Our guest this episode is Conrad Macy. Conrad has been involved in the San Diego scooter scene since the early 80’s and operated his own independent scooter repair service in town. Conrad talks about everything from his first scooter, to building a water piston engine, to working on monkey space missions in Russia! You heard us right, “monkey space missions in Russia”!
People often come to us because they want a really fun scooter to ride around town. You’ll get no argument from us that scooters are fun and practical, but they’re also really affordable to own and owning one makes a lot of economic sense. This article examines the economics of owning a scooter.
Most of the scooters in our shop have fuel economies of 70 to 90 miles per gallon. At the lower end, a Vespa GTS 300 will still get around 60 mpg while on the other side a Piaggio Fly 150 will get around 100 mpg. It’s true that scooters can help you save money on gas, because you’re going three to four times the distance per gallon. In other words, someone with an average car and a gas bill of $250 per month can end up spending around $50 per month on a scooter.
Scooters do not come with the high insurance premiums that cars and motorcycles do, so you can usually get full coverage for a scooter in California for around $200 to $250 per year. Compare that with around $600 to $1000 per year for a car and that’s a significant difference as well.
Maintenance costs of any vehicle are dependent on the model, annual mileage, and age. In comparison to modern cars and motorcycles, scooters are relatively simple machines built from affordable components. Labor time for repairs are much less than similar repairs on a motorcycle or car. Please call our Service Department at 619-280-1718 xt. 605 with any specific questions you might have.
Parking a scooter is pretty easy and scooters can be parked in a variety of locations, which means that you can drive somewhere on a scooter and not have to worry about where you’re going to park! For local college students in San Diego, we’ve heard that parking a scooter versus a car at their local campus ended up saving them around $2,000 per year.
With all of these facts in mind, one can see that a scooter is a cost-effective and practical way to get around. They’re also really fun too!