Fiat S.p.A., founded in 1899, had formed a partner ship with Ford after their agreement with GM dissolved back in 2005. With their new found friendship rumors have been spreading that Fiat is considering the usage of Ford’s distribution network to bring the new Fiat 500 (European Car of the Year 2008) stateside for 2010!

The 500 is available with four different trim levels: Naked, Pop, Lounge and Sport. Customers can also choose between 15 interior trims, 9 wheel options, 19 decals and 12 body colors. There are over 500,000 different personalized combinations of the 500 that can be made by mixing and matching the various accessories, decals, interior and exterior colors and trims (wikipedia).

Not sure how they will be received here in the USA, but within three weeks of the 500’s launch the entire year’s production of 58,000 units had been completely sold out. Fiat is expecting to break 350,000 units sold by the end of 2010. To that I say “BRING ‘EM ON!”

Thanks to William Lincoln for the scoop!

***UPDATE 7/8/08***
Check out this video of the ADDX custom Fiat 500. Lot’s of luv went into that kit.

Thanks to AgentZero for the scoop!

This is HOT off the rumor mill STOP THE PRESS!
Here’s what we’ve got confirmed so far… For 2008 Piaggio will bring us the MP3-400 (which resembles the current MP3-250) and the MP3-500, which is a rebadged Gilera Fuoco 500! The image above is actual-factual. This week, the Piaggio / Vespa shop owners are in Arizona getting the hottest scoop available. Thanks to Dudel for the “first blood” on this story. We hear that the Vespa S may be included in the 2008 line-up, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Thanks again to “Lucky Bastard” for sharing this image with the ModernVespa crew!
Stay tuned for MORE!

***UPDATE 9/18/07***
I’m starting to scrounge up some tidbits, this is what I’m hearing:
The Piaggio MP3-400 (In the current MP3 body style except with the extra power we’ve all been waiting for) will be arriving at dealerships as soon as January.

The Piaggio MP3-500 (A rebadged Gilera Fuoco 500) will arrive around March with an expected MSRP approaching the $10k mark. Well, what did you expect? Hotness has a price.

The elusive Vespa S (the cute one with the thin leg shields and rectangular headlight) is supposed to arrive before Q2, 2008 with a 150cc engine and an MSRP of about $4,000.

These bits are not from the “official” source, but I don’t have reason to disbelieve what I’m hearing right now. So, we are awaiting “official” word, which should bubble up between now and Tuesday with the inclusion of some specs, photos and official MSRP numbers. Stay tuned!

***UPDATE 9/19/07***
The Honky-Tonk Dragon is droppin’ THESE numbers for MSRP:
“Per a reliable source on Modern Vespa”
The 250 will be $7199 next year (They are $6999 right now).
The 400 will be $8699 and the 500 will be $8899.
And the Vespa S 150 will be $4099

The first looks are coming in from Motociclismo.it of this twin-v, 839cc monster with a full report scheduled for September. They haven’t had a chance to really twist it, being in the “break-in” period and all, but they have managed to touch 124 MPH and bring her back down to earth with those double 300mm front and rear discs *ERRRRRT!*.

I don’t have much else to report right now other than the Italians seem pretty excited about it and Dudel has seen images of the GP800 in the wild… oh and this giant rumor he dug up:

Piaggio is building a version of the 3-wheel MP3/Fuoco with the 839.3cc engine and CVT plus final-chain-drive from the 850Mana/GP800 which will be sold as a Moto Guzzi.

Whoa! Here’s the rumor source in case you’re keeping tabs.
Thanks to Motoblog.it for pointing us to the Motociclismo.it story.

At the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show Honda introduced a concept… A DREAM of the future and it was called the Honda Griffon GRF-1. Well, it appears as of yesterday the Griffon became official! That’s right! Resident Seattle Scooper Dudel has been doing some digging in ole US Patent files where he discovered that on April 17th the patent was filed for this baby.

What does that mean for you and I? There is a distinct possibility that you will see this Horizontally Opposed 4-Cylinder 750cc VTEC automatic 2-wheeler announced for 2008 release as soon as… November 2007, maybe?

Of course, I’m making assumptions here and I’m sure my good friends at Honda Press Relations will be able to neither confirm nor deny the existence of this so called “Griffon”. So, this is just a rumor being propagated by the minions at TheScooterScoop.com.

Thanks for the delicious scoop Dudel!

You may recall me begging back in October… groveling for Honda to bring us the SH300i. Just when I thought all hope was lost on Honda, Susan, a dedicated Helix owner and rabid scooter researcher in New Jersey, found a little tidbit that could turn everything around. In an article from Cycle World, there is an bit on the SH300i with one little sentence:

“It might come stateside, says Honda Italy.”

Now, I know it’s not much to cling to, but that little glimmer of hope found in the word “might”, is better than nothing. So, we might see the Lexus of large wheeled scooters on our roads. We don’t have a time frame and we don’t have an Italian follow up contact, and we don’t have an American Honda contact that will give us much more than a “we cannot confirm nor deny the existence of a so-called SH300i”… all we have is Sue’s scoop from Cycle World.

With only 300 available to the UK for 2007, I have to wonder how there would be any available for the US market unless they are tapping from the 30,000 scheduled for arrival in Italy this year (according to this story from Visordown.com). The Visordown article is a good read because it involves a test drive that sounds exhilarating. I especially like their description of the handling:

At low speed you’re thanking the fact that this thing isn’t barge-like, like a SilverWing or Foresight allowing you to drip and slip through traffic like shite through a Victorian sewer. Then, when the mood takes you, whazz the SH up to top speed and revel in the stability that only a 16-inch big-wheel scoot can provide.

Thank you Sue! Please keep us posted… I’ll start with the diggin’ to see what we can come up with on the Bentley of big wheels. Stay tuned!

PS> You can see a boatload of photos and a terribly translated review courtesy of Google, here.

I’m not sure where Dudel get’s his scoops and sometimes I’m afraid to ask… but here’s the “BIG” rumor that’s been circulating around the Aprilia camp:

You heard it here first. From an Aprilia rep who was recently at the factory… “The mega scooter thats been doing the rounds as a Gilera is going to be in the Aprilia 2007 line up.” SCARABEO 750 for 2007 Don’t know which countries.

I had heard about something big to be expected in ‘07 and 750cc’s is definitely in that class.

Thanks Dudel! Please keep us posted. I’ll do a little diggin’ from my side as well.

When they’re not peddling scooters and quad runners, Tomberlin is busy inventing mean, Darth Vader inspired electric hybrid car thingies. Introducing the ANVIL, an electric 4 passenger car that would look sweet rolling down your retirement community or golf course. For $8k you get a vehicle that goes 25mph (rumor has it that the Anvil is heavily restricted and can do much better than 25), and can travel 40 miles on a charge. It also has four wheel regenerative breaking. Tomberlin is expecting big things for the Anvil. In the next few weeks they should be arriving at some sort of dealership near you.

[Please note... this story is based completely on rumors, hearsay, speculation, ouiji board results, coin tosses, calls to Mrs. Cleo's hotline and logical deduction. There have been NO official announcements confirming nor denying the future of Stella. This is just my gut telling me that Stella is finally saying "buon giorno" or rather "khuda hafiz".]

Back in January we made the announcement that Bajaj was discontinuing the Chetak. A sad moment indeed. Next we see a sudden boost of PGO products in the Genuine lineup for late ‘06 and in to ‘o7 and VERY low, if not non-existent inventory on the Stella.

Finally, a flock of little birdies have recently informed us that Genuine is completely out of stock on the Stella. Not only that, but we also hear that the LML plant in sunny Kanpur has shut down. That’s right… turn off the lights, lock the doors, collect dust and spiderwebs kind of “shut down”.

It’s a painful thought really. Seems like P.J. was JUST there. How could Genuine, the company that managed to bring us “the first EPA approved 150cc two-stroke to be sold in America in nearly 20 years”, allow the Stella to just up and die? I don’t think it’s anything they could help really. I’m afraid the cheap 4-stroke had it in for the sweet little Italian decedent. Today more people want to ride automatics and they want ‘em cheap. A large portion of the market doesn’t care about things like “metal bodies” or “2 stroke engines”… and when you don’t have money to pay your builders to keep production going, you gotta start looking at what you can cut and what you can keep.

I just hope Genuine keeps their parts division, ScooterWorks USA, rolling and that they can still get Stella/Vespa parts. If LML’s isn’t even producing replacement parts (assuming they made them in the first place), then P series Vespa and Stella owners are going to be hurtin’. We’ll keep you posted on developments here.

Rumors also indicate that Phillip McCaleb might have a trick up his sleeve for saving the metal bodied beauty, but she may end up more like the Bride of Frankenstein when it’s all said and done. I don’t wanna be a naysayer, so Phillip… I hope you can make it happen brother. May the Scooter gods be with you!

“We are working in a lot of directions but I don’t want to mislead anyone.”

What does that mean to you and I?
That we have to have patients.
Well… as Grouchy Smurf would say “I hate patients!” No scoop for us. :(

***UPDATE***
Al gave the complete story on the demise of Bajaj USA and the rise of Argo USA… From the Bajaj forums, it goes like this:

We had suspicions that this kind of thing might happen when we visited the factory 8 months ago. Management spent a lot of time telling us how the motorcycles were selling great guns (145,000 per month at that time) and how scooter sales were declining (averaging about 9,000 a month). And we could see that they were gradually removing scooters from their lineup. Bajaj has promised many things in the past that never came to pass, we were becoming accustomed to disappointment, so we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. (more on this subject later)

It looks like Bajaj is going out of the scooter business and will concentrate on motorcycles. Bajaj Auto has obviously made a business decision to change the direction of the products they produce, they have something like 10,000 employees at three plants, they are not closing shop, they are growing the business, just not to our liking.

Fortunately we had ordered enough Chetaks to cover us for 2006 and into 2007. The Silver and Black Chetaks have arrived and the metallic Jade are on the water.

Bajaj’s policy is to stock and supply parts for a least 5 years after discontinuing a model, then leaving parts to aftermarket suppliers. As you can see with other discontinued brands, spare parts are not normally a problem. The more scooters out there, the more manufacturers there are that want to take advantage of the parts business. As I state on our web site, we will continue to support and supply parts for the Bajaj scooters that we sell. We have thousands of parts in stock and have every intention of supporting the Bajaj products… selling parts is a good business too.

Since the very beginning of our relationship with Bajaj Auto, we asked (begged) for an automatic transmission scooter. While this may seem like sacrilege to many enthusiasts on this forum, the sad fact is that the majority of scooter riders want an automatic transmission. Sales of scooters with manual transmissions parallel the automotive industry, only a small percentage of auto sales are manual transmission. Go the Hertz or U-Haul and rent a truck, they all have automatic transmissions. We needed an automatic in our scooter offering to make this a viable business.

When we first got involved with Bajaj Auto, they were working on a relationship with Cagiva. They even had a nice, Italian style, prototype with a 150cc engine and automatic transmission. It was a good looking scooter…then the Cagiva project suddenly disappeared without explanation. Next was the promise of a 110cc automatic. It came out as a 90cc with a weird 3 speed automatic transmission. We tested it here and found the transmission lacking and the power too low. Next was the promise of a 125cc with a CV transmission. They indicated it would be a high performance scooter with the power of a 150cc engine. ( I said I would prefer a 150cc engine with the power of a 150cc engine) It arrived as a 110cc automatic, with styling that they couldn’t sell in their domestic market. That unit was quickly discontinued. Next was the promise of a 200cc, 4 valves per cylinder, water-cooled, European design, automatic or electric shift manual transmission. Anyone seen that model? You never will… project cancelled.

So, now, after a long wait for more Bajaj scooters suitable for the U.S. market, we will be getting zero. Their motorcycles are in the 110cc to 180cc range, very few people have shown any interest in a 180cc motorcycle. The majority of new motor cycle buyers will look as nothing less than a 250cc. Last year, Rajiv Bajaj mentioned that they were working on a 440cc twin cylinder motorcycle… I’m not holding my breath.

For those of you who are wringing your hands over the Bajaj factory decision, I suggest that your Bajaj scooter, instead of holding good resale value, is now going to increase in value. Take a look at what has happened to other classic scooters… particularly the reliable ones.

So maybe Argo USA should have been created sooner. I should have been looking at other brands after the first promised Bajaj automatic did not materialize. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 4 times, shame on me.

The Argo USA web site will be changing its look shortly, but will continue full web support for the Bajaj products. As new scooters become available to us, we will give them the same support that we are giving the Bajaj products.

I’m confident that most of you will find it in your heart to overlook the “shiftless” nature of the new scooters that Argo will be importing and will offer a courteous welcome to the new riders that buy them…and perhaps we can all get along as the family of Argonauts.

And to those of you who offered your best wishes and support for our new adventure, thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Regards,
Al Kolvites

-Thanks for that info Al! We are all wishing you the best and we know you’ve got something special to pull out of your hat. We’re just looking forward to finding out what it is.
steve