Modern Buddy

This is my 1st post. Please be gentle... I want to buy a scooter this summer. I have never ridden a scooter before. I like the looks of the Stella.

Now to my question: If the Stella is reintroduced this year, is there any chance there will be an automatic version?

I do not know how to drive a stick shift car, let alone a manual scooter. Anyone feel the same way about automatic scooters?

I suspect the Stella will still be manual, just to stick to the roots kind of thing. But who knows?

I drive a manual car, felt I picked up the shift on a manual motorcycle with no problem, and like the extra element of control of a manual—But I like having an automatic scooter because sometimes a clutch is something else to think about, an extra step to being able to get out of the way of rogue cagers. Maybe someday I'll get a manual scooter. But for now, I like getting used to riding on an automatic.

...of the Stella is that it is an old-school shifter scoot with a metal body that wasn't a tempermental 25+ year old vintage machine. Changing it to a CVT would defeat the entire purpose behind the marketing.

Now, the improvement I'd suggest is a direct-injection fuel system. Much cleaner, probably less likely to melt pistons, and you could lose the restrictive stock pipe with the catalyzer.

Sparky wrote:Now, the improvement I'd suggest is a direct-injection fuel system. Much cleaner, probably less likely to melt pistons, and you could lose the restrictive stock pipe with the catalyzer.

This is the most likely rumor re: the "new" Stella, IMHO. It would help open up the California market, where Genuine stands to sell a lot of scoots. Buddys are very popular here (local dealer can't keep them in the shop!) and have allowed Genuine to develop a dealer network to move Stellas, should the new ones meet state emissions standards. The direct-injection should do the trick.

All anyone knows for sure is that Genuine has some big announcements planned for later this year. They're being very coy about it.