apriliaa news for 2014?

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ggs34
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apriliaa news for 2014?

Post by ggs34 »

does any one know what aprilia is going to do for scooters in the us in 2014?

i called my dealer he had no idea if they were going to sell anything new
i was looking forward to the scarabeo 200 efi or the new sport city with a 350cc
has any one heard of any news out there i tried to goole it came up with nothing

do i go buy a 09 sacabeo 200 will i can? are they pulling out of USA?

how will the hooligan compare to the scarabeo? i know the have different wheels
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skully93
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Post by skully93 »

this is opinion only (I couldn't find any new info either).

I love my Beo 500ie. That being said, it is fancy, not easy to work on, and the parts are pricey. The large wheel size is nice for the big scoot. My local dealer said that many of the smaller Aprillia models (not the Sportcity, but mostly of the Scarabeo line) have a lot of the cheaper parts/plastics. They don't much care for them.

That being said if you get a great deal and you have dealer support, they're good machines.
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jrsjr
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Post by jrsjr »

I don't follow the Euro scooter scene any more. Ericalm can probably quote you some recent numbers, but I have the sense that things are not good in the scooterspace. Back in mid-October the motorcycle press reported that Aprilia were furloughing their factory workers until the end of October (and possibly until mid-December). I just googled around and found nothing in the way of news about this matter. At the time that news came out, I looked around over on Modern Vespa and found mention of a "production pause" by Piaggio. I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good. The way I used to keep track of scooter sales in Italy was via the site Cyberscoot.it in (pretty awful) Google translation. They used to report sales numbers, but they appear to have stopped that at the end of 2012.

Below is the (pretty awful) Google translation of the last sales report they published, the 2012 year-end roll up. As I understand it, 2013 numbers are much worse than these terrible 2012 numbers. At some point there will be a turnaround and I sincerely hope Aprilia will be a part of it, but it wasn't this year, sorry to say.

Edited to correct the timing of the end of the end of the production shutdown. I still can't find definitive word on when production will resume.
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Dooglas
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Post by Dooglas »

skully93 wrote:I love my Beo 500ie. That being said, it is fancy, not easy to work on, and the parts are pricey.
Couldn't you say the same thing of a BV500 or an MP3 500? Or a BMW C600 for that matter.
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ericalm
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Post by ericalm »

Dooglas wrote:
skully93 wrote:I love my Beo 500ie. That being said, it is fancy, not easy to work on, and the parts are pricey.
Couldn't you say the same thing of a BV500 or an MP3 500? Or a BMW C600 for that matter.
It's true to some degree for all of them. The MP3 and BMW in particular.
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ericalm
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Post by ericalm »

The European market is really bad right now. The US market still hasn't recovered from '09-'10. And the Aprilia scooters — with the possible exception of the SR50 and all its variations — have never sold well here.

The US was reportedly getting the SRV850 next year, but they've been very quiet about this and it might not be happening. They may announce it at their dealer meeting if they do it this year; they've done it intermittently for the past several, depending on if they have a big new product to launch or how the market was doing.

With things this volatile., Piaggio isn't exactly being transparent with their plans for the US. Ask an MP3 owner.

There are several Aprilia and Scarabeo (they're different brands in Europe) models out now or coming that we haven't and may not see in the US.

SRV850: Maybe in 2014?
SRMax 300: Might be a nice, lower-proved alternate to the BV350 but I haven't heard anything about this coming to the US.
Scarabeo 50: unlikely
Scarabeo 125ie: unlikely (would compete too much with Piaggio Fly; Fly would win)
Scarabeo 200ie: ??? I'd heard the 200 might be discontinued in the US but who knows?
Scarabeo 300S: Same comment as SRMax 300.
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Post by dkw12002 »

My guess is Piaggio will continue to sell their high-end Vespas in 50cc, 150cc, and 300 models, and the 946. They will offer the 125 fly and BV350. I think that's about all. I haven't seen any new Sportcity or Scarabeos in over a year and don't expect to see any. Nobody seems to be expanding scooter lines even though they do seem to finally be releasing some small-displacement motorcycles like the Grom at 125cc, along with the 500 cc bikes from Honda, and the Ninja 300 and KTM with the 390. My hope is that Aprilia releases its 125 race bike to the US market.
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Post by jrstone »

I am a big fan of Aprilia, and I wish they sold more of their products in the US. I have no interest in (or the money for) an RSV4, but I'd snatch up an RS4 125 in a second.

As for the Sportcity, I think its days are over. If you look at the international Aprilia websites, there is no mention of the Sportcity at all. The Sportcity One had already been replaced by the SR Motard, and there is a new maxi scooter, the SR Max, that seems to have stepped in for the bigger Sportcity Cube.
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Post by skipper20 »

jrstone wrote:I am a big fan of Aprilia, and I wish they sold more of their products in the US. I have no interest in (or the money for) an RSV4, but I'd snatch up an RS4 125 in a second.

As for the Sportcity, I think its days are over. If you look at the international Aprilia websites, there is no mention of the Sportcity at all. The Sportcity One had already been replaced by the SR Motard, and there is a new maxi scooter, the SR Max, that seems to have stepped in for the bigger Sportcity Cube.
Not good news for myself who just purchased an '08 SC 250 this past October. I just hope that if the SC line is discontinued, spare parts will still be available although so far, reliability has been first class. I have had my eyes on a used Aprilia Scarabeo 100 as a lightweight "back up" bike. One that at 198 lbs. wet I can easily get on my trailer hitch mounted MC rack and take anywhere. Anybody have any experience or thoughts about the Scarabeo 100? It has a different look to it which I kind of like although underseat storage is basically zero. As such, a color matching top case seems to be standard.

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jrstone
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Post by jrstone »

skipper20 wrote:Not good news for myself who just purchased an '08 SC 250 this past October. I just hope that if the SC line is discontinued, spare parts will still be available although so far, reliability has been first class.
I can't imagine you would have too much trouble. Most parts, aside from body panels obviously, are shared with other Piaggio models.
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Post by jrsjr »

ericalm wrote:The European market is really bad right now. The US market still hasn't recovered from '09-'10. And the Aprilia scooters — with the possible exception of the SR50 and all its variations — have never sold well here.

The US was reportedly getting the SRV850 next year, but they've been very quiet about this and it might not be happening. They may announce it at their dealer meeting if they do it this year; they've done it intermittently for the past several, depending on if they have a big new product to launch or how the market was doing.

With things this volatile., Piaggio isn't exactly being transparent with their plans for the US. Ask an MP3 owner.

There are several Aprilia and Scarabeo (they're different brands in Europe) models out now or coming that we haven't and may not see in the US.

SRV850: Maybe in 2014?
SRMax 300: Might be a nice, lower-proved alternate to the BV350 but I haven't heard anything about this coming to the US.
Scarabeo 50: unlikely
Scarabeo 125ie: unlikely (would compete too much with Piaggio Fly; Fly would win)
Scarabeo 200ie: ??? I'd heard the 200 might be discontinued in the US but who knows?
Scarabeo 300S: Same comment as SRMax 300.
Do you happen to know if Aprilia has restarted production yet? I couldn't find anything about it.
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Post by ericalm »

jrstone wrote:
skipper20 wrote:Not good news for myself who just purchased an '08 SC 250 this past October. I just hope that if the SC line is discontinued, spare parts will still be available although so far, reliability has been first class.
I can't imagine you would have too much trouble. Most parts, aside from body panels obviously, are shared with other Piaggio models.
Overall for Aprilia, it's a big mix depending on which year and which model you got. I think some of the Aprilia models still use Rotax engine, or at least did until recently. The Beo 200 engine is unique to that model; it's not the 200cc LEADER that was in the Vespa GT200. Even some with the same engine design (e.g., the 500cc MASTER) have different configurations in the Piaggio and Aprilia models.

Fortunately, the SC250 does have the QUASAR engine that was in the GTS 250 and is in the same family as the one in the GTS Super 300s.
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Post by AF1 Racing »

dont worry about Aprilia parts....all 2004+ parts are still orderable....a very few parts before 2004 have discontinued. We have all the parts diagrams and parts on our site www.af1racing.com

We keep telling Aprilia USA to bring more Aprilia scoots back into the country. We sold piles of the SportCity 125, 250, and 300s. All were great scoots. The Sportcity 125 is exactly the Piaggio Typhoon 125 (same scoot, different look). They currently only bring in the SR50 Motard - 4 stroke 50, and the SR50 Factory (Ditech fuel injected 2 stroke). The SRV850 is not coming. We have no news of anything new for 2014 at this time.

They have one called the SR300 MAX in europe, that is the one they should bring over. Sporty, excellent brakes and its a 300 (essentially the Vespa 300 engine).

Good thing there is Genuine branded scoots, as they fill in the scooter selection on our showroom with very nice and dependable scoots at great prices.
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aprilia news

Post by ggs34 »

my vespa /aprilia dealer Vespa Madison told me he wish he could get his hands on 100 of the scarabeo 200
he said he could never get enough of them them would fly out the door never had any problem with them very solid scooter
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Post by ericalm »

jrsjr wrote:Do you happen to know if Aprilia has restarted production yet? I couldn't find anything about it.
Haven't heard but it was originally just supposed to be stopped for a month.
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jrsjr
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Post by jrsjr »

ericalm wrote:
jrsjr wrote:Do you happen to know if Aprilia has restarted production yet? I couldn't find anything about it.

Haven't heard but it was originally just supposed to be stopped for a month.

This is a Google Translation of the most recent newspaper article I can find, from November 30th.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From La Nuova (A newspaper in Venice, Italy)
Trade unions in Aprilia "We need a concrete plan now»

NOALE. Okay marketing but you have to focus on protecting the plants. This mood of FIM CISL and CGIL Fiom the day after the meeting on Thursday with Aprilia, which was supposed to bring the business plan, or at least put on the table of ideas more precise in the future.

Instead, in over seven hours of discussion, the house motoring talked about more investment for the sale of the product, also looking outside Europe with a professional from Pirelli, and the willingness to invest in the Moto GP in 2016. The unions were expecting more and rush to Aprilia. In December there will be three new meetings, while Monday it will stop production for the entire month. "They want to focus on an Aprilia to become a status symbol" refers to Matthew Masiero FIM CISL 'and we may be fine but it serves the other, because the results you will see in the future. For example, it takes a commitment to keep the factories and jobs. You will have to reach an agreement on concrete things but not on facts intangibles. "

Adriano Pomiato of Fiom CGIL, Dec. tell you a lot about how then will move the company to the union. "We expect a plan," says, "because you have not seen in practice. We will see what will emerge in the next few meetings, otherwise interpelleremo workers and decide how to move. "

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the above agrees with what has been reported in the motorcycle racing press. Aprilia has been trying to position themselves as contenders in WSBK and in the CRT segment of MotoGP. In the WSBK series, Aprilia appear to have struck out with Alstare, their best hope for mounting a competitive effort next season. In the MotoGP series, Aprilia had been competing in the CRT segment, but next year Honda is going to sell "customer bikes" to CRT teams and that appears to have caused all support for the Aprilia effort to collapse.

My point being that Aprilia appear to be running out of options in the motorcycle racing world, which is the heart and soul of the company. Simultaneously, the scooter market appears to be collapsing in Italy where Aprilia might previously have expected to sell a significant portion of the output of their scooter production. This is resulting in labor troubles, which history indicates is never a good thing for a vehicle manufacturer. Meanwhile Piaggio has got to be thinking about the money that Aprilia is costing them at a time when sales (and profits) are sagging.

I hope I'm reading the tea leaves all wrong, but I think there's a reason why Piaggio is so desperately trying to shift the focus of their operations to the Asian marketspace and it's not at all clear to me what role Aprilia will play in that arena. Perhaps they could reposition themselves as the sporting brand of choice for whatever vehicles Piaggio eventually ends up selling in the different Asian markets. Even that brand repositioning wouldn't help the folks whose livelihoods are attached to the traditional Aprilia brand. Again, I hope I'm all wrong about this whole thing.
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aprilia nothing new

Post by ggs34 »

well in the us we are not getting any new from aprilia there web site is now up to date
we get 2 small scooter we are being dummped on
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Post by Dooglas »

It seems pretty clear that we are not going to see further 125/200/300 Aprilia scooters in the US in the foreseeable future. Too bad. I own a Sport City 300, and its a great scooter. Piaggio has evidently decided that the answer to sluggish sales of scooters in the US is to - 1) concentrate on the Vespa brand (which has always been their best seller here, and 2) consolidate their other offerings (so far that has meant, discontinuing 500cc models, discontinuing most Aprilias, and no more MP3s for the immediate future). I still think we will eventually see a 350 MP3, but time will tell on that.
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Post by Witch »

It's a shame, really. I'm a sucker for the Scarabeo line. I had 2 of 'em.

While I loved my Vespa and I love my Buddy, I'd be thrilled to see something like the smaller Scarabeos offered again. There's nothing currently like them in the US market right now. Sure, there's some big wheel scoots to choose from, but they're all sporty and I feel they're not the same. While my GTV was easily the nicest scooter I've had, my kitted 2001 Scarabeo 50 was by far the best overall. I beat the crap out of it, did not treat it very well at all, rode it like I stole it for every mile of its life, and it only needed to be rebuilt once... which was both a miracle and a testament to how awesome it was to begin with.

Show me another classy-styled big-wheel scoot with a little 2-stroke engine I can mod the crap out of, and I'd be first in line to drool over it.
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Post by wheelbender6 »

Fortunately, they will still import the clutchless Mana 850. Current model has a mini fairing.
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