Interesting comparison: Buddy 125 / Vespa LX 150

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 9:20 am

Here's some interesting data I just found at this website.

I just plugged in "2009 Buddy 125", then compared it to "2009 Vespa LX 150" (because I thought that would be the closest Vespa to compare) for grins.

The data from reviews came up showing the info below, but in a little different format. What I mean by that is that I couldn't copy the bar charts here, so I copied the data, pasted it here, and color coded each category.

Keep in mind that a higher number is a better score.

2009 Genuine Scooter Buddy 125
2009 Vespa LX 150
Average for scooters
Average for all bikes

Overall rating: (Details below) 74.4 61.3 59.9 63.8

Detailed rating

Engine performance: 83.9 73.2 62.9 67.9
Reliability and problem-free driving: 82.0 66.6 63.5 68.0
Fun-factor: 82.0 76.6 64.5 70.8
Value for money: 77.9 63.3 62.2 66.8
Repair and maintenance costs: 85.9 53.3 57.9 60.1
Design and look: 82.0 79.9 65.1 69.8
Offroad capabilities: 42.5 50.0 49.9 51.2
Racing track capabilities: 62.5 33.3 52.5 56.3
Touring capabilities: 66.0 53.3 58.6 62.4
Accident risk: (excellent=low risk) 79.9 63.2 61.5 64.3

Note: I really didn't post this to start heated discussion...I just thought it was interesting what came up, and thought I'd share. I know everything is relative, and depends on the actual questions being asked (and how they are being asked) in the survey.

Lokky · Post by **Lokky** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:52 pm

I think an interesting thing to keep in mind is that these are rider reviews, not professional reviews.
With that in mind and the fact that a vespa is a luxury brand, I am not surprised that vespa owners would rate their rides consistently better than other brands. Its something that can be observed in many markets, be it motorcycles, cars, computers, prepackaged food etc...

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:10 pm

Lokky wrote:With that in mind and the fact that a vespa is a luxury brand, I am not surprised that vespa owners would rate their rides consistently better than other brands.

Except that the Buddy scores are higher in most categories - including ones that don't make much sense like "accident risk" or ones where the Vespa clearly shines like "design and look"

. As michele observed, posted for interest, not "for heated discussion".

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 9:32 pm

Yeah, the Buddy scores are higher in this survey. I just thought it weird that the Vespa rated lower than the Buddy in most of the questions..but again, who knows, if different questions were answered, or different people were to respond, the numbers might be different.

Lokky · Post by **Lokky** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:28 pm

Dooglas wrote:
Lokky wrote:With that in mind and the fact that a vespa is a luxury brand, I am not surprised that vespa owners would rate their rides consistently better than other brands.
Except that the Buddy scores are higher in most categories - including ones that don't make much sense like "accident risk" or ones where the Vespa clearly shines like "design and look" . As michele observed, posted for interest, not "for heated discussion".

oh gosh I completely flipped the colors around in my head when reading the data, disregard what I said

neotrotsky · Post by **neotrotsky** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:37 pm

Lokky wrote:I think an interesting thing to keep in mind is that these are rider reviews, not professional reviews.
With that in mind and the fact that a vespa is a luxury brand, I am not surprised that vespa owners would rate their rides consistently better than other brands. Its something that can be observed in many markets, be it motorcycles, cars, computers, prepackaged food etc...

Vespa likes to THINK of themselves as a luxury brand. With many other scooter companies showing Vespa up on every front, the reason to pay more money for less bike from Piaggio gets more murky every day.

Honda has proven more modern, and LML seems to be winning the vintage purists elsewhere. Vespa can't even break into the top 5 in sales in their OWN COUNTRY anymore. And, they treat the rest of the world with disdain, especially the US market which isn't "worth" putting effort into. From what I hear they didn't even have a single representative at Amerivespa. Guess there wasn't enough champagne and lobster dinners or fashion photographers chasing after celebrity heiresses for their taste there.

velobuff · Post by **velobuff** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:20 am

These ratings are all subjective - from people that may or may not be qualified or authoritative.

Ride them both & see which one you like better and buy it.

fossel · Post by **fossel** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 1:40 pm

I rode side by side with a vino with some performance mods ,and we were even all the way.Would I trde mine for a vino.NO WAY! I love the buddy's growl.vespa's are nice,but I love my buddy.Its more fun than a guy should be allowed to have..

SYMbionic Duo · Post by **SYMbionic Duo** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 4:11 pm

Piaggio can't get Italians to by Vespas because of the small wheels.

The Italian market is all about big wheeled scooters, and Kymco and Honda are dominating that segment.

The three bikes that i saw consistently were.
1. Honda SH125
2. Kymco People 125
3. SYM HD125

-duo

ThreeSheets · Post by **ThreeSheets** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:47 pm

thanks for the post, interesting numbers.

hal888 · Post by **hal888** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:07 am

I think this just speaks to some fundamental differences between buddy and vespa buyers. Buddy buyers may be more enthusiastic, younger, knowledgeable, do it yourselfers, be more animated about scooting, etc. In contrast, Vespa buyers may be older, have more money, and may also have certain perceptions of what a vespa represents. The survey needs to stratify their results by age, SES, gender, etc to disentangle these differences, then try to control for reporting biases.

Post by **ericalm** » Sat Jul 07, 2012 12:43 am

hal888 wrote:I think this just speaks to some fundamental differences between buddy and vespa buyers. Buddy buyers may be more enthusiastic, younger, knowledgeable, do it yourselfers, be more animated about scooting, etc. In contrast, Vespa buyers may be older, have more money, and may also have certain perceptions of what a vespa represents. The survey needs to stratify their results by age, SES, gender, etc to disentangle these differences, then try to control for reporting biases.

+1!

This is all based on self-reporting, and the scores weren't provided based on comparison with other models. There are a lot of biases at work here, including how much experience owners may have with other motorcycles and scooters.

That's not to say that the scores for the Buddy aren't outstanding!

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:32 am

See, now this is what I was going for--animated banter without heated rants!

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Sun Jul 08, 2012 5:06 pm

SYMbionic Duo wrote:Piaggio can't get Italians to by Vespas because of the small wheels. The Italian market is all about big wheeled scooters, and Kymco and Honda are dominating that segment.

True. But, you forgot to finish the sentence

. Piaggio is not only offering their own large wheeled scooters, but is doing quite well in Italian sales. At the moment, the BV 350 is outselling the highly popular Honda SH 300.

SYMbionic Duo · Post by **SYMbionic Duo** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:50 pm

Dooglas wrote:
SYMbionic Duo wrote:Piaggio can't get Italians to by Vespas because of the small wheels. The Italian market is all about big wheeled scooters, and Kymco and Honda are dominating that segment.
True. But, you forgot to finish the sentence . Piaggio is not only offering their own large wheeled scooters, but is doing quite well in Italian sales. At the moment, the BV 350 is outselling the highly popular Honda SH 300.

The Beverly is the only scooter selling though. And the new 350cc are at an excellent Power-Weight-MPG ratio. But > 125cc is a small segment of total sales.