Yessss....Join us....Join the Dork Side...We have cookies!!! 
Seriously though, maintenance is pretty basic on Kymcos. If you have a local shop that works on scooters or you're willing to check videos, & get your hands dirty you'd be OK bar catastrophe. For the most part it should be easier than your Tiger.
Bigger work might become an issue unless you have the aforementioned scooter shop of 'bout any stripe, but it's not real common on those. <knock on wood>
Maybe peruse the GT300i forum and see what the maintenance schedule's like. It wasn't too rough when I checked it.
Far as GT300 vs. BV350 check out justgottascoot.com. He has reviews on both. They both rate highly, & to some extent it depends on what you want to do with 'em & if you have a piaggio shop (in your case). I do believe that the BV has a longer maintenance interval though so that my impact you as well.
Hope that's helpful.
Tromper
Wait a minute. You have cookies??! SOLD!
Seriously though, I do no maintenance. Not even oil changes. In fact, I am sitting at a mall across from my Triumph dealer waiting for new tires to be installed as I write this. I guess what concerned me where posts about wiring harness issues, months in dealers' shops, etc. I even called Kymco in SC to try to get a feel for their customer service and to see if they had a preferred dealer or service shop program (apparently they do not).
The only thing they did was give me names off their dealer locator. Already did that. One name they gave me, that I was going to call anyhow, is a dealer I bought a bike from a few years ago that also has done some work for me. So I called them a they said they no longer work on Kymcos.
Another concern is that our bigger scooter dealer in the area has told me he is dropping Kymco and discouraging customers from buying the brand because of some mechanical problems after a few years. He also said that Kymco is losing a million dollars a year on scooters in the USA and he believes they may pull out if the market completely. I take that kind of talk with a grain of salt, of course, but I have to admit the call to KymcoUSA was a little discouraging. Especially after also calling Piaggio in NY with the same kind of questions a talking to some one in their "Customer Care" dept....not that Piaggio provided anything I couldn't find on the Internet, but at least they faked it a little better.
You may know that Kymco builds the BMW scooters, so it's not just Kymco owners that think very highly of them.
Thanks for your thoughts, Tromper.
Tromper pretty well nailed it. I would like to add the 300i's from Kymco are quite impressive in performance. I am biased since we have both the People GTi300 and the Downtown DT300i. The ONLY thing I will say against the People is the tiny fuel tank. It is about 2.4 gallons and the Downtown is 3.4 gallons. Being able to cruise over 200 miles with reserve is ideal.
Karl
Hey Karl, I hear yah about the small tank. I have to admit, though, they all feel like little toys. Hugely fun toys, but only around town kinda things...which is exactly what I am looking for. Mayber with more experience I will venture out and do some light touring. We'll see.
One factor behind my preference for the People rather than the Downtown is that the egos look better for a 6'2". Am I off base about that?
I have only ridden a Vespa 300GTS (uncomfortable with the small wheels), a BV350 (seemed fine but I rode 125 miles on my Triumph to get there and not sure testing a mid-size scooter after being on the Tiger for that length of time let's my mind wrap itself around the size/performance differences that obviously should be expected), and this afternoon a Kymco People GT 300i. It's a 2013 with less than 500 miles (2 owners already, though) and an asking price of $2,700. I mean, c'mon. Isn't that a great deal...assuming what the current owner is telling me about its "like new" condition?
