Is Yamaha the only one of the big three that gets it? Consider, they have the 50 cc Vino, with a carburetor,the 50 cc C3, with fuel injection, the 50 cc, two stroke, Zuma, and moving up Yamaha has the Vino 125, the 250 cc Morphous, and the 400 cc Majesty.
Yamaha has a scooter for any need, for any one, for intercity commuting, to day long touring.
Honda has the 50 cc Metropolitan, and Ruckus, and then they go to the 582 cc Silverwing.
That is what I can find for Honda 2008 scooter lineup from the Honda website.
Suzuki has only the Burgman in 400 cc and 650 cc nothing in the small and medium size scooter classes.
In my opinion Suzuki is missing out on a lot of market share by not having any offerings below 400 cc, and Honda has left out the medium sized scooter market.
Yamaha seems to have a better grasp on what the scootering population in America wants.
If Honda would have offered something in the 125 to 200 cc class I would be riding a Honda instead of a Yamaha.
I did not mention Genuine or Kymco as I do not feel the have the dealer network to be a truly major player in the U.S. Although by all accounts they do make a quality product.
When Kymco get the dealer network they will have more offerings in more sizes than the others. Just recently a Kymco dealer opened here, a review of this dealer is coming so stay tuned.
As the cost of gas continues to climb more people will look at scooters for transportation probably to and from work mostly. That in force the manufactures to rethink the U.S. scooter market, and local the rethink how the view the scooter. That will be a GOOD day.
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I agree with you, that Yamaha is the only one who gets it. Although the demand is relatively small now in the US, they are getting probably 90% of it. (with the other 10% going to Taiwanese & Chinese scooters)
Suzuki does make smaller scooters, but doesn't think that we want them in the US. I'd probably be riding a 250cc Burgman if it were offered here.
Honda has more scooter offerings than anyone, but they too have decided that we only want one of two sizes. 50cc (no license size) and 585cc (ideal expressway size)
Yamaha has decided that they can snap up enough sales in the midsize scooters to make it worth their while to import the bikes they have already designed for other markets. After all, they don't have any high quality competition. If Honda, Suzuki, & Kawasaki were to all of a sudden get into midsize scooters in the US, Yamaha might bow out.
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