Entrepreneur opens motor scooter dealership Downtown

[thelakelander]

07/15/2008

by Max Marbut

Staff Writer

With a family and children involved in sports and other activities, Ken Watson just couldn’t justify trading his SUV on a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

“But the rising gas cost really got me thinking there’s got to be a way around these high prices,” he said.

For Watson it was the World Wide Web to the rescue.

“Most of my errands are 10 miles or less and I had seen some motor scooters around, so I got on the Internet and found a local dealer.

“I test drove one and it literally sold itself. After buying it and riding it around for a couple of weeks I decided I needed to sell them. If I would buy one, so would a lot of people,“said Watson.

Last week he opened the doors of Jax City Scooters on Ocean Street between Bay and Forsyth streets. He has about a dozen scooters in stock and said the first time he opened the dealership and let customers in to see the Chinese-made motor scooters, his suspicion that a lot of people are looking for a way to save money on gas was confirmed.

“In a half an hour, I had two scooters pre-sold,” said Watson, who added his goal is to sell 12 units a month for the first year and then steadily increase his sales volume.

full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=50429

[Jason]

Smart move.  Should be a lot of interests from the surrounding historic neighborhoods.

[Dapperdan]

wow.. 80-100 mpg. The only thing I would be worried about is being smeared by a SUV as I am puttering along at 40 MPH.  I almost want one.

[Eazy E]

In the vent Mr. Watson reads this:
BRILLIANT MOVE.

My wife and were just discussing the other day how if my very old car dies, we will most likely replace it with a scooter. And, now, it looks like if I do replace it, it will be with a scooter from the person with enough vision to put a dealership where a scooter would be best utilized: for those of us living in downtown/s-field area.

[The Compound]

Ive heard a 'rumor' of a scooter shop coming in Riverside near 5 points. I'll reveal more as I find out.

[Driven1]

yep...rode past there 3 times today as i was doing my loops on my bike.  looks like cheap chinese scooters.  probably no warranty.  believe me - beware if this is the case.  ok read the article.  limited one year warranty.  yeah, these are cheap.  hate to tell the guy, but he will not be in business long (even in a booming scooter market) if he doesn't move up quickly on the quality ladder.  people will figure out very quickly that if they want the cheap chinese scooters that break (and take weeks to get parts for) then they can just order them online for 30% cheaper.  i don't see a mechanic at his place either. 

they looked smaller like a lot of 50ccs too...these max out at about 33mph (no matter what the sales guy says).  the 150cc (didn't see many of them) will max out at around 58mph probably.  go that big in a motor and smart to get a liquid cooled and not air cooled.

[hanjin1]

I would venture to the new vespa dealership in san marco. I like the idea about a scooter shop in downtown, but I would rather see something other than chinese scooters. A honda, yamaha, vespa dealership would be great. But I hope all goes well with his shop. Hopefully they are better chinese quality.

[Driven1]

just for the record...taiwan and s. korea make some good ones too...

SYM, Kymco

i have a CFMoto chinese scooter with a 2 year warranty.  bought it for $2900 (150 cc liquid) and it has ran pretty good.  bunch of clowns at the dealership took 3-4 weeks to fix a minor problem but other than that, it is pretty good.  don't be fooled though...these bikes (like motorcycles too) require scheduled maintenance (though it is relatively cheap) more often than cars.