In our country there are many cheaper Chinese scooters on the market. Usually only cash limited and poor people buy these scooters and soon start trying to get rid of the scooters when it start giving problems. It is common knowledge that some components like bolts, etc simply come loose, and eventually the scooters just start falling apart.
I tend to disagree - unless China start supplying scooters of better quality, I think the type of Chinese scooters we get in South Africa could finally kill the scooter market in the US quite easily.
Let me clarify a point, my last paragraph was about scooters in general not necessarily Chinese scooters. I do agree completely about Chinese scooters being garbage.
The general public does not know there is a difference between Chinese scooters and Taiwan scooters. This has helped me pick up some low mileage Kymco's at a very reasonable price.
I see adds all the time for not running/parts Chinese scooters for little or no money in Craigslist. They look like a Kymco style wise but a very poor copy quality wise.
Add to that little or no parts support and Chinese scooters are disposable items.
In fact I have been riding most of my life and avoided Kymco because I thought they were cheap Chinese junk. It wasn't until a dealer explained the difference and I did some research until I realized the difference.