I’ve been watching the scooter market for some time. It’s been close to two years, I would bet. With gas prices going up, up, up, and with a lot of my driving being in town, I thought a scooter would be perfect. This year, though, used scooter prices are through the roof! Last year, the $800 scooter was easy to come by. This year? No way. Even Chinese scooters were selling for $1800 at the dealership 1/2 hour from here. In fact, I was bemoaning that fact just this Monday at my Kiwanis meeting.
Today, though, one of the Kiwanians I was talking to at lunch called me. She said she saw a scooter for sale (two actually) just a few miles away. I took a little ride with JP this afternoon to take a look at it.
It was a 2007 blue and white Honda Metropolitan. I called the number on the sign. The guy said that, though it was unregistered, I could take it for a test drive if I wanted. The scooter was parked at a friends house that had good visibility to the road, and that friend had the keys. I went up and knocked.
After a two mile jaunt, I knew I really needed (!) one of these scooters. It was fun, economical, and still could travel 35 mph, even with big ol’ me on it. I talked to friend who was “selling” the bike for the owner. He told me the scooter had been on his lawn since 4pm yesterday. He said he had 4-5 people look at it yesterday, and 7 people look at it today. It had nine miles on it. It seems the lady who owned the scooter crashed it on mile two. When she did, she broke her arm and wrist. Her husband, who was on the other scooter, saw the whole thing happen. After that they decided scooters were not for them. So she had a brand new scooter, just repaired, with a total of nine miles on it.
On the ride back to the office, JP and I talked. He mentioned at the price the guy was asking, if I didn’t like it, I could sell it again and get my money back. And, since it was a Honda, it would be reliable, and parts and service should be easy to come by. I called Susan, and spoke with her. She agreed that it was a good price, it was the style I liked, and since it was local, perhaps I should spring for it.
So I did!
Even though it wasn’t registered, I drove it home. I had so much fun, it was crazy! It would maintain 30mph just about everywhere, and could get up to 40mph with a slight downhill run. There was one big hill on the way home, and it slowed down predictably then, but it was quite a big hill.
Of course, now I’ve bought a scooter, and it’s almost winter, and it’ll be raining the next two days! 🙁
