Modern Vespa

About a year ago, a Vespa dealer in Connecticut told me that the Fly 50 was now manufactured in China.
Does anybody know if that also holds true for the 2008 Fly 150?

I believe '06 was the last year they were manufactured in Italy.
Its in China now.

Sadly yes

The shape of things to come?

See this recent post here New '07 Piaggio Fly or Used '06?

Cheers

I guess I'll scratch that off of my list for a more powerful scooter.

china made, yes.
but it is made under the umbrella of piaggio.
I have seen no differences besides subtle things.

They both feel the same.

tires are cheng shins. The reflectors and mirrors are different manufacturers. They are packaged differently, more plastic and goo smeared everywhere.

It is a great bike for the price.

I wouldn't be so quick to scratch it off the list. The italians were never known for great manufacturing. Design yes, production not so much. That said Piaggio has pretty good quality control and I'm sure they take those same processes to China.

Does PGO (taiwan) manufacture Piaggio parts? I was looking into the Genuine Rattler 110 2t. This is a Taiwan-manufactured scooter. I can't find a bad review about it anywhere.

PGO is piaggio owned.

It's called "PGO" because they couldn't pronounce "PIAGGIO" over there.

I shit you not ...god's honest truth.

So buying a Genuine scooter such as the Buddy, Stella or Rattler would be similar (quality-wise) to a Piaggio? Honest answers, please. I realize that this is a Piaggio forum.

I use a Fly 125 (We don't get the 150 in new zealand) as my daily rider, it was made in china however there is only one thing I can say about it.

The quality of the finish is BETTER than the veaps that are coming out of italy! I'm not joking, there is nothing wrong with the fly i use, ever nut and bolt is tight, even greased (something vespa has been a little slack on recently), the panels all line up 100% and are lovely. The quality of paint is top rate. The motor is stronger than the average 125, feels great and sounds awesome.

The only problem I have with it is the cheep chinese tires they stuck on

No, Piaggio does not own PGO. I have heard other people say that and it's false. The web can be a funny place.

Here's a quote from some random website I googled:

"Motive Power Industry Co. Ltd manufactures scooters and ATVs in Taiwan under the PGO brand. PGO, founded
in 1964, had a technological cooperation with Piaggio of Italy from 1972 to 1982 followed by investment from the
Taiwan Tea Corporation in 1996 to form Motive Power Industry Co Ltd"

Piaggio quality is very, very high. So is that of Kymco, PGO (Genuine) and others.

Here you go, bro... straight from 2strokebuzz.com. I was wrong on piaggio OWNING them, but right about the name thing.


PGO and Genuine: a bit more information

February 23, 2006

Phil and the PGO website (note ?English? link in top right corner) helped me answer some questions about Genuine Scooter Co?s two new scooters:

* These scooters are made by PGO in Taiwan? Is this the same PGO that used to make Vespas under license? Yes. PGO has been around since 1964 and worked with Piaggio from 1972-1982. It appears they made P-series clones well after that, as well, but apparently no longer make any Vespa-like scooters.
* So... Taiwan? Taiwan, unlike China, has a fairly good reputation for quality. Kymco and TGB are both well-regarded, legitimately-distributed manufacturers, and PGO scooters, despite strangely not being sold domestically in Taiwan, are equally well-regarded and sold worldwide, even racking up a few awards lately.
* What does PGO stand for? Phil: ?The first question I asked at their booth was ?What does P.G.O. stand for? I am an American after all and those letters must mean something. The response was ?PGO makes the word ?Piaggio? when you say it?. Ok, I?m not sure whether they did this as a direct result of their relationship with Piaggio, or they did it to capitalize on the success of Piaggio. It might be a chicken-and-egg sorta thing.? 2sb always suspected it was a play on Piaggio (they used to use the same font) but it would be interesting to find out the full story.
* So we know the Genuine Stella is a re-branded and modified LML Star. What are these new scooters? The Black Cat 50 is based on the (wait for it...) PGO PMS 50, and the Buddy 125 is called (it gets better) ?My Bu Bu? by PGO. So in both cases, renaming was pretty much essential.
* What does this mean for Genuine?s relationship with LML and the Stella? Nothing, apparently, Stella sales are still going very strong and the PGO deal is a separate deal that will have no effect on the LML deal. (Changing emissions standards will probably eventually bring an end to Stella sales, so this is probably Genuine?s first step in planning for a post-2-stroke market.)

Note that we didn?t bother talking to Genuine, and these answers are partly educated speculation. We also don?t know what changes (other than graphics) Genuine will be making from Taiwanese spec. (In the Stella?s case, many improvements were made, both performance- and aesthetics-related.) Maybe Scooterworks/Genuine insiders Abe or PJ can let us know more.

The "owning" part is not exactly a minor detail.

It's cool.

italy made a decision to try and compete w/ kymco to a slight degree, so they manufacutred all the parts, shipped them to china and now have them assembled there. does a chinese factory worker assemble a scooter less professionally than an italian? you tell me....probably not. but the reality is, a fly costs what?....$1000 less than an LX or an S? the metal alone, combined w/ the resale, makes the LX/S a smarter buy.

I aggree almost 100% - those new plastics are 'fer sher made in China - as are most bits. If you think Piaggio is making stuff in Italy to ship to China for assembly I would like to discuss a wonderful real-estate opportunity with you......they are providing designs, management and QC and it seems to be working. The Scarabeos are dang nice - well made.

As far as the resale arguement and the value of the monocoque frame I completely aggree. Good points both. I think that retained value over 5 years is considerably more with a Greater than with a Piaggio branded scoot. You have one nice lineup when your "secondary" brand is Piaggio, dontcha!