Mail someone about this article

Sales of retro 2-wheelers scoot

By James R. Healey, USA TODAY Laugh at $3 gasoline. Motor topless. Be unbearably hip. Impossible? Nope. Just ride a motor scooter. Not a motorcycle, a scooter. Led by Italian brands Vespa and Aprilia, European two-wheelers are rebounding in the USA and have been adopted by taste-makers as the Latest Thing. Serendipity on their side, scooter sellers are rolling out 60- to 120-mile-per-gallon two-wheelers just as the USA frets over energy prices. And the styling resonates. Vespas resemble classics of the 1950s at a time when U.S. consumers are into retro-everything. Aprilias are jazzy copies of racy motorcycles, Euro-inspired and evocative of the youthful image sought by seemingly every baby boomer.

Your comment to this article:

* Required fields