Modern Buddy

Greetings from sunny (most of the time) Plano, Texas. I bought a Buddy 125 yesterday and am picking it up Saturday morning. In addition, my lovely bride of 27 years wants to trade her Hyundai Elantra for a Honda Element. Does anyone know if a Buddy will fit in an Element? I'm thinking that I could put together the ultimate test drive

By the way, if you are in the Dallas metroplex, Vespa of Dallas is a new Genuine carrier. I went down there yesterday to look at used Vespas and was pleasantly surprised to see they're now carrying the Buddys. They're probably not the cheapest folks around, but they seem like nice sincere people and they've been around awhile. They also have an excellent service department.

I have no direct experience on this question, but based on other posts here the Buddy should fit handily. The only issue might be the mirro clearance (easily removed for the haul). Tie down straps or some method to secure the scoot are called for.

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Phil said "If you take your mirrors off you'll be surprised what the buddy will fit in:

Honda Element - 2 Buddies "

Thanks for the link sparty, i did a little searching beforehand, but obviously didn't get the right combination.

wayne - did you buy your buddy from vespa dallas or from someone else (i.e. moxie or mr. garner)? are you pleased with whomever you made the purchase from? the reason i ask is that i'm in the metroplex as well and will most likely be getting a buddy for my wife this summer. TIA.

I bought from Vespa Dallas. I'd been in there before talking to Randy and he couldn't have been more helpful. I dealt with Emily yesterday, and she is great to work with as well. As of today they have a black, a creme and a Series Italia sitting out front.

thanks.

planowayne wrote:Greetings from sunny (most of the time) Plano, Texas. I bought a Buddy 125 yesterday and am picking it up Saturday morning.

Congrats! I'm east of Plano and ride in the Plano area quite frequently. Bought mine last year from Garners and am very pleased with it.

Good to hear Vespa Dallas/University Scooters/Vespa FW is now also carrying Genuines. We can move back to TX now.

Actually, a friend in TX was interested in buying... now I don't have to send her all the way out to Cleburne.

that's funny, I was looking at a Honda Element a couple of years ago,
and was interested in the same possibility !

the salesman really seemed to think I was nuts as I was asking for a demonstration of how the seats in the back go up out of the way in the back, and calculating whether the Vespa ET-4 would fit inside.

I have a strong hunch that says it will. If not with the tailgate closed, definitely with it open. The Element is especially friendly to this idea because the tailgate is very close to the ground, relative to most pick-up trucks.

If you take the Buddy in a pick-up, canyon dancers are ideal...
see here...

http://www.scooterwest.com/item_detail/ ... ancer/739/
along with some good ratcheting tie-downs.

and a 4 x 4 wooden block to anchor the front tire against in the front.

or graciously ask your dealer if they have any delivery options (don't expect it to be free, necessarily)

ericalm wrote:Good to hear Vespa Dallas/University Scooters/Vespa FW is now also carrying Genuines. We can move back to TX now.

Actually, a friend in TX was interested in buying... now I don't have to send her all the way out to Cleburne.

i can speak very little for buddy's as i'm just beginning to really look into them - i can, however speak volumes about my stella.

i bought the stella from mr. garner down in cleburne a couple of years ago and when i comes time to get my wife her buddy i will most likely go back to him. with the stella, dealer prep is paramount to successful scooting over the first 500-1000 miles. because mr. garner did things right, i have avoided many of the early problems that other stella owners have who's dealer didn't do the prep work correctly/thoroughly. i would assume that proper dealer prep is important on the buddy as well and so, as i said, i will most likely be returning to mr. garner in cleburne.

sure, he may have a bit of "grumpy old codger" in him but he's been in scooters a LONG time* and genuinely cares about doing things correctly the first time. i can't recommend him highly enough.
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* local rumor has it that he's member #1 in the vespa club of america.

The element is indeed an interesting vehicle and I plan to keep an eye on that option . . . just not to bring the new Buddy home, I guess. I'm impressed that there are such good trailer options out there.

Dallas Vespa had BETTER do the prep correctly, it's a $200 charge to do so!!! They'll see that little Buddy a LOT if things aren't precisely perfect .

planowayne wrote:$200

jallen013 wrote:

ericalm wrote:Good to hear Vespa Dallas/University Scooters/Vespa FW is now also carrying Genuines. We can move back to TX now.

Actually, a friend in TX was interested in buying... now I don't have to send her all the way out to Cleburne.

i can speak very little for buddy's as i'm just beginning to really look into them - i can, however speak volumes about my stella.

i bought the stella from mr. garner down in cleburne a couple of years ago and when i comes time to get my wife her buddy i will most likely go back to him. with the stella, dealer prep is paramount to successful scooting over the first 500-1000 miles. because mr. garner did things right, i have avoided many of the early problems that other stella owners have who's dealer didn't do the prep work correctly/thoroughly. i would assume that proper dealer prep is important on the buddy as well and so, as i said, i will most likely be returning to mr. garner in cleburne.

sure, he may have a bit of "grumpy old codger" in him but he's been in scooters a LONG time* and genuinely cares about doing things correctly the first time. i can't recommend him highly enough.
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* local rumor has it that he's member #1 in the vespa club of america.

I'm familiar with Garner's... I still have one of his old, photocopied catalogs somewhere around here. I haven't bought from him, but have heard many positive thingsw and have spoken with him a few times; he does know his scoots and is very friendly, etc. I'm not trying to direct business away from him, but I'm also not going to try to convince a prospective scooterist friend to make a 90 minute (or however long it would be) drive to Cleburne when she has another dealer 15 minutes away.

Unless, of course, there's some reason I should avoid the DFW dealer... in which case PM me! That would be good to know.

And, yeah, I think the VCOA #1 thing is true. It comes up every time he's mentioned.