Genuine Scooters - Availability of Parts & Ease of Servi

Discussion of the Genuine Buddy, Hooligan, Black Jack and other topics, both scooter related and not

Moderator: Modern Buddy Staff

Locked
Delilah
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 07, 2008 3:38 pm
Location: Washington DC

Genuine Scooters - Availability of Parts & Ease of Servi

Post by Delilah »

I am thinking of buying a Buddy 125. My only concern is that since Genuine is a fairly new company, getting parts and finding places that service/repair them maybe few and far between. Particularly, in my area... Washington DC. As opposed to say, buying from a well-established company such as Yamaha or Honda. They have lots of dealers and parts and service/repair shops are fairly easy to come by. Can anyone tell me from their experience whether this true or not - availability of Genuine scooter parts and service shops being a problem since the company is relatively new?
User avatar
jfrost2
Member
Posts: 4782
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:32 am
Location: Somewhere in Ohio, Maybe.

Post by jfrost2 »

Genuine is not new at all, they were born from their sister company scooter works which has been fixing scooters for years and years and getting parts for them easily.

Now they just sell their own "brand" of bikes. Parts are easy to get, bikes are actually made by PGO, but since PGO is also a reputable and highly praised company, parts from them to genuine to you is very easy. Usually you'd just let your dealer/mechanic do all the talking, while you just wait for the bike to be fixed.
User avatar
Leeroy Jenkins
Member
Posts: 516
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:49 am
Location: Athens of the South

Post by Leeroy Jenkins »

I can only speak from personal experience. I have had a hard time getting parts, and the service manual is in Chinglish with improper torque values.

I broke my oil drain plug after trying to install it with the service manuals recommended torque value.

IRCC
the worst was a foot peg that took 4 months.

Don't even get me started on story behind getting my stator. I got a used part off a freight damaged bike. That took almost a month.
User avatar
jmazza
Moderator
Posts: 2960
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:03 pm
Location: Broomfield, CO

Post by jmazza »

The OP's concerns are very well founded. This forum is full of stories of people waiting months on parts... I'm waiting around 2 months on mirrors, myself. To be fair, Piaggio and Aprilia have similar issues. But Yamaha and Honda have the parts thing down way better. Genuine's parts lists are photocopied pieces of paper in a three-ring binder handed to dealers. Yamaha and Honda have vast computer networks that can pin down a single parts location along with delivery time.

To say that Genuine is not new at all and imply they aren't suffering from some growing pains of becoming so popular so quick would be false.

Service (the kind not requiring parts) comes down to the dealer. If you have a good one, you usually have good service. My dealer was willing to swap me some new mirrors off of a new bike while THEY wait on Genuine to send me my new ones. So I didn't have to deal with the parts issue.

All of this is based on anecdotal evidence (some good threads on urbanscootin.com as well as here and ModernVespa) but it seems commented on widely enough that I believe it.

Genuine is a great company but they don't have it all together just yet. Good thing the scooters are very reliable for the most part!!
User avatar
jfrost2
Member
Posts: 4782
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:32 am
Location: Somewhere in Ohio, Maybe.

Post by jfrost2 »

Dealers themselves have a handful of parts too, but they wont have everything, most of the time, if you need something small and unimportant, you can get it from them, if it's a important piece of the bike which dealers wouldn't carry at all, they'll have to order them from genuine.
sc00ter
Member
Posts: 1140
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:17 pm
Location: Norfolk VA

Post by sc00ter »

Brand wise, PGO is a great brand that at least in my scoot killing hands has held up very well. I had some parts issues also yet I have no regrets with the Buddy 125 over the Yamaha Vino 125. I do miss the normal shop manuals but I just use my old Zuma manual for a close torque value reference. I do have a great dealer but they are 100 miles away and I dont mind spinning my own wrenches. Overall, Honda had nothing close (stupid Elite 80!) and Yamaha's Vino shadows the Buddy. Now SYM has that HD200.....
User avatar
babblefish
Member
Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:42 am
Location: San Francisco

Post by babblefish »

I've only had to order a part for my Genuine Blur once. Although it was kind of an obscure part (upper handlebar cover), my dealer (SF Scooter Center) got it to me in about 2 weeks - that's not bad considering it had to come from Taiwan. BTW: I first contacted Scooter Works for help getting this part and I may as well have been talking to a chair as far as the help I got. Kudos to Barry and his crew at SF Scooter Center.

While it's true that the bigger manufacturers like Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, etc. have big dealer networks, they still won't import their better scooters into the U.S. for some odd reason. All we get are their K-Mart scooters (my opinion!) rather than their higher end products. It would be the same as Toyota selling only their Corolla here and none of the higher level cars. As an example, take a look at Yamaha's European website for scooters - http://www.yamaha-motor-europe.com/products/scooters/

They have some really cool 125cc, 4-stroke, fuel injected scooters that we can only drool over. Gray market, anyone? :D
User avatar
ericalm
Site Admin
Posts: 16842
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:01 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

Post by ericalm »

Genuine is actually not all that new of a company and Scooterworks has been around for quite a while.

The parts issues stem from the very things named above: Genuine imports and rebadges PGO scooters, which are made in Taiwan and sold worldwide. The demand for Buddys (and parts) grew very quickly and the parts supply is still running behind. Some dealers and other retailers have stockpiles of commonly used parts. Body parts seem fairly easy to come by or order at this point. Other items, particularly engine parts specific to the Buddy, are harder to come by. Ironically, there are not stockpiles of some of these parts, thanks to he Buddy's reliability. There just hasn't been that much demand. Either way, the parts network has not kept pace with Buddy sales.

(The Stella is a different animal altogether because it's essentially a Vespa clone and uses parts available for many other models of scooter.)
Eric // LA Scooter Meetup Group // Stella 4T // Vespa LX // Vespa LXS // Honda Helix // some, uh, projects…
User avatar
ericalm
Site Admin
Posts: 16842
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:01 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

Post by ericalm »

babblefish wrote:While it's true that the bigger manufacturers like Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, etc. have big dealer networks, they still won't import their better scooters into the U.S. for some odd reason. All we get are their K-Mart scooters (my opinion!) rather than their higher end products. It would be the same as Toyota selling only their Corolla here and none of the higher level cars. As an example, take a look at Yamaha's European website for scooters - http://www.yamaha-motor-europe.com/products/scooters/

They have some really cool 125cc, 4-stroke, fuel injected scooters that we can only drool over. Gray market, anyone? :D
Same goes for Honda. I think both companies are missing out on a big chunk of the U.S. market. But with gas prices as they are... maybe they'll re-introduce some of the models. The main issue is that for these companies, whose primary focus is cars and motorcycles, the economics of scooters just doesn't make sense in the USA unless demand is much higher. A scooter takes up as much room on a showroom floor as a MC, may take as much time and effort to sell, but has far lower profit margins.
Eric // LA Scooter Meetup Group // Stella 4T // Vespa LX // Vespa LXS // Honda Helix // some, uh, projects…
User avatar
illnoise
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 3245
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:23 pm
Location: Chicago, IL

Post by illnoise »

I'd argue that the biggest problem is that if something breaks on one bike, it's probably going to break on a lot of them, and it's hard to guess what those parts are going to be. Genuine stocks spares, but the shortages seem to be on items that unexpectedly but commonly break, or items that it seems incredibly unlikely they'd need to stock. The 'wear' parts are no problem, and you'll be able to get anything, sooner or later (whether or not it's color matched…)

Dealing with Genuine is pointless, they seem to have no interest in dealing with the public and prefer to work through dealers. Which is fine, that's the way it should be, really.

There are a few weird things, like the Blur uses a bizarre-sized Maxxis rear tire that's unavailable from any brand anywhere in the world. But there is a recommended replacement tire that's a slightly different size, and it's easy to get. If you have a good dealer who knows their stuff and has a good relationship with Genuine, you'll be just fine.

I'd argue that Piaggio/Vespa is more likely than Genuine to drop out of the US market and leave their customers hanging, they've done it before a few times. Genuine has been around for several years (remember, the Stella's been around a while) and Scooterworks has been around for much longer. They were around well before the current scooter boom, and they'll probably be the only ones still here when it's over (aside from Yamaha and Honda, who have barely dipped their toes in the scooter market here, compared to the great bikes they offer in other regions.)
2strokebuzz: When news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
User avatar
hcstrider
Member
Posts: 308
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:07 pm
Location: Ellicott City, MD

Post by hcstrider »

I live in Ellicott City, MD and my home is about 2 miles from a motorcycle shop which sells and services the Yamaha Vino so it would have been a lot more convenient for me to buy a Vino but I preferred the Buddy. I know that a lot of people perform their own service but my plan is that while my Buddys are under warranty I will have them serviced at a dealer. Given my decision to buy a Buddy and have it serviced at a dealer, I have to travel quite a bit further for service.

It looks like Genuine Scooters of Arlington, VA would be your closest dealer. I have never done business with them but it looks like they have fantastic service hours: Monday – Friday 9am – 7pm, Saturday 9am – 5pm and Sunday for dropoff only 9am – 1pm.

You also might contact Coleman Powersports in Falls Church, VA. Up until 2008 they sold Buddys (this is where I purchased one of my Buddys) and they may still service the Buddys even though they are no longer a dealer.

I take my Buddys to Fun On Wheels in Frederick, MD which is about a 40 mile one-way trip for me. Their Monday - Friday hours of service don’t work for me because I can’t take it in for service during that time without taking time off from work. They don’t have a mechanic that works on Saturday but they have been very accommodating with me and allowed me to drop my Buddy off on a Saturday and then pick it up on the following Saturday. Even though Frederick is a 40 mile one-way trip for me I don’t mind because I find lots of things to do there in fact I was in Frederick on Sunday running the Frederick Marathon.

Moto Strada in Cockeysville, MD is also very good but that is probably too far for you to travel. Moto Strada is just north of Baltimore. They are a Genuine dealer and they have several mechanics.
Wayne
The safest rule, no ifs or buts
Just drive like everyone else is nuts! (Burma Shave)
Image
Locked