Big '07 Stella Pics

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:55 am

Philadelphia Scooters has high-res pics of the new blue and avocado Stellas. Below are smaller verions.

EDIT: These are mock ups! Next time I need to inspect them a bit better! The first batch is on its way and will be dealers in January. Yes, despite the fact that they won't be available until '08, Genuine is calling this batch the 2007 Stellas. It's still undetermined whether there will be a full '08 production run. So go out and buy these up, quick!

10gallonhat · Post by **10gallonhat** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:55 pm

I really like the Avocado green, ALOT. It would look great next to my '07 Orange Buddy

KABarash · Post by **KABarash** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:23 pm

10gallonhat wrote:I really like the Avocado green, ALOT. It would look great next to my '07 Orange Buddy

Green would look great with a tan seat....... it would be an exact match to my Jeep. Tan over Green!

illnoise · Post by **illnoise** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:51 pm

I saw those last week, but then realized they're clearly photoshop jobs. Look at the highlight on the whitewall of the avocado scooter, it's black (an inverse of the highlight on the black tire of the other one). And both are from precisely the same angle, to the pixel, and the color is a wee bit unnatural (especially in the shadow areas).

It also appears that the shocks are the old kind, so this was probably an old stella press photo that was modified to show the new colors.

Nothing "fishy" about it or anything, it's common in the industry and everything, but it just seems worth pointing out that these aren't not actual photos of actual finished scooters.

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:38 pm

illnoise wrote:I saw those last week, but then realized they're clearly photoshop jobs. Look at the highlight on the whitewall of the avocado scooter, it's black (an inverse of the highlight on the black tire of the other one). And both are from precisely the same angle, to the pixel, and the color is a wee bit unnatural (especially in the shadow areas).

It also appears that the shocks are the old kind, so this was probably an old stella press photo that was modified to show the new colors.

Nothing "fishy" about it or anything, it's common in the industry and everything, but it just seems worth pointing out that these aren't not actual photos of actual finished scooters.

Good catch! I edited the original post. Oops!

scooterdoodler · Post by **scooterdoodler** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:09 am

Not being very familiar with the Stella scooters (although I've been aware of their existence for a long time)...I have to ask 'the obvious'..How do they compare, one on one, to the Vespa models they resemble?

I have to wonder, because I've often heard stories of the difficulty in getting Vespa parts, with the scooters being 'down' for sometime weeks, and apparently sometimes even months while waiting for parts from Italy.

So if available replacement parts for Vespa scooters can be an issue....how are the Stellas in that regard?

illnoise · Post by **illnoise** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:21 am

scooterdoodler wrote:So if available replacement parts for Vespa scooters can be an issue....how are the Stellas in that regard?

The Stellas are analogous to Vespas 1970s-80s P-series (with some upgrades.) Aside from the brakes, suspension, and exhaust, they're very interchangeable, probably 90% or more, and even those parts could technically be replaced with simpler old Vespa parts.

OLD Vespa parts are cake to get, there are dozens of good shops all around the US and world with huge stockpiles, and many companies make replacement parts, it's probably easier than finding parts for a popular american muscle car. There's tuning and upgrades available, and lots of customization options. Finding Stella parts is cake.

Getting original Piaggio OEM parts is sometimes more difficult, and some of the replacement parts may not be of the same quality as the originals, but they're out there. It's actually easier to get Piaggio OEM parts from a third party or overseas than to work through Piaggio USA and most of their dealers.

It's the *modern* Vespa parts (ET4, LX, GT, GTS, etc) that are sometimes hard to find, because only Piaggio distributes them and PiaggioUSA is bad about supplying them to dealers. Again, a lot of that stuff is easier to find overseas than to wait for a dealer to get it through the "official" channels. But for vintage P-series and Stellas, there's virtually nothing that's not a Fed Ex away, and it's all reasonably priced, especially compared to cars and motorcycles.

EP_scoot · Post by **EP_scoot** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:27 am

scooterdoodler wrote:
How do they compare, one on one, to the Vespa models they resemble?

There is a comparison side by side with a Vespa PX150 here:
http://www.provoscooter.com/px150/stellavspx.htm

scooterdoodler · Post by **scooterdoodler** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:44 pm

EP_scoot wrote:
scooterdoodler wrote:
How do they compare, one on one, to the Vespa models they resemble?
There is a comparison side by side with a Vespa PX150 here:
http://www.provoscooter.com/px150/stellavspx.htm

According to that, the Stella is about 30 lbs heavier, has 1.8 more hp, gets 90 mpg versus 60 mpg for the Vespa 150, and cost big bucks less.

In a purely pragmantic sense, this is a no-brainer.

illnoise · Post by **illnoise** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:39 am

scooterdoodler wrote:According to that, the Stella is about 30 lbs heavier, has 1.8 more hp, gets 90 mpg versus 60 mpg for the Vespa 150, and cost big bucks less.

In a purely pragmantic sense, this is a no-brainer.

I'd buy a Stella before a new P150, but that chart is biased, there are some pluses of a Vespa P150

1) higher resale value
2) less weight=faster (30lbs makes a lot of difference on a scooter)
3) Piaggio is arguably of higher quality (I would argue it is, though maybe not $2000 better). Even if parts are interchangeable, the Piaggio version uses (they would argue) better components.
4) Despite the ineptitude of PiaggioUSA, Piaggio&Co. SpA is a much greater power in the scooter industry than PGO or Genuine, which gives your scooter a bit more interesting parentage. That's not important to most people, but it's amazingly critical to some.
5) The argument has been raised (dunno if this is true) that the Stella's "thicker" metal is a result of inferior metallurgy, and that the Vespa's constructed of a higher-quality alloy. Comparing both in person, I'd say the Vespa body construction and paint is a hair better. (allegedly the paint is improved on the new Stellas)

No agenda, just trying to point out that the chart cited had a certain bias, ha.

pocphil · Post by **pocphil** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:44 pm

The biggest factor when making the decision new Stella vs. Px150 is simple.

They no longer import / sell Vespa PX150's. We just got back from Piaggio / Vespa dealer training and spoke with them about the possibility of PX's for 2008 or at any time in the future and the answer was an emphatic "NO, the PX150 is done for the US market".

Our service training didn't spend 1 minute talking about the PX150 despite the fact there are thousands on the road. I have the feeling Piaggio USA would like to deny the existence of the PX alltogether.

The unspoken factor:

People who want a VESPA want a VESPA - usually nothing else matters.