Question about the quality of Taiwan manufacturing

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Hugo
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Question about the quality of Taiwan manufacturing

Post by Hugo »

How does Taiwanese (PGO) manufacturing compare to that of the Japanese and the Italians?
I'm closing in on the purchased a Rattler 110, but I'm concerned about reliability.
I've had dealers who actually sell Kymco products say negative things about Taiwan built scooters.
My current scooters are the Honda Ruckus and the Piaggio Typhoon. Both of them have been ABSOLUTELY trouble-free over the years.
Last edited by Hugo on Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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nissanman
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Post by nissanman »

They're all the best at sucking the least. From what I've seen they're all capable of building top notch scooters, with a few million units worldwide they've got to know something. But they also have their screw ups too ( remember the BMW 318ti?). You have to take them on a scoot by scoot basis to be fair.
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Hugo
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Post by Hugo »

nissanman wrote:They're all the best at sucking the least. From what I've seen they're all capable of building top notch scooters, with a few million units worldwide they've got to know something. But they also have their screw ups too ( remember the BMW 318ti?). You have to take them on a scoot by scoot basis to be fair.
Not very reassuring
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nissanman
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Post by nissanman »

As soon as somebody can point me in the direction of the flawless machine builders... point is any machine can be flawed. Regardless of who makes it. My Rattler has been great. I had a few stalling issues which were my fault for overfilling the tank, otherwise it's been as good as it can be. A few people have had loose nuts etc which would happen on any 2 stroke after a while (again our responsibility to check). About the only thing nobody has been able to eliminate is the rear drum squeaking from time to time. Feel free to check out owner comments about the Rattler at the yahoo group "genuinerattler".
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Hugo
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Post by Hugo »

nissanman wrote:As soon as somebody can point me in the direction of the flawless machine builders... point is any machine can be flawed. Regardless of who makes it. My Rattler has been great. I had a few stalling issues which were my fault for overfilling the tank, otherwise it's been as good as it can be. A few people have had loose nuts etc which would happen on any 2 stroke after a while (again our responsibility to check). About the only thing nobody has been able to eliminate is the rear drum squeaking from time to time. Feel free to check out owner comments about the Rattler at the yahoo group "genuinerattler".
I'm still very much into getting one, and I do realize that nothing is perfect. Local dealer support is an issue, however. Luckily I am capable of doing a lot of maintenance on my own.
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Christy
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Post by Christy »

taiwan makes good scoots...it's the scoots from mainland china that have un-reliable manufacturing. and even those are on a case by case basis. My roketa (old scoot) was ok - far from GOOD, but ok. other people have had LOTS of problems with theirs. My Genuine on the other hand is AWESOME!
Smellybumlove

Post by Smellybumlove »

taiwan has VERY good build quality, its something they price themselves on, they really try to beat the japanese and in some ways they do.

my 110 is 7 years old and still rides and looks like new!.
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Hugo
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Post by Hugo »

Smellybumlove wrote:taiwan has VERY good build quality, its something they price themselves on, they really try to beat the japanese and in some ways they do.

my 110 is 7 years old and still rides and looks like new!.
I didn't know that the 110 motor has been around for seven years (I'm assuming that your are referring to the same motor as the Rattler). Longevity and durability were my concerns.
How many miles are on it?
Smellybumlove

Post by Smellybumlove »

Hugo wrote:
Smellybumlove wrote:taiwan has VERY good build quality, its something they price themselves on, they really try to beat the japanese and in some ways they do.

my 110 is 7 years old and still rides and looks like new!.
I didn't know that the 110 motor has been around for seven years (I'm assuming that your are referring to the same motor as the Rattler). Longevity and durability were my concerns.
How many miles are on it?
well it has 15000km on it and has just been rebuilt as it was losing pressure....

if you think thats old then hold your hat as it is older than my engine, it started in the early 90s on the pgo hot 90cc, they just kept upping the cc to 106.
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Hugo
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Post by Hugo »

That's roughly 9000+ miles.
Does anyone else have any 110cc top mileage testimonials to add?
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Post by lou76 »

i can't speak for the rattler or the 110 2t engine, but my buddy 125 has nearly 20k on it in just over a year and a half, and the only issue that i have had in terms of quality is the plug boot... that was a $2 dollar fix... pgo has been around a while, and has manufactured engines for several italian and japanese mainstays, if i am not mistaken...
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brimstone
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Post by brimstone »

i've got a 110 and i love it...no issues to speak of as yet, well i only have 350 miles on it...but the quality is, i'd say, on par to my friends' ruckus and metro.
<a href="http://www.fuelly.com/driver/brimstone/rattler-110" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.fuelly.com/sig-us/20736.png" width="500" height="63" alt="Fuelly" title="Share and compare MPG at Fuelly" border="0"/></a>
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Post by nissanman »

1300 miles so far...
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mattgordon
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Post by mattgordon »

Smellybumlove wrote:
Hugo wrote:
Smellybumlove wrote:taiwan has VERY good build quality, its something they price themselves on, they really try to beat the japanese and in some ways they do.

my 110 is 7 years old and still rides and looks like new!.
I didn't know that the 110 motor has been around for seven years (I'm assuming that your are referring to the same motor as the Rattler). Longevity and durability were my concerns.
How many miles are on it?
well it has 15000km on it and has just been rebuilt as it was losing pressure....

if you think thats old then hold your hat as it is older than my engine, it started in the early 90s on the pgo hot 90cc, they just kept upping the cc to 106.
Even if that was a box-stock engine, that's a long haul to the first overbore...two-strokes can go 2, 3 overbores (new cylinder and piston...."top-end") before the low end is typically due for a rebuild.
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