Capitano, good luck with the eye recovery. It's a bugger when you can't see proper!
Went through the mill myself over the years with various eye surgeries, including going completely blind so know where you are coming from.
Anyhoo, you won't be sorry if you buy a good GTS. Yes I am a fan, but with good reason. All of them are good, whatever year but if you want the most trouble free experience get one of the 2014 onwards bikes. They are very different to the previous 2013 and earlier bikes. In fact there are far too many upgrades & mods that Vespa made to the 2014's that there's almost not enough room to mention them here.
So for starters, & you may know this so please excuse me going on a bit, they get abs & traction control. Big bonuses & they work well. You have digitally controlled Speedo & Odo's plus other digital functionality. Speedo is very accurate too! But there are lots of other mods for the engine. Better fuelling & ignition maps giving much more low & midrange power courtesy of a 32bit ECU instead of the old less reliable 16bit unit. This removes the earlier bikes tendency to sometimes stall when hot, also making the newer bikes more economical. The fuel injector also gets a new stronger support bracket, a weakness on earlier bikes that left some owners stranded if the owner hit a big bump causing the bracket & injector to break. Plus a completely new wiring loom for better functionality & reliability.
Front suspension is also improved with ESS (enhanced sliding suspension) fitted between early 2014 & late 2016 which keeps the front wheel totally perpendicular to the road over rough sections. It reduces front end dive too under heavy braking. There are some other advantages but these are small. Unfortunately, Vespa stopped fitting ESS after just two years. We now know this was likely due to the advantages of ESS overall, although real, being not considered enough to justify the extra cost. Having ridden both ESS (mine has it) & non ESS bikes I can say I definitely prefer ESS equipped bikes. No front end wobble either that some non ESS bike can sometimes suffer. Although even then it's not a problem as they only ever do it when you let go of the handlebars!
So...if you can splash the cash on a 2014+ bike would be my advice. They have just about all the earlier bikes querks & weaknesses ironed out. They are well sorted. Not had any issues with mine, except for a slight weep from an under floor coolant hose. Easy fix. And, the whole bike is easy to service, even valves which are screw & locknut. Totally cheap to run too! Sorry, going on a bit now, but you all know I do!!
Suffice to say that there are some videos showing all the amazing upgrades. I'll find one or two & post later.
PS. Don't worry about rust. I've serviced many old & new GTS bikes with massive mileages on them. No rust! Even on those that didn't get loved much.
PPS. On MV I'm stromrider. I have many friends on there but I no longer post. I've written many thousands of posts over many many years about the GTS. Hopefully helped a few folks to. Be careful though. MV can be a slightly unwelcoming place if you disagree with the many myths that circulate. Folks post completely incorrect information on just about everything over there. It's not like on here where facts matter. Many posters are fine but some are not. I, like many, suffered considerable abuse on some occasions.
PPPS. It's a myth that the GTS 250 is as powerful as the 300. Yet some folks deny what the Dyno tells them. Go for a 300 if you can.
