Modern Buddy

Anyone have any experience with this scoot, good, not-so-good or just plain bad?

Bill in Seattle
'09 150 Blackjack
'12 170i Italia

I owned a like 200i for 9 months and 2500 miles. IMO it is a horrible Chinese scooter w/ Kymco badges. Parts rattled off, the ergonomics are horrible, the build quality is questionable (ask Ooty). I replaced the like with a buddy 125. I have since moved on to a 170i. I have nothing good to say about the Like except it looks like a cool vintage scooter. The ride on my Like reminded me of the 1985 Ford Escort I drove when I was younger. Friends don't let friends buy a Like.

DeeDee wrote:I owned a like 200i for 9 months and 2500 miles. IMO it is a horrible Chinese scooter w/ Kymco badges. Parts rattled off, the ergonomics are horrible, the build quality is questionable (ask Ooty). I replaced the like with a buddy 125. I have since moved on to a 170i. I have nothing good to say about the Like except it looks like a cool vintage scooter. The ride on my Like reminded me of the 1985 Ford Escort I drove when I was younger. Friends don't let friends buy a Like.

That's what I like about this forum. A brutally honest and objective opinion! BTW, I used to own a 1983 Ford Escort when I was younger also so I know exactly where you're coming from. Thanks DeeDee,

Bill in Seattle
'09 150 Blackjack
'12 170i Italia

A few threads on the Like that include owner experiences:

topic21380.html

topic25447.html

topic24778.html

topic24686.html

DeeDee wrote:The ride on my Like reminded me of the 1985 Ford Escort I drove when I was younger.

Oooh! Ooow! Having worked on a friend's 80's Escort, I can verify that this is the ultimate vehicular burn. Ouch!

jrsjr wrote:

DeeDee wrote:The ride on my Like reminded me of the 1985 Ford Escort I drove when I was younger.

Oooh! Ooow! Having worked on a friend's 80's Escort, I can verify that this is the ultimate vehicular burn. Ouch!

I once paid $300 for an '87 ford escort. It had a leak in the seals, and poor compression. Drove it for 3k miles, sold it to an auto broker $250, and then THEY sold it without signing over the title. The new owners tracked me down, a poor family just trying to get by. They asked me to sign it over, and offered me money. I told them no way, signed it over, and gave them $100. Poor bastards...

But yeah. I wanted to like the Like. Our local Genuine shop sells them, and though they won't badmouth them until they're all sold, they aren't buying any more.

I was sorely tempted to check out a lovely Like 200lx in the Blue and white scheme of Old Schoot's that popped up locally at an amazing price of $1,200! Pristine, with only 785 miles it was soooo tempting. I called five minutes after someone else did.
Just happened to spy a cherry Kymco Movie 150 for only $150 more. So, my MBD kicked in....it is coming home next week.
The Fly is on the block to make room in the garage.
The Buddy ain't going no where!

Driller, would love to have you review The Kymco Movie. May have a sleeper there.

Wow, I have never read reviews like that for the Like. I say I am glad cause before I got the buddy blackjack, I did test ride a like. And at the time, I liked it! Was bigger, had the long seat, looked 'old timey', and handled good. What stopped me was the colour.
All they had was the awful "melted vanilla ice cream white"...if they'd had black, I would have been very very very very tempted. But if yall are comparing it to an Escort...then, makes me glad I went with the blackjack

I put about 10k on a 2012 Like 163i, since then I sold it to my dad and he put another 4k. In 14k miles it has had no mechanical or electrical issues. But alas, the plastics are shoddy and some of the build quality is subpar. The ergonomics are horrible (but fixable with a custom seat). The brakes, engine and cvt are good stuff, but some of the plastic panels have stripped out screws and are a bi$#h to get off. The exhaust heat shield bolts will fall out, I ended having to use lock washers to keep it on. At the end of the day it's a budget with a budget price.You can do better and you can do worse. I have a soft spot for the Like, in 10k she never stumbled and never left me stranded.

The electricals and engine are solid but the fit and finish is where the pricetag comes into play. Haven't had any issues with them besides for people running them out of oil due to lack of maintenance.

Here is what dealer/rider ootscoot has to say about the Like. This came off the sym forum:

Kymco Like and Agility metallurgy from China, Lance/SYM from Taiwan. Having rebuilt, torn down, re-assembled, and thoroughly gone through many , many engines I would have to say that the cheap Chinese bikes have poor metal quality, with porous castings, next better is the Kymco Like, followed by the Agility, then the Lance. As far as Taiwan builds, Kymco and SYM are similar, PGO is a step better.
This thread being about Lance dealerships, I would say that I am very pleased with the product - especially the PCH - SYM quality throughout.

To summarize: Dealer/mechanic puts the Like one small tick above the average Chinese scooter.

Comparing them to ford escorts is kinda cruel to the escorts, I sold my 83 escort with over 100,000 on it. It was rusting, but the next owners saw it hit 250,000.

Maybe this has already been noted; the Like 200 has a 161cc engine.

schroeder wrote:Driller, would love to have you review The Kymco Movie. May have a sleeper there.

Will do! Picking it up tomorrow.
Stay tuned.

Driller wrote:

schroeder wrote:Driller, would love to have you review The Kymco Movie. May have a sleeper there.

Will do! Picking it up tomorrow.
Stay tuned.

Well, Phooey!
The seller did not have his paperwork in order. It will take the folks in Raleigh
A couple of weeks to correct the error.