Modern Buddy

I received a letter in today's mail from Shelby Stirrat, owner of Tucson's Scoot Over-Fun in Motion Genuine and Kymco dealership, that she is closing the doors for good this month. I'm sure AZ_slynch of this forum also received the same letter. This is really sad. I bought my'15 Hooligan from her almost 2 years ago. They were absolutely first-class in both sales and service. The southern Arizona scooter scene is not going to be the same as the Vespa dealership in Tucson also closed its doors a year ago. Doubly sad.

Bill in Seattle
'12 170i Buddy Oxford Green
'14 170i Hooligan Matte Green
'15 170i Hooligan Titanium (AZ scoot)

Always makes you wonder why. Around our way Genuine will franchise to a shoe repair shop. The territory manager does not seem to care who does the end service for the products. The last time I stepped into our local Genuine dealership a kid from the "service" bay came to the front to ask the salesman a question about 2 strokes that even he didn't know! I just stood there in a state of shock, and ended up telling the kid what was possibly wrong, and why. Then as I was leaving the salesman asked if I was looking for a job, I can pick the hours! I said "No thanks." and have never been back there since.

Shelby has been providing a lot of Tucson scooterists with Genuine, Kymco and SYM scooters, as well as Gigabyke e-bikes and Royal Enfield motorcycles for fourteen years. The business has had some great days, but it's taken a lot out of her and I think she's ready to explore fresh, new opportunities.

I will miss my favorite spot to run by after work to buy OE parts, push bikes in to the showroom or garage or just visit. I've generally found the business friendly and supportive of the scooter community.

We have On Any Moto as the local Piaggio dealer and they service the scoots now. Cycle, Ski and ATV on 22nd sells scooters, but word on the street is that scooter service insn't one of their strong suits. RideNow for Yamaha or Suzuki and Musselman for Honda. If you want Kymco service, the nearest dealer will now be Chandler Powersports up in the Phoenix Metro area.

I'm sure someone will step in and fill the void at some point. For now, I just won't be able to farm out some of my repairs when my daily riders need attention so I'll be back to wrenching on them myself.

It's real hard to make any money running a scooter shop. The margins on the sale are paper thin and you're lucky if the customer will ride 1000mi a year and MAYBE get an annual oil change.

Then it's near impossible to sell something at MSRP because we're used to getting "deals" in the US. Hell, they told me someone RENTED A U-HAUL TRUCK and drove to ANOTHER STATE to get $100 off.

This is too bad. Scoot Over was the best dealer in Phoenix.

Sadly just turning a wrench isn't enough to keep a scooter shop open. The proliferation of shopping online affects the local scooter shop's margins as no one buys local. Then the scooter shop does not stock, and people think it's not worth coming to that shop. It's a catch 22.

What can be done to save our scooter shops?

Roaring Todd
What can be done is to buy your parts from your dealer. I have a great dealer in Madison Scooter Therapy.
I order everything thru them. They are really fair on pricing. Occasionally I push a 20$ bill across the counter and tell them to by a pizza for the crew.

As a community we can’t complain about the loss of dealers while simultaneously looking for the cheapest part prices on the net.

SHOP LOCAL is good for everyone

If the Unicorn Cruiser ever hits the shelves it just might help out with the situation in so far as Genuine dealers go. Broadening the product line to include motorcycles could increase Genuine's customer base.

Having a Honda product as I do sort of insulates me from the "scooter-only-dealer" problem. Presence all over the place and a diversified array of products makes their continued existence pretty much guaranteed.

That said, I support my local dealership. I only use OEM parts and I only get them through the dealer. It's a few bucks more (really not much at all) and I have the absolute assurance that I'm getting the real thing. As for wrenching, I do all my own. But in this case, it's not a question of money. Rather, I have found that the servicing of scooters (as opposed to motorcycles), even their own brand, is not one of their strong points. There's not much sales volume in that niche (at least where I am in NJ), and therefore not much ROI for the dealer in having a robust service offering.

This loss of dealers is occurring across the board. In the Portland area in the past 5 or 6 years, we have lost 2 Vespa dealers, a Honda dealer, a BMW dealer, a Yamaha/Suzuki dealer, a Kymco dealer, a Sym dealer, and a vintage scooter shop. We are lucky to still have our one Genuine dealer.

When gas prices dropped back to normal, demand for scooters dropped off just as fast. It's a tough sell these days.

Also, Tucson isn't the best kind of town to support scooter sales. It doesn't have a concentrated centralized urban area. It's spread out and HOT most of the year. San Francisco on the other hand has the population density and great weather that make scooters much more desirable and practical.

Another problem is many scooter dealers charge outrageous prices for goods and services. They won't budge on price in my area. It's full MSRP or more. There's the door if you don't like it. They also charge more per hour for labor than my local Mercedes dealer. I refuse to feed the greed.

So I do all the work myself and refuse to pay $25 for an oil filter when it's $8 online.

I have no problem supporting a dealer who is fair and honest. I have no problem paying a little more to cover their overhead. As long as it's fair and they're competent. However, I DO have a problem supporting greedy dealers that give poor service, attitude, and gouge on everything.

I'm really sorry to hear this. This also means another Royal Enfield dealer bites the dust just as RE is making a big push with the new 650 motors.

That sucks.

I bought a bike from them last year. I will say, it is hard riding a scoot in Tucson in the summer though.

But I wish them the best.