Oops!
Well, folks, the CFO saw right through the motor scooter ruse. Right off the bat without so much as the blink of an eye. After 40 years of marriage she knows me entirely too well. Looks like I'm going to get off fairly lightly with the purchase of a Smart Car for her. It could have been worse.
She was wrong about one thing, however, when she put the purchase price of the Gator 150 in the neighborhood of $7000. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was only $1295 (including sales tax) or 18.5% of her guess. In checking around, a comparable Yamaha Zuma 125 (which I liked very much) was $2999 over at the Yamaha dealer in Jefferson. In Italian scooters, a real Vespa 200 cost $5199 and the Piaggio Fly 150 (which the Gator 150 copies in minute detail) come in at at $2899.
I tried dealing with the Yamaha folks in Jefferson but scooters are in a seller's market at the moment. He said, "Look, I order ten and they send me three. I immediately order ten more and by the time I get the next three, I've sold the three I had in stock at full price. You either want it or you don't." Hmmmm. Reminds me of Datsun 240Z's when they first came out in the early 70's! I bought my helmet and left.
I bought the Gator 150 from Gary Parlier at Parlier Motors here in Sparta. Gary is also the guy who sold me all the ceramic tile in the house and installed our carpeting. He's also something of a vintage automobile nut with a dozen, or so, of them. When the Gator 50 didn't work out, I called him and, without hesitation, he told me to bring it back. I told him I wanted to swap for the Gator 150 which he did for the $300 difference in price. And, he actually delivered it to the house here in Air Bellows and took the Gator 50 back to town. That's Sparta for you, folks.
I have a wooden produce box from Hawk's that I'm fitting to the rack on the back of the scooter. The rack suggested a maximum weight of 5 Kg (11 lbs) but with a little welding reinforcement it will now hold all the groceries I can fit in the box. Pictures later.
I had planned a test run into town today to determine exactly how many ounces of gasoline are required for a round trip. Alas, we got the first real rain since April and we needed it desperately. So, I'll make the test run tomorrow instead when the produce box is completed.
So, exactly how did the idea for a scooter come about? Well, we saw them used by the zillions in Italy and the CFO had actually suggested the idea about a month ago. Then I saw a photograph of William F. Buckley, Jr. on the Vespa he rode around Manhattan when he was still alive. So says I to me (here comes the rationalization), "If he can do it in Manhattan, I can do it in Alleghany County! And, by using the scooter for going back and forth to town, I will conserve gasoline so that when I pontificate about conservation being an important part of the solution to our energy situation, I can do so with impunity."
So, there, take that and scoot.
She was wrong about one thing, however, when she put the purchase price of the Gator 150 in the neighborhood of $7000. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was only $1295 (including sales tax) or 18.5% of her guess. In checking around, a comparable Yamaha Zuma 125 (which I liked very much) was $2999 over at the Yamaha dealer in Jefferson. In Italian scooters, a real Vespa 200 cost $5199 and the Piaggio Fly 150 (which the Gator 150 copies in minute detail) come in at at $2899.
I tried dealing with the Yamaha folks in Jefferson but scooters are in a seller's market at the moment. He said, "Look, I order ten and they send me three. I immediately order ten more and by the time I get the next three, I've sold the three I had in stock at full price. You either want it or you don't." Hmmmm. Reminds me of Datsun 240Z's when they first came out in the early 70's! I bought my helmet and left.
I bought the Gator 150 from Gary Parlier at Parlier Motors here in Sparta. Gary is also the guy who sold me all the ceramic tile in the house and installed our carpeting. He's also something of a vintage automobile nut with a dozen, or so, of them. When the Gator 50 didn't work out, I called him and, without hesitation, he told me to bring it back. I told him I wanted to swap for the Gator 150 which he did for the $300 difference in price. And, he actually delivered it to the house here in Air Bellows and took the Gator 50 back to town. That's Sparta for you, folks.
I have a wooden produce box from Hawk's that I'm fitting to the rack on the back of the scooter. The rack suggested a maximum weight of 5 Kg (11 lbs) but with a little welding reinforcement it will now hold all the groceries I can fit in the box. Pictures later.
I had planned a test run into town today to determine exactly how many ounces of gasoline are required for a round trip. Alas, we got the first real rain since April and we needed it desperately. So, I'll make the test run tomorrow instead when the produce box is completed.
So, exactly how did the idea for a scooter come about? Well, we saw them used by the zillions in Italy and the CFO had actually suggested the idea about a month ago. Then I saw a photograph of William F. Buckley, Jr. on the Vespa he rode around Manhattan when he was still alive. So says I to me (here comes the rationalization), "If he can do it in Manhattan, I can do it in Alleghany County! And, by using the scooter for going back and forth to town, I will conserve gasoline so that when I pontificate about conservation being an important part of the solution to our energy situation, I can do so with impunity."
So, there, take that and scoot.
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