There are more reasons than fun and saving money...

[zuman]

I know a lot of people are buying scooters now because they think they're economical alternatives to cars while being a lot of fun, too.
Buying and operating a scooter is obviously more economical than BUYING and operating a car, but many have pointed out that the pay-back period is pretty darn long, and most may never even get to the point when gas savings offset capital outlay.
However, there are some pretty solid environmental reasons for riding a scooter instead of driving a car. Not only will a properly-tuned four-stroke scooter of modest engine size contribute less pollution and greenhouse gasses, but it will also place less of a demand on oil production.
It's not ALL about saving money...the planet needs saving, too.
Uh...and then there's that "fun" part to scooter riding as well...

[luckyleighton]

I am a realist..I understand that vehicles serve many purposes that scooters (or motorcycles) cannot.

But I would love to see our streets look like European streets cluttered with scooters.

[MikieTaps]

, and most may never even get to the point when gas savings offset capital outlay.
.

Um I think actually you save a lot of money right off the bat. Spending $3300 on the buddy vs. $30,000 on a new car. I see an immediate savings of $26,700, then another $30-$40 savings on the first fill up...

This might only apply to those of us out there that bought a Buddy INSTEAD of a car

I just feel like everyone is forgetting that paying for a car is a "capital outlay" also...

[Quo Vadimus]

I used to be proud of not driving an SUV around - all that wasted space and fuel driving around 'potential' capabilities that are hardly ever fully used.

Now that I have Daisy, I see that it's the same story with a car - even my Kia, which was getting 30mpg city WAY before that became an 'impressive' number for the auto industry to advertise. Everyone's driving a four or five-seater bus around almost exclusively to transport one person. It's just irresponsible. I don't own a moving van just in case I need to move - I rent one when that happens. Same with moving people.

[curlyred]

Actually, we are saving right now. Ok, soon. We just got Piglet, and we plan for my husband to ride the scoot to work and all of the misc short errands. His truck is a huge gas guzzler, at 15mpg. We did the math and just in gas alone we will pay for Pig in 2 yrs. That's assuming that Pig won't be ridden in the snow and ice we get every year.

I won't discuss our new scooter, since we haven't taken delivery yet. Let's just say we don't anticipate being able to share. We'll worry about the savings some other time.....

[tdaley26]

Well I have a 54 mile round trip commute that I was making in a 25 mpg light truck. So the pay back period for me is about 3 yrs.

Consider though, by using the buddy for my normal commute, that I am saving all the wear and tear on my truck in addition to the gas savings. If I hadn't switched to scootering (?) I would have had to buy a new commuting vehicle in a couple years. Now I think my truck will last much longer than that ( can't give up the truck altogether... I do use it almost every weekend for hauling crap from home depot, groceries etc.)

So I am saving on gas, and extending the life of my truck.

Plus, my scooter "el diablo" is so cool.!!!!!!

[ScooterTrash]

I don't save any money as I have a free work truck to drive around. One thing I will say is between the scoot and the truck the only miles put on the car are fun

[7eregrine]

All of us our "fighting terrorism" and decreasing our reliance on foriegn fuel. Do ya' need any more reasons??

[jfrost2]

Make all scooters run off diesel, and we can all switch to biodisel in an instant, support local restaurants, buy their used fryer oil! (this still combats terrorism and the dependency on foreign oil)

[bunny]

We have a 1500cc cruiser, my Kia Sportage and our soon to be here Italia. We used to have a truck. A big truck. 13 mpg or something crappy like that. We did the math the other day after we prepaid for my Italia...

The truck payment alone will cover the cost of BOTH the bike and the scoot. Which means the current bike payment will more than cover gas for both. As we won't be using Sophy that much, the payment on her is static and her gas will go down, too.

That said, we're paying out about the same amount of money, yet the pay-off is MUCH GREATER in the end. Environmentally sound, economically sound, fashionably sound...

Really can't beat that, KWIM?