Globs wrote: I suppose it may be possible to find a good source of SYMs and spares in France, there's a good place in Greece for spares too (Makina parts IIRC) where I bought a fork seal when I broke the original one.

Thats an interesting point. I was in my normal repair shop a couple of months ago, and in it was a Joyride 125 - 8 years old, but looked like it had just come out of the showroom. However, it had fried its wiring loom and spares just could not be obtained for it from SymUK...

I've no doubt SYM can build an avant-garde 300 Scooter. They work hard to build the best scooter they can within the target budget they're given. We might believe SYM are bonkers to go head to head with price against the Yamaha Xmax300 in the UK... But the UK isn't their target market.



My Chinese is terrible but the essence of the above video suggests they prefer the Cruisym... Bare in mind the childlike physique of the tester.

My next Scooter will be the XMAX!

Fyi motoretta of halifax are getting a demo cruisym anytime now

i got the sym 300i , had the yam as a loan bike while the insurance was sorted out after i was rear ended , sym far superior far better

Personally I'd only buy a scooter from one of the leading makes with a decent presence in the UK like the big four Japanese or Piaggio/Vespa. However good the bikes may be, and I don't doubt it, I would not go for Sym or Kymco or anything else. The reason is service because those big makers have a much wider dealer network. But dealers in brands with a very limited presence in the UK can be hard to find and they come and go too, with the recent Kymco importer going bust as a good example.

And when I say dealers I mean quality dealers, not the all too common second rate firms that we have all come across.

I don't do any servicing of my own and have to rely on the dealer so finding a good one that's reasonably local is important to me. So if I was looking for a 300 and it was between the XMax and the Sym, the former would win easily for me just for the above reasons, assuming it is a good bike and ticks my boxes. I've had a test ride on the XMax and it is a good bike.

There's also the second hand values. I suspect that a big name scooter would sell easier and for a better price than a lesser known one.

Just my 2p worth, others may well disagree.

I fully understand where you are coming from. On the other hand, Kymco and Sym do make top products. Finding quality dealers is always a good game, and its not always the case that franchised dealers are good to deal with, though they are invariably expensive! I used a small workshop for most things, who I trust completely. They can get spares for most things without problem ---if they are available, of course. IMHO I think the key factor is actually spares availability, rather than whether there are franchised dealers and importers, both of which seem to come and go over time.