vietnamese import restored scoot..?

[scorpakid]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VESPA-STANDAR ... 453wt_1177 does this look too good to be true or what..?

[Liam]

A few concerns....
it looks good but are you going to get a bill for VAT/import duty/registration fees and whatever else.
I did notice that one buyer "Reverend_hotrod" bought his on 23rd November
then gave good feedback on 25th November. Fast delivery or what??
Then it says a picture of the actual scooter... but that pic has been used before!

Another buyer, Horace brown has a more reasonable gap from purchase to leaving feedback.

the price looks good and if it was paypal I'd go for it.
After contacting a couple of previous English buyers of course!
A bank transfer is risky though!

[mr2tastypieces]

A mate of mine had a restored Vietnamese Vespa sitting in his living room for many years. His ex-girlfriend had lived and worked in Vietnam and wanted to bring one home with her when she came back. It basically turned out to be a nice looking clothes horse as getting it registered and on the road was impossible, I can't remember the reason why and my friend has unfortunately passed away so I can't ask him. With this in mind I'd check very carefully what's required to get it on the road here, also I seem to remember seeing on american websites lots of horror stories about cut and shut frames being discovered under the lovely shiny paint jobs but that obviously can't apply to all of these Vietnamese resto jobs. Proceed with care, good luck.

[GTscootz]

Personally, wouldn't touch anything from Vietnam that hasn't gone through a British dealer. OK, you'll end up paying over £2000 but everything will be as it should be - and dealer will be within driving distance if anything isn't as should be.

Seen far, far too many horror stories behind the shiny paint-jobs.

As for the registering of an imported scooter, its a relatively straight forward process as long as you can get a dating certificate from either the VMSC or VCB and for that you need a readable and valid frame number - again, a British dealer would look after all of that side for you.

[rtfm]

Payment by direct bank transfer - AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA.No.

I wouldn't go anywhere near that if I were you.

[scorpakid]

im not silly.... id never send money to anyone in another country..... if i could jus drive to southampton docks and collect it cash i would be interested, i wouldnt buy this type of retro machine from a dealer anyway.... they do look very nice though... even a cut an shut wouldnt bother me as long as it was safe and i could get it legal.... but anyway...just dreaming at the moment...i do fancy something like this for summer evening bimbles next year... will shop at home though....

[rtfm]

I Guess a cut n shut isn't so bad for a slow scoot as they fall to bits anyway if you have an off and there's no crumple zone like in a car. (waiting to be flamed now....)

[Liam]

I'll do it!
Where's rtfm ??


"Slow" scooters don't fall to bits when you have an off unless you've got lots of things loose.
And I wouldn't say a 150 was that slow anyway. It should do 55.
Does a xevo have a crumple zone?

[barryG]

Dont do it, Ive seen Lambrettas with engines so badly bodged that they are scrap and the owners had to shell out for a new engine. Electrics are generally very poor, again seen that and the result is normally a new loom. The worse Ive seen is Vespa that was actually welded together accros the floor from two scoots. All the above came from UK dealers too. The Vietnamese are good at hiding things, I remember following a Viet Vespa once and his handlebar on the left just fell off as he was changing gear, it had been crudely braized together!

Even if they are restored well, they tend to use cheap parts from Asia and its cheaper in the long term to get a scooter restored here.

[gn2]

Why risk buying an ancient Vespa from Vietnam when you could have a fairly new one from the UK?
http://www.maxi-muppets.co.uk/forum/vie ... =20&t=9989