Belated Happy New Year from Philip McCaleb/Genuine Scooters

bigdad381 · Post by **bigdad381** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 10:22 pm

Happy New Year! The smiles (and great suggestions, all of which we take into account regularly) I get from this group help remind me why we got into the scooter business in the very beginning; to have fun and provide a great experience for everyone who loves scooters. Despite the challenges we faced in 2010, we are eager to tackle anything that comes our way in 2011...TRANSLATE...We are alive and well and working hard to support our dealers and grow our network! There WILL be some great news items in the coming months...some new colors, a new fuel injected Buddy 170, and new (well, you all know the story) Stella 4 strokes just like Eric's at modernbuddy. People are scooting a lot more now for daily transport, and finding out how much FUN it can add to the routine of daily living. I think we are heading towards a time when much higher gas prices become a permanent reality so people will be drawn to both the economy and freedom that accompanies the "small wheel" experience.

This is the best run scooter forum anywhere; with the nicest people, the most helpful attitudes, and a sense of real community that doesn't exist at the same level with other groups. I'm going to keep reading and listening this year with a renewed spirit and a sense of both gratitude and humility. Thanks for keeping us in business; and please SUPPORT your local GENUINE dealer! We named it GENUINE SCOOTERS because we always knew the one thing that couldn't be duplicated was SINCERITY. When you speak from the heart, you are heard from the heart.

Best wishes for a joyous and prosperous new year. I will be participating in as many group rides as possible this year..so I'll look forward to meeting and hanging out with more MODERNBUDDY folks!

Philip McCaleb

superseagulls · Post by **superseagulls** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:09 pm

Thanks Philip!

Looking forward to seeing the new colors in the flesh!

........and I bet you're eager to see the new Stella's in showrooms asap!

Good luck to all at Genuine for the following year!

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:45 am

Happy New Year!!!

hey dude send me a complimentary Blur asap

i will pay for shipping!

no but seriously you have a great comapny so far as i can tell, and those boneheads at Kymco STILL owe me a t-shirt for taking some long ass survey. with Genuine you get a t-shirt, candy, a card, and keychain just for being who you are!

good business

oh, and bring the X-Hot if you can. look at this thing it has Genuine written all over it!

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:10 am

The new FI Buddys look great! Thanks for bring such an amazing scooter to market

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:11 am

Cheers Phil. And a happy New Year to everyone over at Genuine too! Keep up the good work everyone! I know I'm a happier guy thank to your efforts. Hope to see you on a ride soon.

Howardr · Post by **Howardr** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:25 am

And a great, prosperous 2011 to you. Thanks for bring such great products to the US. I love me some Genuine scooters!!!!

Thanks again,

Howard

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:39 am

Philip has four posts in four years i doubt we will hear back from him soon

wouldn't want to wear out his welcome, i guess?

see 'ya next year, Phil. and safe and happy scootin' to 'ya!

mattgordon · Post by **mattgordon** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:29 am

JHScoot wrote:Philip has four posts in four years i doubt we will hear back from him soon

The man has a company to run....providing the most bang for scooter-buck around! A real success story.

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:49 am

yada, yada, yada...question is- wear is my big a$$, retro styled, *&%@ cruiser???

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:50 am

i was....only ribbing a little

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:56 am

bet he can't supply this kind of bang for teh buck.

$599!

yeah, now what are you gonna do, Genuine?

mattgordon · Post by **mattgordon** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:13 am

JHScoot wrote:bet he can't supply this kind of bang for teh buck.

$599!

yeah, now what are you gonna do, Genuine?

Haha, bet he doesn't want to!

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:39 am

please make that go away

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:06 am

Happy New Year to you as well, Philip! Here's to a good one for you, Genuine and dealers.

JHScoot wrote:Philip has four posts in four years i doubt we will hear back from him soon

Though you may be kidding, there's actually a good reason for this. Other than Philip's annual greeting to the MB community, employees of Genuine don't post to or interfere with the forum. This is a good thing for members! For their part, the folks at Genuine are happy to use the forum to keep up with owners and members, our concerns, likes, dislikes, and so on. In fact, they've been very supportive of the forum, promoting it to dealers, in ads and in their catalogs without my ever asking for it or asking for anything in return. As far as the forum goes, we really couldn't ask for more.

They do read the forum, though.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:02 pm

^ oh i see now. there is a method to the madness, so to speak. makes sense the way it works, yes it does. lot's of independent voices here, without the perception of anyone with special interest pulling the forum strings

and yeah, it's good they read the forum. i bet the big shots at Piaggio don't even know Modern Vespa exists. too busy drinking espresso in quaint little cafes, most likely

plus they are Vespa so what are they going to do with that, anyway? info off a forum, i mean? Vespa is kind of stuck...being Vespa. i think Genuine is much more open to fun ideas

peabody99 wrote:please make that go away

come now, you know you wanna ride it. how can you resist that body made of Tupperware?

looks kind of Grand Vista like, now that i an looking at it again. and it's $4000 less. can't beat that bargain with a stick, i say

KABarash · Post by **KABarash** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:00 pm

JHScoot wrote:
peabody99 wrote:please make that go away
come now, you know you wanna ride it. how can you resist that body made of Tupperware?

Think that might make a good scoot to get someone to learn to ride, kinda like training pants for a toddler, it's disposable.....

BuddyRaton · Post by **BuddyRaton** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:45 pm

peabody99 wrote:please make that go away

It will....all on its own!

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:16 pm

JHScoot wrote:i bet the big shots at Piaggio don't even know Modern Vespa exists. too busy drinking espresso in quaint little cafes, most likely

They know it exists. They just don't seem to care.

North America accounts for less than 2% of Piaggio Group's overall sales revenue and less than 1% of its volume. All that kept Piaggio Group from losing money last is increases in scooter sales in SE Asia and commercial vehicles in India. Every other business unit had losses. This trend will continue, as they are about to re-launch their scooter business in India. Europe is still a huge market (61% of their sales), but North America loses significance almost daily.

So… Why would they bother reading ModernVespa?

I'm not saying they shouldn't. Piaggio Americas is its own business unit with its own leadership, so you'd think they'd be paying attention… Still, many scooterists have this sense that Piaggio Americas is this huge monolith. Relative to the US scooter market, maybe, but that's a drop in a bucket. That makes them a drop in a bucket that's a minuscule drop in a much bigger bucket, if that makes any sense.

Piaggio has dealers who seem to spend more time on MV posting nonsense than they do selling scooters. So maybe they're reading it on behalf of the company.

bosco · Post by **bosco** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:28 pm

ericalm wrote: Piaggio has dealers who seem to spend more time on MV posting nonsense than they do selling scooters. So maybe they're reading it on behalf of the company.

haha zing! (I know what you are talking about) I rarely post there, only if I see someone in my area in distress, or to jab at blatant lameness. I roll my eyes at #OMG NSR my feet! -- or whatever nonsense comes out of the "land of many indigenous trees to Southern California"

I know that Piaggio reads MV, and this forum and the Kymco forum. It just makes sense to see feedback, good- bad or otherwise.

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:35 pm

[/quote]
I know that Piaggio reads MV, and this forum and the Kymco forum. It just makes sense to see feedback, good- bad or otherwise.[/quote]

well if that is true they are NOT going to be happy about that genuine thread currently pretty active on modernvespa. http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic77102

Kymco has an active forum? I went on one and it had about 2 posts every 90 days.

bosco · Post by **bosco** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:59 pm

peabody99 wrote:

well if that is true they are NOT going to be happy about that genuine thread currently pretty active on modernvespa. http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic77102
[/quote]

The 'ol feud between the then vespa usa / piaggiousa and scooterworks/ genuine has deep roots.

Something like this doesn't make any real big waves.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:14 pm

wow. taking a look around modernvespa and reading some posts it seems some have no idea about scooters outside of Vespa and the Piaggio brands in general. seems sort of odd imo. i'm not s scooter expert. far, far from it. but i do like them in general and am quite a fan

but do some people simply buy a Vespa or two and figure "ok i have the best, now forget the rest"

i see two threads there with one asking "Genuine Any Good?" and "Kymco Any Good?" essentially.

thats fine, but these questions are from Vespa and Piaggio owners. I would think they would know a little about it. and some of the responses are so misinformed it's an lol

"that Buddy is gonna need a new engine at 7000 miles"

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:18 pm

ericalm wrote:
JHScoot wrote:i bet the big shots at Piaggio don't even know Modern Vespa exists. too busy drinking espresso in quaint little cafes, most likely
.....North America accounts for less than 2% of Piaggio Group's overall sales revenue and less than 1% of its volume......

ah, i see now

thats some eye opening info, right there

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:12 pm

bosco wrote:The 'ol feud between the then vespa usa / piaggiousa and scooterworks/ genuine has deep roots.

Indeed and I definitely didn't intend to stoke or rehash any of that in this goodwill thread! My point is simply that they're very different companies and we're lucky to have the support and acknowledgment we get from Genuine. I've never heard of any other scooter company being so responsive to customers and sending even an annual personal message to owners/enthusiasts.

mattgordon · Post by **mattgordon** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:19 pm

ericalm wrote:
JHScoot wrote:i bet the big shots at Piaggio don't even know Modern Vespa exists. too busy drinking espresso in quaint little cafes, most likely
They know it exists. They just don't seem to care.

North America accounts for less than 2% of Piaggio Group's overall sales revenue and less than 1% of its volume. All that kept Piaggio Group from losing money last is increases in scooter sales in SE Asia and commercial vehicles in India. Every other business unit had losses. This trend will continue, as they are about to re-launch their scooter business in India. Europe is still a huge market (61% of their sales), but North America loses significance almost daily.

So… Why would they bother reading ModernVespa?

I'm not saying they shouldn't. Piaggio Americas is its own business unit with its own leadership, so you'd think they'd be paying attention… Still, many scooterists have this sense that Piaggio Americas is this huge monolith. Relative to the US scooter market, maybe, but that's a drop in a bucket. That makes them a drop in a bucket that's a minuscule drop in a much bigger bucket, if that makes any sense.

Piaggio has dealers who seem to spend more time on MV posting nonsense than they do selling scooters. So maybe they're reading it on behalf of the company.

Modern Vespa or modern Buddy isn't what Piaggio USA really doesn't care about....what they really don't care about are the American scooterists, as our purchases from them are but a speck on their (im) balance sheet.

As far as Piaggio USA being it's own business unit, no business unit can continue ad infinitum while being supported fiscally by other business units under the umbrella. At some point in time, you either have to 1) Be profitable, or 2) go away.

There's no other choice. What becomes of Piaggio USA will be directly related to how long corporate cares to continue to feed it, and keep it afloat. It's been 10 years now....

Some dealers like to think they are doing market research for Piaggio by spending what seems like an inordinate amount of time trying to be both a forum member while at the same time being a forum sponsor/advocate for Piaggio or a specific dealership.

I don't believe this does those dealers nor Piaggio any good. It makes the dealer look very self-promotional, while giving the forum community at large a false sense that someone who matters is actually listening. I don't think they are.

Those are clearly the things which separate the Genuine Scooter Co's of the world (I know, there's but one) from the Piaggio's.

Much more information can be gleaned from listening, than talking. Genuine Scooter's Phil McCaleb undertands this, uses it to his (our's as consumers) advantage, and that's what makes them a good company, selling good product. He listens to his market....Piaggio speaks to theirs.

Stormswift · Post by **Stormswift** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:05 pm

I Would say that if Piaggio scooters were more affordable I would have made a trip to the next town to take a look at them and likely would have bought one of their scooters But they are very expensive and my Itallia is to me just as good without the $$$ price tag. It is just what I need to learn to ride for now. In a couple of years I may end up with an MP3 but I do hope they make them more reasonable cost-wise.

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:21 am

How did this thread get so horribly far off topic??! Seriously people. Start another thread if you want to share opinions about scooters. This was a very well wishing New Year's post, and a very special one too I might add, the gist of which is all but lost now. Good grief.

Post by **ericalm** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:50 am

Skootz Kabootz wrote:How did this thread get so horribly far off topic??! Seriously people. Start another thread if you want to share opinions about scooters. This was a very well wishing New Year's post, and a very special one too I might add, the gist of which is all but lost now. Good grief.

Mea culpa! I opened the can of worms then couldn't get them back in or however that goes.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:34 am

i really don't think its a problem. its a thread discussing scooters and the scooter business started by a guy in the scooter business. well wishes and discussion about the scooter business all around is what i am reading here for the most part

seems like its on topic to me, as most threads in a general discussion forum tend to ebb and flow with diverse conversation here and there. seems pretty normal especially since the OP (Phil) mentioned its been a challenging year in "the business"

a bit of discussion about said business just might ensue

and how am i gonna get an X-Hot unless i mention it? and what of peabody's cruiser

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:43 am

here you go Skootz

charlie55 · Post by **charlie55** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:56 am

Can't think of too many (any, in fact) company presidents, corporate CEOs, or assorted grand high poobahs who take the time to send a personal note to their constituents. Speaks volumes, no?

On a related note, I was expecting a couple of Christmas cards from the EPA and Customs folks, but they never arrived. Our postman informed me that the card from Customs was returned because the stamp was affixed with substandard adhesive. Similarly, the EPA's card was rejected due to the fact that the envelope was improperly sealed, thus allowing the recipient to make unauthorized modifications to its functionality, possibly even opening it.

Rules is rules.

dwayneed · Post by **dwayneed** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:06 am

Just started up the Stella and BlackJack last week to keep some juice in them, too bad it was -6 degrees....

Wed nights in Kenosha, Common Grounds cafe! Talk is going around about brats and beer maybe next Wed to start off 2011!

With all the friends we made in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, and Chicago last year this should be an amazing riding season!

Post by **Lostmycage** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:22 am

charlie55 wrote:Can't think of too many (any, in fact) company presidents, corporate CEOs, or assorted grand high poobahs who take the time to send a personal note to their constituents. Speaks volumes, no?

On a related note, I was expecting a couple of Christmas cards from the EPA and Customs folks, but they never arrived. Our postman informed me that the card from Customs was returned because the stamp was affixed with substandard adhesive. Similarly, the EPA's card was rejected due to the fact that the envelope was improperly sealed, thus allowing the recipient to make unauthorized modifications to its functionality, possibly even opening it.

Rules is rules.

Charlie, you've outdone yourself. That was brilliant.

KABarash · Post by **KABarash** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:51 pm

Sorry to get this therad off topic again.

Stormswift wrote:I Would say that if Piaggio scooters were more affordable I would have made a trip to the next town to take a look at them and likely would have bought one of their scooters But they are very expensive and my Itallia is to me just as good without the $$$ price tag. It is just what I need to learn to ride for now. In a couple of years I may end up with an MP3 but I do hope they make them more reasonable cost-wise.

Keep me in mind when that time comes...I always preferred the Italia but ended with the St Tropez cause the price was right.

Back to topic...
THANKS Phil, any new year wish late or not is appreciated, especially now that there's snow on the ground and I haven't ridden in two weeks or more (I forget) because of the stuff.....

GrittyTacoman · Post by **GrittyTacoman** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 2:38 pm

Happy 2011 Phil! May your year be filled with blockbuster scooter movies, high gas prices and blind import officials!

BootScootin'FireFighter · Sat Jan 29, 2011 3:20 pm

Skootz Kabootz wrote:How did this thread get so horribly far off topic??! Seriously people. Start another thread if you want to share opinions about scooters. This was a very well wishing New Year's post, and a very special one too I might add, the gist of which is all but lost now. Good grief.

+1 Skootz

Thanks Phil and the entire Genuine Scooter family. "the Mothership" has been a true beast of the streets, and 18 months and 10,000 miles later still purrs like a kitten, and issue free. I couldn't have ever asked for or expected such a reliable transport that keeps me grinning from ear to ear. My wifes "Sweet Pea" held up like a champ for almost 8,000 miles until it was boosted and left for dead in a NE Washington housing project. Her new Buddy, "Little Boy Blue", is coming up on 1000 miles now. I love talking to people about how great the Buddy is whenever I have the chance, and I'm a proud owner. Keep up the great work in 2011... Cheers!

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 3:53 pm

GrittyTacoman wrote:Happy 2011 Phil! May your year be filled with blockbuster scooter movies, high gas prices and blind import officials!

ha ha, exactly! plus jobs for more people too, so they can buy them.

Post by **ericalm** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:47 am

At this point, ScooterDave posted some snarky comments about Mr. McCaleb followed by a pic of himself mooning Scooterworks/Genuine HQ.

I killed the posts and locked the thread not because he had anything critical to say, but because it was pretty obvious that his sole reason for posting it was to be a dick. So. Nothing more to say here.