Scooting around the gas crunch

An interesting article from the L.A. Times - www.latimes.com

Scooting around the gas crunch By Susan Carpenter
"As gasoline prices soar, scooter sales are booming. From mini to maxi, they'll take you from the corner grocery to the freeway (and some of these cycles get more than 100 miles per gallon).Harley-Davidson might be wishing it made a scooter about now. In fact, most motorcycle manufacturers without one in their lineups have got to be feeling the pain. Motorcycle sales are down this year.

Scooters, on the other hand, are selling as fast as their little wheels can carry them from showroom floors. Sales have jumped 23.6% in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, and they're likely to continue their quick and upward trajectory.

Daily headlines and the signs at your nearest Chevron already give the reason, but I'll spell it out: G-A-S. Depending on the displacement, a scooter gets between 40 and 120 miles per gallon, compared with 27.5 mpg for the average car and about 50 for a motorcycle.

I thought I'd sample the lower and upper ends of the displacement range to show the breadth of the segment. With scooter sales so strongly tied to gas prices, I chose the 125-150 cc class for its fuel efficiency, price and speed, which is fast enough to keep up with city traffic, and the 400-650 cc "maxis," because even the largest of the large are more fuel efficient than most cars or motorcycles."

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