The Pecking Order

4 Different Types of Restoration Shops

By Scooter-X

In Viet Nam there seems to be four different Scooter Shops. Given the fact that a lot of shops pick up Vespas and Lambrettas at $500.00 to $800.00 for a road wary scooter, the profits can be huge but at what cost?

I. The Nobodies – These are small Viet run shops all along the different streets in Saigon. These shops do not sell on eBay or even advertise. Their restored scooter sits in front on the shop until someone comes by to make an offer. The quality of the restores are fair usually from first inspection but then at closer look, you can see where cheap parts are used or incorrect parts substituted. It is safe to assume if a piston was replaced with a Thahn brand piston which quality is worse than Indian.

II. The Bottom Feeders – These are westerners usually that go shop to shop to buy the restored scooters from the Nobodies. The Bottom Feeders then resell the scooters on eBay touting that they have a huge shop in Saigon with lots of customers worldwide. When warranty issues arise, the Bottom Feeders fade into the shadows.

III. The Up and Comers –These are entrepreneurial, young, Vietnamese 20 something men that are grabbing at the big dollars behind scooter restoration. Some example of this group are Huy’s Scooters, ScooterAZ and Powder Scooters. All went to business school and doing quite well for their age. Some shops in this group are good and some are not. This group does not usually have a good reference point on how to properly restore a scooter s to the original spender. Parts used can be good but not great. A lot of issues around quality control usually crop up which is a major issue in other industry also in Vietnam, (similar to China 20 years ago). Some of these shops are out of their parents house and they farm out the different phases of the restore to the different specialty shops, (e.g. body or paint). Since a lot of buyers are on eBay with cash ready to spend these guys are busy especially when their selling price is about $500 to $1000. less than the next group. They ship 2-4 scooters a month which is excellent money for a Vietnamese living in Saigon.

IV. The Westerners – There are several shops that are run by non-Vietnamese. ScootRS, Saigon Scooter Centre, (SSC), and Harrington Group. Harrington seems to be the largest exporter but they seem to have the most controversy over their exports. All three shops seem to know how a scooter goes together and come close to using the correct parts. ScootRS and SSC seem to have an advantage because they manufacture many parts for both Vespa and Lambrettas. They also seem to get the concept of quality and the importance of return business. After spending an afternoon at ScootRS, I wanted to order one of their Lambrettas because of the quality of their shop, (yes an actual shop).