Thank you for the replies and the heads up about the dealership needing to honor the warranty. If the Kymco dealership the scooter is presently located at drags their feet on this I will have the scooter delivered to my dealer, whom I trust implicitly. His business is a scooter only shop, unlike the large powersports store where the scooter is right now. But because of where my scooter was located when it failed I simply had it delivered to the nearest Kymco dealer and figured that would be that. I called my dealer yesterday and he gave me some good advice and indeed did say the shop the scooter is currently located should have torn the engine down to see what the matter is even without consent from Kymco. But I guess they simply gave it a compression check and perhaps took off the CVT cover and valve cover to take a peek. Which the service manager said told them nothing.
The good news is Chip at Kymco USA gave me a call today less then 24hrs after I left a message at their Customer Service line and said he called the powersports shop and talked to the Service Manager, approving the warranty work. Now that's what I call service, and want to send a big thank you out to Kymco USA and all the good people whom work there!
Now all I have to do is deal with a dealership which seemed a bit reluctant to do a little work on their own to find the problem, and hope they make good on their word to do the work when they heard back from Kymco. Which they have as of today.
So far as what could be the matter with my scooter, who knows? I like it and think it a solid, good running scooter. But it took a dive pretty quickly. It has been very well maintained, has just 2400 miles on the odo and has had three oil changes in that time. And of course it's first service at 600 miles. My own owners manual calls for a valve clearance check at 4000kms and not before, although they may have been checked at the first service, I suppose? So at under the 4000km mark nothing was really called for except oil changes which might impact the engine in this way if neglected. If it is indeed a major engine malfunction. And as said, this all happened without warning. The scooter had run flawlessly up until the second it broke down. Never stalled, sputtered, smoked, backfired, burned oil, or anything of that matter. Performance had been good and on par for the 125cc it is, also. So I am mystified myself?
Lastly I want to say I did not post this thread to bad mouth Kymco scooters, or service and support. In fact it has turned out I think it is excellent. I simply needed some guidance on this issue, as the word of the powersports dealership was all I had to go on. And as said, I will get it out of there and to my own dealer if I feel they are putting me at the back of the line, or worse. And like another poster has said, I too would buy another Kymco scooter in a quick second. I understand I am the exception to the rule here, and most people find their Kymco scooters to be reliable and strong running. I have, also. But I suppose sometimes things go wrong and some owners will be on that end of things, too. I am one of them, but still have nothing but good to say about my Kymco scooter and look forward to riding it again asap.
This is a nice forum here and I am grateful to have found it to connect with other Kymco riders. Thanks for your support, and a big thanks to Kymco USA for getting right on the matter for me. Another Kymco scooter is most likely in my future, as my confidence has been inspired by what I consider a high level of support simply by calling and asking for it. I will update this thread as the warranty and repair process continues.