gas prices

[hexnut]

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[axy]

Guāng Yáng Gōng Yè) is a Taiwanese company that manufactures motor scooters, motorcycles, and ATVs for distribution throughout the world. Founded in 1963, the company was originally aimed at making parts for Honda. The company built its first complete scooter in 1970 and began marketing under the "KYMCO" brand name in 1992. With time, Kymco has come to be the largest scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and the 5th largest scooter and manufacturer worldwide.[1] KYMCO's headquarters and factory are located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, having roughly 3000 employees, and producing more than 570,000 vehicles per year, thats one every 55 seconds. The company has overseas production factories in Jakarta, Shanghai, Changsha and Chengdu. In early 2008, KYMCO was chosen by German manufacturer BMW to provide them with the engines for their G450 X enduro bike.

I am a retired manufacturing manager after 45 years in the business...but what do I know..

Ya ll have a good one..I'm out of here

So, you are quoting Wikipedia to confirm what I said (1 factory in Taiwan, 1 in Indonesia, 3 in China)?
And getting angry because of that?

The fact that you are manufacturing manager has nothing to do with this discussion or anything else, for that matter.

[hexnut]

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[axy]

They are "pretty good quality". "Pretty good" includes a lot of things and issues people are experiencing with them, including rust and manufacturing defects. "Pretty good" is also highly subjective and can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For example, yours truly is driving his scooters 365 days in a year. His definition of what "pretty good" is is different than definition of somebody who is keeping his scooter in a garage and drives it five times per year between April and September.

[hexnut]

gone fishing

[jprestonian]

They are "pretty good quality". "Pretty good" includes a lot of things and issues people are experiencing with them, including rust and manufacturing defects. "Pretty good" is also highly subjective and can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For example, yours truly is driving his scooters 365 days in a year. His definition of what "pretty good" is is different than definition of somebody who is keeping his scooter in a garage and drives it five times per year between April and September.

That said, axy... what's your next choice in a scooter?
.

[axy]

That said, axy... what's your next choice in a scooter?
.

Good question. I said why I drive Kymcos - importer is a friend of mine so I get somewhat better prices.

I am afraid that scooter industry is the gutter of vehicle industry and they seem to be (Taiwanese+Europeans+some "better quality " Chinese) pretty much equal (equally bad in my eyes). It is just that some are worse in one area (Italians/electricity...) and the others in another area.

I do not like the idea of scooter >250 cc and I do not like the fact that they are close in price to "real" motorcycles.

Furthermore, I bought two scoots, two quads and a car (all new) in slightly more than a year, so I think that for the time being, I do not plan to buy next scoot, or vehicle.

[axy]

Having retired from manufacturing management where I was responsible for all aspects of quality and having to answer for manufacturing defects and put plans into place to prevent them, I would say I am some what qualified to judge quality...

It is not good to "pull rank" or profession in online discussion.

Let`s rather go back to the facts.

1. Here is my small online journal about my P250S: http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=554.0

2. Here you can see casting deformities on engine casing of my P250S, replaced completely around 7500 kms: http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=554.msg7479#msg7479

3. Here you can see one year old P250S and A125, and rust on them; I live in California like climate, no salt or snow, scoots regularly washed at least every 14 days: http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=554.msg10922#msg10922

What does your professional QA/QC side say about these things?

One more thing. If you were such a professional, you would not try to pull the argument that USA receives high-quality vehicles while the rest of the world receives some duds or junk of lower quality. If you were into quality of manufacturing, you should know what that would do to the reputation of the factory. Honestly, I am a bit surprised that you think that Kymco has two separate assembly lines, one for USA and one for Uganda, along with tho sets of dealers for similar looking parts but having high and low quality, along with two sets of workers, supporting contracts etc.

Your notion about Kymco scooters being "high up there" in quality is purely subjective. You cannot back it up with any data, or objective research. In Europe we usually use for that purpose reports of German ADAC (similar to American Auto Club) that carry high levels of statistic significance. Statistically insignificant and subjective experience of most online/forum users shows that many have grave issues with their Kymcos. I have seen here quite a number of dead mechanical parts on Kymcos including engines at 2-3.000 kms due to factory assembly issues and part manufacturing failures that I did not see on other forums.

This forum is not different than other scoot forums and certainly does not reflect alleged "high quality" of Kymco brand.

[hexnut]

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[axy]

Opinions vary...

blowing my candle out will not make yours brighter..

does this make you feel all better...



We will just have to agree to disagree, as I have bigger fish to fry.

have a good rest of the day..

The thing is that I like to deal with experiences and facts, not opinions. Opinion can be just end result, based on facts.
English is my 4th language, but I believe there is quite picturesque proverb about opinions in English language.
NHF

[hexnut]

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[axy]

We need to move on. You have had a condescending attitude toward me since I came to this forum. You have dismissed some of my post as having no relevance what so ever. I first decided to delete my account here and just move on, for life is too short to put up with BS. But then I decided to stay awhile and challenge you a bit.

You have stretched several facts very thin in your debates. You can't have it both ways. This is supposed to be a forum for people who have and enjoy Kymco products. You have a negative attitude about Kymco. I wounder why you own one.

And in closing, I received some personal messages thanking me for challenging the know it all. I wonder who they could be speaking of???

I am done with this

nexnut

1. For a senior citizen and ex. soldier you are too sensitive. I guess that you do not like people around you to voice their opinion if it is different than yours. That is sad, even more sad than people you teamed up with to send PM to the admin against me.
2. Many your messages did not have any relevance, and some are downright dangerous AND STUPID. For example, on scooter forum you said that it is not important to wear helmet because you never wore it, including the war. That is quite dangerous message for new members. Be insulted by this as much as you want.
3. This is forum for Kymco owners.
4. I own two Kymcos, not one, owned some other before and explained why I own(ed) them.
5. I do not have negative attitude towards Kymco, but you are unable to grasp the fact that all scoots are of substandard quality compared to motorcycles or cars.
6. I have posted several links with pics of my rusty two scoots after one year, with my defective engine casing that had to be replaced after 7000 kms and you did not comment on that at all, just kept repeating in a loop about your personal ideas, feelings and how you were working in quality.
7. In 1969 you were in Vietnam. Not "vietnan".
8. Hi to your friends.

Sad, sad, sad.

[hexnut]

Thanks for the "stupid" remark,  The only stupid thing I have done lately is waste my time on this forum listening to your BS...

[axy]

Gas prices: last week, the government has changed the formula for calculation of market gasoline price here, so despite price raise, they lowered the tax (excise) they receive as revenue from gasoline price, so the rise in price was not as high as it could be otherwise. However, depending on the situation in Japan, Libya and demand/output ratio, any scenario is quite possible. Also, it was clearly announced that this was the last intervention in gasoline price from the government to "ease" current situation and possible price inflation.

In the long run, we can only expect higher and higher prices as demand in growing parts of the world rises (India, China).
However, we can expect also much worse things than gasoline price rise if the "big empires" of the Cold war continue to exert dominance and protect just their interest and do not recognize the growing political influence of new multi-polar world (BRIC countries).

One much more concerning thing is rise in food prices. On the average, food price went up more than 30 % in the past year, half of this in the past three months. Our inflation is almost the same as in USA, so it does not account for this rise.

Also, considering that we are on a scoot forum, I have to say that scoots are not incredibly gas saving. For example, average 250 cc scoot consumes 4-4,5 l of gasoline/100 km; average 500 cc will consume anywhere from 4.5-6 l/100 km. Even though I hate diesel cars, many (even mid-range) turbo diesel cars will consume 4.5-6 l/100 km of diesel fuel, even in urban cycle, that is also slightly cheaper. Maintenance of scoots is much more expensive than maintenance of cars as mileage rises (try to drive the same scoot for 100.000 kms and calculate all costs) and they have frequent service intervals.

Calculation car vs. bike depends on many variables. I think scoots are indispensable for inner rings of urban areas. However, if you come from far away (if you commute 50-80 kms in each direction daily) it may be too much, exhausting, high mileage for a scoot etc. In fact, it is not "or" issue, it is "and" issue: in most cases both car and a scoot are needed.

Of course, scoots are much better for lane splitting, there is no associated parking costs etc. I am just point to both sides - it is not just fuel consumption that counts.

[Syl]

Axy...you mentioned the word parking in your post. This leads me to a question about scooter parking. I presume we have to use a full parking spot with meter feeding, am I correct? Is probably a dumb question but somewhere in a post I noted someone saying they acquired a parking ticket. I guess I want to be able to park without getting towed!!