Modern Vespa

Are the modern Vespas reliable? Are parts hard to get?

Welcome to MV.

Yes and No - No and Yes.

They are very reliable if serviced properly - that said a few things can go wrong as they might on any bike, but a good dealer will make this pretty painless. Parts? Again a good dealer will have all normal service parts in stock, most other items might take a day or two, and 'unusual' parts may have to come from Italy, so at least two weeks normally.

The emphasis here is choose your dealer - chat to them, chat to other customers, and if given a consistently poor impression try another dealer.

you should read my post about my vespa going back to the dealer 4 times in 3 months.............

I've owned four different modern Vespas and all of them have been quite reliable. I've not had any downtime from any problems that were quality related. However, that being said, as Jim pointed out, you do have to service them regularly as you would any other vehicle or reliability will decrease.

There are more Vespas rolling around the streets that have NEVER had a problem than the few Vespas who have had any type of problems. If the dealer does a proper pre-delivery service & inspection, your chances of buying a lemon are very, very small. On any internet forum that focuses on a specific brand, you're going to read about the problems because that's the first place most people go to when they encounter a problem. The majority who have no problems don't ever talk about it.

The only thing about Vespas that might pose a problem to a first time owner is something NOT made by Piaggio -- the battery. But, that's not a reliability issue... it's an "I haven't used this P.O.S. in three months, and now it doesn't start when I want it to" problem.

LOL. Some people still think a Vespa is nothing more than a glorified Huffy.

So far, my Vespa has been the most reliable of all the 5 scooters I've had, especially so in colder weather. Most good dealers stock common parts, and really good dealers will make sure you get parts as quickly as possible. That said, they are ultimately at the mercy of the Italians, if something isn't already in the US warehouse.

But yeah, like the others said, they're usually very reliable, as long as you service them regularly and do your own common-sense checks frequently. There's a reason Vespas have been around forever, and a reason they're still popular.

i'm not saying all vespas are bad scooters but some of them are. if you happen to end up with one like mine don't expect a whole lot of support. seven grand is a lot of money to pay for a scoot you can only push. i've got a yamaha vino i bought used awhile back and have had zero problems. i wish i could vouch for vespa and piaggio as a company but i just can't at this point. i would've liked to have heard this story before i bought my gts................good luck

Sorry - you've just got a poor dealer. It's not the scoot's fault they can't sort it.

you are right, i do have a poor dealer. but it is not just the dealer, it's the manufacturer. they have been well aware of my situation for over a month and still no bike and no resolution. i think my friend here should know what he may be dealing with if things go wrong with his bike. and don't get me wrong, i truly hope he ends up with a scoot that shows him nothing but great times. ijust know i paid a higher than average scooter price for my gts because of a reputation for high build quality and reliability only to be sorely mistaken. i think it's important people know what they might be dealing with if things go wrong............

p.s.- if piaggio or the dealer makes me jump through anymore hoops i'll be letting many many many more people know about my first hand experience with their build quality............i promise

I use my gts nearly every day as my main transportation. I trust it implicitly.

It has never left me stranded--9800 miles in 14 months.

The only issues I ever had were a puncture (can't blame the bike for a roofing nail in the road), and something I caused myself.

It always starts, always gets me there and back.

Can't speak for everyone, just my own experience.

P.

I've had Vespas for my main transport for the past 6 years - I haven't had anything go wrong yet - I just get up, press the button and shoot off. Don't know - I haven't needed any yet

What do you want to use the scooter for? what type of distances and roads do you intend to cover? Have you ridden bikes before? Your own size sometimes makes a difference on choice. Do you have a short list of scooters that we could give feedback on?

You don't necessarily have to have a good dealer, if you are willing to do the maintenance and repairs yourself. In the US, it is fairly common to only have one Vespa dealer in a city, if that. Sometimes, there is only 1 scooter place period. I cannot attest to the reliability. I haven't got to drive mine enough

As for lemons, I have seen the exact same behavior that dgibsonmusic is seeing with Piaggio. I have seen it with Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Dodge, Ford, Honda, and probably others that I cannot remember. I have seen some of this first hand and heard about others second hand. It's pretty common practice to deliver bad customer service and to not want to lose money on a vehicle. I do think lemons are rare though.

Read the boards for a bit and search around. You will see if things are reliable or not. There was an exhaust issue with some of the GTS 250s. It must be the early one though, because I do not see a ton of problems now. They have supposedly fixed it.

Good luck

i'm sorry, but you know jack shit about vespa build quality.

i make my living working on these machines and i can tell you that the build quality and reliability of vespas is just fine.

yeah, you got a problem.
yeah, you got some teething issues to work out.

but really, that's on your dealer and/or service provider. if they can't sort it then find somebody that can and will and quit belly aching about it.

seriously, you're gonna hold the entire line accountable for your one bike? how many hundreds of thousands of bikes are out there running hard each and every day that came off the same line?

rrrriiigggghhhhttttt...

now go grind your axe someplace else.

best,
-greasy

Ease up greasy, dgibsonmusic does not have the hundreds of thousands of bikes running around hard as nails from the same line. They have the shit one on the side of the road watching the other have their fun. Sounds like a legitimate reason to why they think their scoot is not worth the money.

Go and fix their ride, then you won't have to listen to them grinding their axe.

To whom? Please don't take it out on Vespa just because the San Antonio Spurs are sucking hard right now and you've got nothing else out there. It's simply not fair.

Based on what I've seen out there, very few brands can compare with the Vespa build quality and components. They fit together very well (except the shield beadings on the GTS... those are a bitch), and overall functionality of the bike is great. Of the thousands built, perhaps there'll be a couple of problem bikes, and maybe you got one of those units. Overall, however, the brand is top notch.

From my limited experience, find a good dealer/mechanic.
We didn't have one in our town until last summer. (I had to take it 300 miles to get it repaired before this.) Unfortunately, they were new at the Vespa game, and I mistakenly thought they would have a clue about repairing them. (They sold them, right?)

3 months later, they had borrowed MY repair books, had received many copies of posts from MV that I had copied for them, and then, the final act of insanity, I had to order the part from another dealer becasuse they didn't have their vender # yet. They charged me full price for the repairs and quipped "well you have a few days of riding left" when I complained about the 3 month wait. This was late October in Iowa, by now.... this spring it worked a few times and now is doing exactly the same thing as last year.

I'll wait until I can go to a real dealership next time. Other than that, I love my scoot!

greasy.........you're not much of a reader are you? if you can find the part of my post that said "all vespas are crap", i'd love for you to point it out to me. someone posted a question about reliability and everyone chimed in with their experience and you get mad because i share mine. if you read my post you would have read the part that said "i understand that things happen and a lemon or two will make it out to the world.......". my gripe was that now that it has been confirmed i have a lemon (according to texas law) it's time to make good on their part. that has not been done. if you think this situation is right there's something wrong with you. and by the way, according to texas lemon law it's not just on the dealer anymore, it's on the manufacturer. they get one crack at, which they took on the third incident, and then it is deemed a lemon. and just so you know, the "piaggio technical expert" that called me from new york is the one that said he thought the mechanics that worked on my bike made mistakes. his words not mine. so i guess he doesn't know jack shit about vespa build quality either. you know i could have gotten on here and started dogging all vespas but i didn't because i know a lot of people cherish their bikes. i got on here and told "MY" story and some mechanic got his feelings hurt. you know what greasy i take it back, there's not one or two lemons out there, there's no lemons at all, not one..............but there is one no running jacked up scooter out there and i own it..................

If the credit crunch was really biting I'd be expecting more people to be buying into a Piaggio training program (not cheap mind) and start up their own authorised servicing outfit. It wouldn't take many standard services to be able to buy extra useful tools.

If I was a few years younger I'd do that myself. I get by with staying friendly to good dealers and passing on what I find out along the way.

Straying into wistful mode and rather off-topic, I was gratified to see that it is now three of my original ideas/mods that have now become 'recommended procedures'. One of them is a "don't".

krylon88............san antonio spurs? what are you talking about? i didn't realize this was the "let's talk about only the good vespas" forum. dbarker asked about vespa reliability and i told him my experience. i didn't say your vespa sucked or anybody elses vespa sucked, i told him mine sucked. and i've been really understanding about it. but after four times of experiencing the same problem i'm sorry if i hold the dealer and manufacturer a little responsible. and i'm sorry they didn't step up when they should have. and i'm sorry you have a problem with me telling people and promising to tell a lot more. and dbarker i'm sorry for taking up space dealing with morons when all i wanted was to let you know my experience. i hope you find the right scoot.............

no, no i'm not.

and that's why i stopped reading your post right after that line.

btw, i'm not much of a mechanic, either. so realistically, i don't know what i'm talking about.

oh, and i totally get my feelings hurt all the time, too.

anyway, hope you get your shit-box fixed and you wind up with a perpetual smile and whistling zippity-doo-dah all the day long; or get it replaced; or get your money back and go buy something else and post on another forum about whatever.

either way, next time you post could you at least break up the body of text? that mess gets hard to read all jumbled together like that.

best,
-greasy

i love my scoot. i ride whenever i get the chance. but i really really don't like the customer service. i've only had a few minor problems but i felt like they were made much more difficult than they had to be. example, warranty claims being rejected by piaggio. luckily they were resolved eventually. i think you'd be happy with a vespa but i just hope you don't get a lemon like the guy in the previous post. i still can't get over that situation. and then these other idiots try to make it out to be his problem. i just hope they remember those comments if their scooter ever goes down 4 TIMES . some people..............

The only way that dgibsonmusic's problem is his fault, is if he was trying to be nice and get things done amicably. I understand. I wished I had just raised a s**t storm over the length of time to repair mine. I think I will start tomorrow when the shop opens up at 10am Maybe I will take it out a bit on some co-workers before the shop opens. I am not blaming him for trying to work things out, but this world seems to chew up and spit out anyone that tries to be remotely nice

Wall of Text crits you for 10000 Damage.

Yeah, posts like that one are totally unreadable.

Dgibsonmusic. you might want to look up the term EECB. Executive E-mail Carpet Bomb.

www.consumerist.com will give some tips for writing effective EECB's for resolving service issues.

Punctuation and formatting tips for one.

This message is addressed to dgibsonmusic.

First, making sweeping assumptions based on a single data point is a fault of logic in every area of logical inquiry known to the human race.

Second, insinuating that your single experience is somehow representative of the whole smacks of a smear campaign. I realize you're frustrated with your dealer, but we have enough pooled experience here to recognize that your situation is NOT representative of the whole.

Third, you've been given good advice. The fault lies with your dealer. It is up to you whether you want to accept it or not. Modern Vespa is not the place for you to grind your axe.

Finally, registering a second account in order to reinforce your point and falsely amplify your single opinion is flatly dishonest, and is grounds for termination of both accounts.

This last point is serious. Through this dishonest action, you've now lost all credibility here. At this point, I'm not even sure the faulty bike is real. You could just be a disgruntled ex-employee, for all we know.

Yes agreed about the battery - I've owned three of them. Once the LX once failed to start after having the same battery for two years (and even then it could be kicked into life). Otherwise, service them and they present no trouble (in hands of good dealer).

Wra Wrahh

1+
This does cast a shadow on your credibility.

to the OP -

i've found mine to be dead reliable in the 6200 miles i've ridden it. regarding the battery, i'm still on the original.

and my dealer is great (Motorini).

i think you'll enjoy a Vespa.

Thank god I have a great dealer and service dept! I've had a few issues with my scooter (mostly self caused) that were taken care of. Soon I was back on the road. The dealer is the issue here, find one.........I try to always remember (like someone told me)...."you catch more flies with honey then you do vinegar".

you people must really be kidding. i've been reading modernvespa for well over a year now. i used it and other forums to determine whether or not the gts was right for me and my wife. i read the good and the bad. apparently you don't like to hear the bad. a what smear campaign? read all my posts (i think i'm up to 14 or so) and please send me back the part were i said all vespas as a whole were lemons. over and over and over again i've stuck to MY story and situation. if you think it is wrong for me to join just to tell my story and maybe seek some advice from some fellow vespa owners then maybe i misunderstood the whole purpose of this forum. but as far as i can see just about every post is someone telling their story, their problem, their praise, or their opinion. i have not made up one single thing and in fact i left a few other problems out. if my story makes my dealer or piaggio look bad it is because they acted badly in this situation which is still not resolved. you've got some serious nerve saying this is grounds for termination. i promise on my mothers life this story is real. and to be honest you sound more like someone who works for vespa who's afraid of losing some sales. sorry you have a problem with me but i didn't post for you i was posting for the person who was seeking advice as a potential buyer just like i was a year ago........

Yeah and Jess can't tell that you have a second account. Address that!

It's rather funny that dgibsonmusic and jgrant82 both live in San Antonio, are fairly new users, and never use upper case letters. It's the same person. I don't believe this anymore. I am out of this thread and others associated with him. Sorry for taking part in the hijacking of this otherwise worthwhile thread.

i don't want to get into some war of words with some people who don't like that i posted my story. lots of people have given some good advice and constructive suggestions and i thank them for that. i really happy that most of the people posting are enjoying riding their problem free vespas............i wish i was one of them

That's for sure, two accounts posting from the same IP address.

I was quite willing to listen to your story, right up until you registered a second account. At that point, everything you said prior and everything you say from here on out is suspect.

We're here to help. We tried to help. That's what we do. It's clear now, though, that you're here not to seek help but to make someone -- whether it be the dealer or Piaggio or the product -- look bad. It was obvious before you registered a second account, and it's even more obvious in light of that.

One thing's for sure: we are not here to be used a a club to hit your dealer or Piaggio over the head with. If you want help finding a solution, say so. Otherwise, your time here is up.

Hamana hamana hamana...

wow!!.........dbarker, let me apoligize again. i only wanted to offer you my story like everyone else offered their story. and i had no intention of "hijacking" your topic. i don't really care about the people who don't believe me. but now they are attacking everyone who is on my side. what next? are you going to get them all thrown off modern vespa? take up anymore posts so hopefully you'll get more good or bad feedback on vespa reliability. but dbarker i'm so serious about telling my story that if you want to message me, i'll give you my number so you can hear it from my mouth.........good luck

Hahah! No, we're only attacking your alter ego. And this ends here, now. You registered a second account, you were dishonest, and now that we've confronted you with that fact you're being disingenuous and trying to suggest that we're attacking the people who support you.

Enough shenanigans. You're a troll, and you no longer have an account here.

I have had a GT 200 for just short of 10,000 miles and the only issues I have had have been with the exhaust gaskets between the muffler and the manifold.

Both problems occured after a dealer changed the rear tire, so I suspect the problem is with the mechanic not installing the gaskets properly not a problem with the vehicle or even the gaskets - although I think the exhaust pipe/gasket design is not the best example of quality engineering.

I am doing the gaskets this weekend myself to ensure they're installed correctly (or at least for free if I screw it up!)

I frequently ride 200+ miles on a couple of Saturdays per month as well as day to day commuting - I don't know if that helps or hinders reliability, but that is how I ride it.