very wide. Previously, many people chose exclusively Western, but not necessarily new, scooters, but now more and more buyers are looking at products from Eastern countries. It is said that in places where scooters are almost ahead of cars in popularity, the quality bar for products is constantly being raised, and at the same time its control is being tightened.
Large shopping centers have done a "disservice" by offering a fairly wide range of cheap Chinese scooters. Many do not even want to look at them, and those who bought them soon encountered problems with spare parts and service. However, buyers have already become accustomed to choosing and evaluating manufacturers based on the quality of their work, the warranty provided and other aspects.
From vacationers to policemen
To substantiate our words about cheap operation, we give an eloquent example: if we tried to assemble a Western scooter piece by piece from separately ordered individual parts, its price would increase by about seven times. Meanwhile, the price of a scooter made in Eastern countries remains almost unchanged, even if we had to build it individually from the frame to the smallest spare parts.
Every year, one and a half million new classic-style scooters are produced for the European market. Of the sixty models produced, half are certified in Europe, so as much as two-thirds of the total production, i.e. about a million scooters, are sold annually in the Old Continent. Most of them are in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France and Italy.
Italian design and European-standard quality are the main advantages that allow it to compete on an equal footing with Western products. The manufacturer owns one of the world's most famous scooter brands, Lambretta, which goes hand in hand with the iconic Vespa.