I watched the trend grow and grow and then decided to contact a Vespa Seller on Ebay to see what was available. He told me he could get me a fully restored Vespa from Asia- all new parts and what wasn’t new was reconditioned. This comment had the alarm bells ringing. Asia? Could that be right?
Over the next few weeks I thought I had better do some research if I was going to shell out over $3000 for a scooter sight unseen, and I am very glad I did.
With only days before I was due to send a deposit to the Vespa seller I started receiving emails from his past clients warning me off his scooters. I had researched his customers and was able to email them to find out what the scooters were like. I was contacted by 3 people who had purchased faulty scooters from this particular scooter dealer based in Australia. He claimed to have “Fully Restored” Vespa Scooters of a particular model. They look absolutely beautiful in the pictures, which is all the international sellers have to go by. The list of items supposedly replaced during the restoration process is endless. The unsuspecting buyer falls in love with a shiny shell, and is terribly shocked when they finally land it here from Vietnam. That’s right, they are not restored here, and that’s just where the problems begin.
It may be fair to say that the quality of a restoration job done in Vietnam would be questionable given the lack of genuine Vespa knowledge. They are a distinct beast to work on as I am continually finding out.
Over the next few weeks I thought I had better do some research if I was going to shell out over $3000 for a scooter sight unseen, and I am very glad I did.
With only days before I was due to send a deposit to the Vespa seller I started receiving emails from his past clients warning me off his scooters. I had researched his customers and was able to email them to find out what the scooters were like. I was contacted by 3 people who had purchased faulty scooters from this particular scooter dealer based in Australia. He claimed to have “Fully Restored” Vespa Scooters of a particular model. They look absolutely beautiful in the pictures, which is all the international sellers have to go by. The list of items supposedly replaced during the restoration process is endless. The unsuspecting buyer falls in love with a shiny shell, and is terribly shocked when they finally land it here from Vietnam. That’s right, they are not restored here, and that’s just where the problems begin.
It may be fair to say that the quality of a restoration job done in Vietnam would be questionable given the lack of genuine Vespa knowledge. They are a distinct beast to work on as I am continually finding out.
So I did some more shopping and decided to buy a "local" scooter. I found an old VBC in Byron Bay and was given the spiel of the century which sucked me in. I asked for as much information as he could supply and was sent about 8 photos from all angles, she looked pretty good. I paid the dollars after a bit of a haggle and the scooter was shipped down to Melbourne so it was off to the big smoke.
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