You have to haggle with a shady car salesman and take out a loan to get a vehicle that’s actually road-legal, right? Not according to the manufacturers of actual road-legal scooters that’ll get you around town. While I have a natural preference for electric vehicles, sometimes you just can’t afford the price tag. If you want to get decent gas mileage, the amount of mass that the engine must deal with matters and these scooters are small enough to handle the job without busting your budget at the gas pump. You may wish to check the legality of actually owning one in your state, but if your DMV says it’s okay, jump all over it so you don’t have to deal with buying another cheap used car that’s just one step up from junkyard material.
You’re not going to be caught speeding on this bike that only has a max speed of 20 MPH and a range of 40 miles, but it’s a decent bike for getting you around town if you’ve wanted to stop paying for gas but an ordinary unpowered bicycle would be impractical. With a charge time of four hours, you’ll have no problems getting a full battery in the morning if you just leave it on the charger when your day is over. No matter which color you get, this bike looks snazzy enough to draw compliments from strangers. You may want to keep close tabs on how much you’ve ridden your bike because the battery indicator has given off false readings in some cases. While some of last year’s Amazon reviews complain about Jetson’s customer service, Jetson claims to have replaced its entire customer service team since then so you may have better luck.
TaoTao seems to have a bad habit of making you jump through hoops to get the documents you need and do a little bit of assembly with this selection, but they know how to make street-legal scooters. It doesn’t come with instructions, but you can find Youtube videos that’ll show you how to put it together. 30-40 MPH is reasonable for a 50cc scooter but some reviewers report getting up to 43 MPH when conditions are exactly right. At 90 miles per gallon, it’s no slacker when it comes to saving you on gas if you do a lot of in-town driving. Decent color options, but you might as well save yourself $25 and go for the red one.
At 150cc, this road legal scooter deserves to be taken as seriously as it looks with a max speed of 55 mph. While reviewers did warn that sometimes parts fail even in a new machine, the manufacturer is good about honoring the warranty and sending replacement parts. If you have saddle bags, this scooter can carry a fair amount of groceries and gets 94 miles per gallon in a practical real world operating environment. One reviewer wished for a 250cc scooter and a bigger gas tank but says he likes this scooter for running errands around town.
While some reviewers did state the obvious and say that this scooter shouldn’t be taken on the highway or any street where traffic is moving fast and might not see you, this scooter works well for rural areas where the typical speed limit is about 35-45 miles per hour. Assembly can be a little tricky if you’re not used to putting scooters together but can be done with a little help from Youtube. It looks fragile, but it’s apparently tough enough to survive if you accidentally leave it out in harsh weather and, for a 50cc scooter, it handles steep inclines decently.
This is another good 150cc scooter that is electric powered and comes with a matching trunk. Some reviewers did recommend changing the oil right away (apparently the stuff in the oil tank is a cheap grade meant for shipping) but said that the seller’s customer service was very good about answering questions. Because it’s “Euro” style, its speedometer gives readouts in kilometers per hour. A good rule of thumb is that 40 kilometers per hour equals about 25 miles per hour. As far as assembly is concerned, an auto technician did recommend using your own toolkit if possible, checking the oil filter for anything that might have fallen into it during the manufacturing process (he found staples in his) and especially hitting Youtube for a better demonstration on how to do it.
This is one scooter that is actually CARB compliant, meaning that it’s legal in California. With electric and kick start, max speed of 35 mph and an estimated 80 MPG, this scooter makes a decent 50cc option. If you have a color preference, be sure to contact GreenPowerSports after ordering. It comes with a six-month limited warranty but be prepared to have all of your information on hand when contacting the manufacturers.
The manufacturer of this scooter reminds you not to forget your helmet when riding around on a vehicle like this and, in fact, will throw in a free one with this model. Although it gets good gas mileage, the sole reviewer said that the original fuel gauge on his did not work and he had to send in for a replacement. So that’s just something to watch out for. It has a max speed of 30-35 miles per gallon, electric starter that works with a key or just kicking off in reverse, and a free trunk.
This Vespa replica can get up to 25 MPH with its 50cc 4-Stroke Motorized Gas Scooter that doesn’t require any pre-mixing of your gasoline and fully automatic clutch-free operation. The dual forks provide a bump-free ride and you can stop in a hurry if you need to with disc brakes on each wheel — not that this should ever be a problem considering its low top speed compared with other scooters. Stow your gear in the included trunk so you can run errands around town in style.
You might have guessed by now that TaoTao’s scooters come as “Some Assembly Required” vehicles and the legal disclaimer on this listing confirms that. It’s still a decent 149cc scooter that can powerhouse its way through your errands around town. The listing says “Blue” but somebody from the seller will call to confirm your color preference if you provide a phone number. The DVD instruction video was called “laughably cheesy” by reviewers but helped with the assembly process. For a Chinese-built product, it doesn’t look or feel flimsy and, as you would expect from a scooter with triple the power of the 50cc models, it can easily power its way over hills at 40 mph.
It’s a limited edition, street legal, 150cc, fully automatic scooter from TaoTao so there might not be much more to say about it. Okay, just kidding. This scooter can handle heavy loads and a pretty good stretch of one-way travel very well for a scooter even though one dealer (yes, apparently TaoTao does have a few dealerships around) recommended changing the oil as soon as possible and watching out for loose bolts. If you’re buying this as a gift, you might want to consider buying one for yourself too, especially if you decide to take the gift for a test spin because some reviewers reported not wanting to give it up.
