Modern Vespa

I made a post in the general discussion board and was directed to post here so that some of you guys into the older stuff might be able to help me better.

My name is Mark and I recently came accross a couple of 78 Vespas. I am a car restorer, and I also buy and sell cars too, but I must admit, this is my first time messing with scooters...

A customer whom I've restored cars for before contacted me about helping broker the sales of some vehicles. He has a friend who is in ill health and needs to get rid of some of his stuff to pay for medical and other bills. The guy who is sick has lots of cool stuff to get rid of, most of it being stuff that he inherited from his parents a few years back. He has a big RV and an Airstream trailer, as well as a 1980 Honda motorcycle and a 1985 Honda Elite 80 with a whopping 860 miles on it.

Of course, the reason I'm here is the two Vespas he has. Both were built in 06/78, and both are P200E models. One has less than 3400 miles and the other is less than 2900 miles. Both kick over fine and feel like they have decent compression, but neither start, probably from having no gas or bad gas I'm guessing. The paint is pretty good on them with some scratches on the side panels, but no dents.

Anyway, we're trying to figure out the best way to go about selling these. My customer wants to sell as much as he can as quickly as he can to get as much money together as he can. The RV and Airstream should sell pretty good, and would bring in the biggest chunk of change. That would also afford us the time to possibly restore these Vespas if it would mean we could get substantially more for them in tip-top shape. That brings up other questions... When I restore cars, sometimes an all original vehicle even with a few scratches and imperfections is worth way more than if it had a nice fresh shiny coat of paint. The whole "It's only original once" type deal. Is it the same in the Vespa world? I kinda tried to scope Ebay out to see what sold for what, but it was hard to find something compareable to what we have. The closest one I found as far as mileage had around 7k on it, but the body was much rougher than what we have. Then I saw a fully restored one with a buy it now over 4k, but didn't see any bids. Most seemed to sell for the $1500-2000 range, but again, most of those had higher mileage and looked a little rougher.


We're not as concerned about getting top dollar as much as we are about trying to get things moved fairly quickly, but if we can double our money by me taking the little bit of extra time to get them running and looking top notch, then it would be worth it in our eyes. We don't want to rip anyone off, yet we need to get money together so we don't want to give anything away either. We're really just looking to try and find a relatively quick, easy deal that's fair for everyone involved.

I will have to be going back over there some time this week or weekend, so if y'all could maybe tell me what all to look for on these, you know, the common problems- That would be a huge help. I will also likey be bringing the motorcyle and scooters to my shop to get them at least cleaned up and running good, so I will be able to get better pics then too. For now, these are the best pics I have...

Red one:
http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/8-25-10_037.jpg
http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/8-25-10_038.jpg
http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/8-25-10_042.jpg


Silver one:
http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/8-25-10_041.jpg
http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/8-25-10_039.jpg

Again, sorry for the crummy pics, I will be getting more better ones in a few days. As you can see, both have windshield fairing dealies, and it's hard to tell but the visible sides are color matching. They also have the back hardcases for carrying stuff, although the lid on the red one deffintely needs some paint.




Thanks for reading my novel and advanced thanks for any help and info y'all can give.

One man's opinion.

I think they are in nice enough condition that repainting would diminish your returns. Plenty of people would be thrilled to have original P200s in that kind of shape with that mileage.

If the compression is good, I'd say your most time and cost effective approach is to get them running, which would hopefully be just a carb rebuild and fresh fluids. Maybe replace cables and tires if needed. Basically a minimal mechanical refresh, and it would be ideal to have it gone over by a reputable shop with that criteria in mind. A thumbs up from a good shop would go a ways towards winning some good faith from potential buyers.

After all that, remember P200s are great reliable bikes but not very rare. Even in that condition with relatively low mileage, they aren't all that hard to find.

My ballpark.... If you did the mechanical stuff mentioned above, I'd peg them at around $2000 each. Maybe more, maybe less, that's just what they'd be worth to me.

On the flipside, if you stripped it and repainted and "restored" to perfect condition, I don't think you'd raise the price in this market more than $500. If you went crazy with performance parts, you could get more, but the point is I don't think you'd get your moneys worth.

My 2 cents.

I think the paint looks way too good to do any cosmetic work to them and doing so may actually decrease the desirability.

Judging from how they look and the mileage I'd guess that it won't take much to get them running very well. Since you are only interested in selling them, I think I'd recommend doing as little as you can to see if they'll run (clean the carb, fresh fluids) and let the new owner do the rest to his liking (cables, rubber, and even a rebuild).

As it has been mentioned, these are not rare scooters but they are great machines. If you can get them in running condition I think you will find a new owner pretty easily for around $2000 (I'm also assuming that you have titles for these). I sometimes see P200s listed much higher than that ($3000+) but I'm not sure how often they actually sell for that much. There are way too many P200s listed in nice original condition from $1000 to $2000 to justify ever paying those high prices that I sometimes see. If you want, look through the "deal o' the day" thread and you'll see what I mean:

Deal O' The Day (Post 1001056)

I agree 100% with the above posts. They are both dead on. Don't repaint. Wont get the investment out in value when selling them. P200s are common models. Great bikes, but common. Paint is good enough, and no way will you get a return on the investment by restoring them or putting much money into them.

Best advice. Get them running. I would list them a bit under 2K, say 1800 if you want to sell pretty quickly. List that they are running, but have been sitting for awhile. Maybe settle at $1750, but not much lower if they are running well. That is low end. High end at best if running well $2500, but you may sit on them awhile at that price. 3K only if you were a Vespa mechanic, went through them head to toe and could vouch for their dependability. But in any case, take them out for a ride since they been sitting still for awhile. Bikes need to be ridden occasionally to stay in good shape and that is the drawback to your two low milage bikes. 50 miles or so to make sure they are working pretty well. Then sell or keep.

Really, not worth a resto or much work other than changing fluids and getting them running so the next person will have a safe ride. But they are fun, dependable scoots so if you want to keep em, you are good to go after repairs. If you are selling after repairs, 1750-3000 depending on how long you want to wait and how many tirekickers you can stomach. Remember, currently the economy is in recession/depression, and scoots have been dropping in value pretty drastically over the last 2 years, so if you are selling, its really a buyers market.

Good luck!

man just wash and wax that paint real good. you restore cars? then you know all about how well that paint can look. im telling you that Vespa factory paint is some good stuff. hit a fender then see what i mean.

Thanks for all the info, guys.

Looks like I'll be getting the scooters to my shop this weekend and should have them running, cleaned up, and for sale next week. I will just do the basics- Clean the carbs, replace fluids, air up the tires and clean them up. I might paint the lid on the storage thing on the back of the red one, but that will be it, restoration-wise.

I'll leave any other work up to the new owner.

Once they're set, I'll list them here first to give you guys a chance at them before they go on Craigslist and Ebay.

Thanks again for the help!

I think I can safely say that most Vespa guys think those top boxes are fugly fugly fugly. In the off chance that the new owner loves the top box, my guess is he would rather do any touchups himself. I say leave the paint as it is. IMO it adds to the "barn fresh" feel. It will also save you time, hassle, and a few bucks.

Hmmm, I can see how leaving it might add to the barn fresh feel, but I'm not sure I will be able to stand looking at it like that while it's sitting here waiting to sell LOL.

Are those pieces OEM Vespa acessories? If not, I wonder if I wouldn't be better off taking them off the scooter, but including them in the sale?

I dunno, maybe I'm overthinking it, but all that flaked off paint looks awful.

I've never owned one of those top boxes but I'm pretty sure they were not actually manufactured by Piaggio. I'm only aware of a handful of accessories that they designed and produced. More than likely the top box was a dealer-installed accessory which was paint-matched at that time - which would explain why only the top box paint is flaking off.

Its a minor point, but yeah I'd take off the top box, leave the paint as is, and sell it together with the scooter.

I think the top box itself looks worse than the flaked off paint Top boxes and windscreens are the 2 worst accessories available IMO! Both very functional, but both extremely ugly! My feeling is that if you need tonnes of storage and protection from the wind, then why are you on 2 wheels?

I've always felt the same way, except for once. I got stuck in a rain storn for a couple hours during a long trip on my GSXR 750, and it made me wish I still had the big gaudy windscreen that I pulled off my old Nighthawk.


Do y'all think I should maybe remove the boxes and windscreens from both scooters, but include them in the deal? I do like the appeal of the whole "as found" aspect of these, but at the same time I think once I clean them up and get them running, they would be more "survivor" type shape than barn find shape.

Again, I'm probably overthinking things, but I guess that's just how my mind works.

1) they are just P series bikes. you are over thinking it big time.

2) they are in pretty great shape and should sell quickly.

3) take all that crap off and include in the sale but leave it off. let the natural beauty of the bike shine and you will get good money for them.