Modern Vespa

We just took delivery yesterday and the seat won't open with the remote. We can hear the sound but nothing happens and pulling up on the seat shows it's still latched.

I searched and found clues to open from inside the boot, but couldn't figure it out - there seems to be something loose in there though.

I took a photo with a hand mirror - the red thing seems loose or broken.

Any clues/help?

EDIT - UPDATE -

I've been playing with this some more and it's clear the cable release (red end) is detached from whatever it is supposed to pull. Time to head off to the repair shop I guess. :-/ I was able to open the seat manually after some experimentation on where to push.

No need to take it to the shop as the same thing happened to me shortly after I got my MP3. I couldn't figure out how to reattach the cable so I ended up removing the latch that is held on by two screws. Once you have the latch out you will be able to see how the cable attaches. Reattach the cable and then reinstall the latch.

To open the seat from the rear hatch just move the silver peg looking item that is in your picture located near the red/orange clip. That should release the latch so you can open the seat.

Maybe someone else with more experience has a better idea, but that worked for me.

Thanks - that did the trick simple and easy - just two screws to remove the latch, slip the cable back into the slot in the peg, and done!

Glad it worked!

Same thing happened to me around a few months ago. I gave up trying to fix it and just reach in through the "doggy carrier" and open it that way. I will go out and try the easy fix. Thanks for the info

Just noticed that all of us having this problem are in southern Fl. Is it something in the water?

Quick thank you to Spudster
Bin w/out the seat release for months as I figured a cable broke. Just did your instructions and 2 screws and 1min later I'm back in business

Yea, no more fishing around through the truck to try and open the seat!

Thank you for the advice. Just bought a used 400 yesterday. This seems to be the only problem with it. Drove it a 100 miles just to see what would happen when the dust was knocked off. After we reached an agreement on how she likes to be handled, I could not have been more impressed. This little lady is like a good wife, gives you every thing you need if treated right.

Never had a problem with my seat lock, but after reading so many posts about keys being locked-in or the latch mechanism failing, I decided to do a little mod.

I removed the latch and added a short length of thin cord from an old light pull-switch to the release lever, leaving the free end hanging just out of sight behind the left-hand rear trim.

If the worst happens, I can reach up under the panel and pull the cord to release the seat.

Thanks to others who posted the solution to the (thought to be broken) seat latch on the MP3. It’s nearly impossible to see and work out how to reattach but by removing the 2 large visible screws to release the latch, as suggested by others, the whole mechanism drops to become visible and it’s easy to see how to reattach it. It wasn’t broken just detached when I had to manually open it after a flat battery. Thanks for the advice. 5 minute fix.

No. Not to worry jkessel. The same thing happend to me with my old MP3 and I live in Germany. So it can´t be the water.