Background

While considering the purchase of a motor scooter I was struck by the great price advantage of Chinese scooters over those from other countries. I read everything I could find about them for about a year and noted that consensus was not to buy one on Ebay. Obviously they are not up to the design or quality standards of the Italians or even the Japanese, but, I wondered, how bad can they be? So in the interest of hard, objective information I bought one on Ebay. The main reasons that people are advised not to buy them on Ebay is that if there are problems with it, there is not a local dealer to repair it for you and there is the possibility of not being able to get parts in a timely way, or even at all. I believe I can make whatever repairs may be necessary. I’ll keep my fingers crossed about the parts. A major factor in my decision to purchase a scooter on Ebay was price. Chinese scooters on Ebay sell for half (or less) of what a clone Chinese scooter sells for at a dealer. The basic engine design in these scooters (known as a GY6) is the same, and the external appearance is the same. The purveyors of the “brand name” Chinese scooters insist theirs are higher quality even though they appear to be identical. Considering the price difference I find it hard to believe that the quality differences (if any) could justify paying an extra $1000. Hopefully my saga will prove that either: a) paying the extra money to buy a “name brand” Chinese clone scooter is worth the money spent, or b) the quality difference is nonexistant or very small and it’s better to save the money and do a little work yourself.