Scooter Quality Table
Just like with everything else you can buy… scooters also come in different levels of quality, even though many look very much alike. Having sold over 1,000 new units and worked on over 1,000 units that were bought somewhere else we can tell you with absolute confidence that the biggest factor in determining the quality of a scooter is its manufacturer.
At Carolina Fun Machines we believe that an informed buyer will end up being much happier in the long run than one that isn’t.
So we have put together this Scooter Quality Table and
Scooter Buyers Guide to help you understand the important things to consider and the proper questions to ask when buying your next scooter.
Low Quality - Poor Value Scooters
Scooters in this category are of very low quality and are sold at hardware stores, used car dealers, flea markets, out of people's homes and garages and your lower end scooter dealers. The manufacturers and importers of these scooters will sell their scooters to anyone. These manufacturers are basically dumping their low quality scooters on uneducated American consumers and don't care if the dealer can service the units or stocks parts for them. Depending on where you purchase one of these scooters they will be sold as is with no warranty or a very short 30 day warranty that covers only a few parts.
From our experience of working on over a thousand of these low quality scooters they start having major problems within just a few hundred miles and on average last only between 3,000 to 4,000 miles depending on the manufacturer.
A Side Note: I had a person email me that had owned one of these brands telling me that his lasted 6,000 miles before it was completely worn out. After explain to him how to read his odometer he realized it had only last 3,228 miles. His odometer tracked his distance driven in kilometers and not miles so his 6,000 kilometers converted to only 3,228 actual miles.
- Bashan
- Chuani
- Duster
- Eagle
- Gator
- JCL
- Jmstar
- Jonway
- Longbo
- Peace Sports
- Roketa
- SMM
- Sunny
- Super Motor
- TaoTao
- Velocity
- VIP
- Yamati
- Zongshen
Medium Quality - Good Value Scooters
The importers and distributors of this group of scooters are more particular about who sells their product. They require that the seller has a business with all the proper state, county and city licenses and permits as well as a service and parts department to honor the warranty that comes with their scooter. When purchased from a local licensed dealer they will come with a 1 year parts and labor warranty.
From our experience of having sold and worked on over 1,000 of these medium quality scooters they last, with proper maintenance, between 12,000 to 14,000 miles depending on brand before any major work has to be done on them.
- BMS (Znen)
- CPI
- Eton
- Keeway
- Lance Powersports (SYM China Factory)
- Motofino
- Puma Cycles (Znen)
- Tomos
- Znen
High Quality - Exceptional Value Scooters
The importers and distributors of this group are very particular about who sells their product. They require that the seller has an established business with all the proper licenses and permits as well as a service and parts department to honor the warranty that comes with the scooter. When purchased from a local licensed dealer they will come with a 2 year parts and labor warranty.
From our experience of selling and working on these high quality scooters they last, with proper maintenance, between 30,000 to 60,000 miles depending on brand before any major work has to be done on them.
- Adly
- Aprilia
- CFMOTO
- Genuine
- Honda
- Kymco
- Piaggio
- SYM (Tiawan Factory)
- Vespa
- Yamaha