Modern Vespa

Morning all! I'm still on the hunt for my wheels and came across a 2006 GTS 250 with about 21k miles on it for 2k.

I understand miles are also about how well the maintenance etc was done, but how many miles is too many miles?

The scooter looks immaculate and the owner says it was well maintained.

Thoughts?

I would jump on that, maybe try offering 1800. I wouldnt ask less than 2K for mine at 66k miles.

Sounds good to me. I'd be more interested in maintenance quality than miles in this situation....should have quite a bit of life in it yet!

Interesting looking seat cover....

Yeah that's gonna be the question. When I go to check it out is there anything specific I should look for? Other than the fact it runs etc has. Evidence of oil somewhere, etc?

Maybe ask to see if he has any records of what work was done to it, like oil changes, brakes, belts and slider?

I bought my GTS250 with 22000 miles on the clock. I'd buy that one too if it wasn't black.

Right off the bat, pull the dipstick. Look at the color and the level of the oil. Remove the right knee pad (might be a torx bit, only do if engine is cool) and look at the color and level of the coolant. See if he has any receipts for work done. Bring a little allen wrench and remove one of the brake fluid reservoir covers. Clean the reservoir cover with a clean rag and remove the two philips screws. Look at the color and level of the brake fluid. Slide your fingernail across both rotors. Are they grooved heavily, does your nail catch at the edge of the rotor. I'm giving you ammo to get the price reduced. The scooter looks in good shape and well loved. The miles don't scare me. That seems to be a good price.

Looks like he is down to $1,850, Go get it!

I'll put a horse in this race

15-18 would be rate

But remember, you're buying a fourteen year old bike.

Back in the day, my dad always said: brakes, tires and a battery when ya buy it.

So expect to spend about 1k beyond purchase price.

And look for any obvious signs of leakage, oil or more importantly coolant

-g

Yea, if that was in Central NY instead of AZ I might be tempted to offer $1,800 myself.

Would not even mind the black color as it would look nice sitting between my 1988 Black Sportster an my 1982 Black XS650.

Thanks for all the input all. Just waiting on $ to pull the trigger! Appreciate the heads up on things to look for!

Most important. Does he have a legitimate title and I underscore the word legitimate?

Yes! that would be a major thing to be sure of! Sometimes the paper work is many times more important than the condition of a machine! Rebuilding something like the brakes could be cheaper than the cost of getting paperwork straightened out in some states.

I am aware of several 250 and 300 GTS models that easily got to 50,000 miles with no issue.

A couple of those needed major engine work once they got around 60,000.

I have a GT that made it to 76,000 miles on it's original engine.

That one now has 30,000 miles on the new engine.

And I have another GT with 34,000 miles.

So, 21,000 is nothing as long as the maintenance was followed reasonably well.

I wouldn't hesitate to purchase this one.

Bill

And it must have the brick-red master key, needed to make duplicates.

Ask if fuel pump has been replaced. Early gts has fuel pump issues. Piaggio issued recall. About 1hour shop time plus new pump

Miguel

I am looking at one big clue that no one is commenting about! Look at the seat! It looks like it has a lumpy crappy cover over who knows what! Has the scooter lived outside in the sun. What else is compromised from sitting out? Just saying! If this is the level of care that this bike has gotten, how are the tires, hoses, speedo bezel, etc!

It could be the current owner didn't like the riding comfort of the original saddle and decided to get it re-covered but yes, it definitely needs checking out. Also the speedo display, check it is nice and clear, many of the early 250's LCD displays suffer from sun damage. You can repair them, but if it shows signs of deterioration, it could be a lever to get the price down.

As soon as some dumbass pulls out tools to take something I'm selling apart, the show's over.
While people are filling the op's head with nonsense about what to do or ddmand, and paranoid fantasies about legitimate titles, because of that international band of n'er do wells running across your lawn at night and cranking out bastard titles for used vespas,, someone else is cashing their Covid check to go buy this bike. Unless the entire left side is missing, this bike won't be for sale long. It's a $2000 vespa that runs at the start of riding season. It's an Italian motor vehicle. It wasn't particularly reliable when they made it. It's probably less reliable now. But there's a lot more than $2000 worth of joie de vivre left in it. I would buy it if I had two grand and wanted a Vespa.

Haha too true. Unfortunately this 250 and another 250 I was looking at both sold before I could get the $$ together.

Lesson? Don't look until I have the money in hand lol.

It's that time of year. Another trap to avoid is asking on forums what something is worth. You will get someone who owns the same year, make and model telling you that, after you do all the unusual things they suggest and make out of kilter demands, the bike someone else is selling is worth about $3000 less than the one they own. It's weird. Another thing that doesn't matter when you are buying a used Vespa is KBB or NADA value. Most used Vespas are worth well above book value. Color does affect the value quite a bit. A red or black one will sell faster and hold value best.
Denitely keep looking while you wait . You are getting a good sense of your local market and will have a better idea of what it takes to own what you wany when you're ready.
Don't let the online nonsense about needing complete service records or strategies that involve telling the seller a bike that starts and runs well is going to need a laundry list of new parts to get the price down keep you from acting when the opportunity presents itself and you are ready.

The other deciding factor is for about three Pryce I've been seeing the older 250s go for I could save a tad more and get a new piaggio liberty 150. So that's another thing in ponderimg now.

Make a list of everything good about owning a Vespa, and another list of everything bad about owning a Vespa, then burn the list of everything good. Once you remove the crunchy metal outer shell, you are left with a two wheeled Fiat. Have you ever met a happy long term Fiat owner who didn't seem just a little nuts?

My 2009 GTS 250 has over 140K kilometers on the clock. But I swapped out the engine at 125K.

As others have said, your bigger concern is the other things that can go wrong on an older scoot... not the engine; that's bulletproof (assuming it got regular service).

Funny, but why so angry?

Between my wife and me, we have had three Fiats over the years.

I had a 1970ish 124 Sport Coupe, she had a late 1970's Brava.

Together we owned a Uno of unknown vintage.

All were fun to drive but not very dependable.

In our last few days of owning the Uno, we drove it to Cup Match.

As we approached a parking space, it stopped running. We pushed into the space and had fun for a few hours.

When we came back it didn't start, so we took a bus and taxi home and called for a tow.

It was a broken timing belt.

It is always something.

But I love my Vespas.

They are perfect.

Mostly.

Bill

After a bit over five years' ownership, I managed to cross a milestone of sorts today with Melody::

That's interesting Bill.

The highest mileage GTS250 I've seen (I serviced it) had over 82,000 trouble free miles on it. All it had replaced, apart from normal everyday service items and consumables was a clutch, water pump, and variator and driven pulleys. It had a full dealer service history. The highest mileage GTS300 I've serviced had over 92,000 miles. Again, it had the usual replacements as per the above 250, but an extra variator and I replaced the camchain as a precaution as the original one was wearing. There are plenty of GTS bikes that go 100,000 miles over here with no rebuilding of the main engine components. I took a chance on rethreading the crank variator side for someone on a high mileage GTS300. It worked ok and was done in situ, not easy on such a hardened component, but I had the tools handy. I had to take the thread size down a whole 1mm and re-cut. Actually made a new size nut from scratch to be an exact fit. It isn't something I would recommend, you need to be very competent at engineering on such a highly stressed component, and it was difficult to do but the bike went for many thousands of miles more without trouble. 18mths later he traded it in for another new GTS300 on which he now has 40,000 miles in 4 years. This one should go much further as we do the belt and rollers at 8k miles, reducing the wear on the crank threads by 50%.

My wife and I, back in the day had an Fiat Uno 70 SX. It had the 1300cc 4cyl petrol engine. It was injected not carbed. We had that little motor for 9 years from new and put 140,000 trouble free miles on it. It didn't rust, never broke down and ran like a top. Averaged around 49mpg. After that we bought two second-hand Fiat vans with about 6k miles on the clock to run alongside two brand new Ford Transits (the big ones). We kept the Fiats for 10 years until they had around 150-160,000 miles on them. We got rid of the Transits with only 60,000 miles on the clock as they rusted terrible everywhere and broke down on various occasions (in spite of regular dealer servicing). We replaced them with more Fiats. Never had trouble with any of our Fiats. All dealer serviced by a very good Fiat dealer.

A palindrome.