Is it just me??? By cookees (Read 531 times)

[cookees]

Is it just me or are we seeing more and more threads starting with the words I just bought a TaoTao ........and now it won't "Fill in the blank"?

Having been through the great "Scooter Madness" of '08 and '09... the number of schlock scooters to hit our shores has diminished greatly. As a former dealer who still has access to dealer pricing, it is easy to see why most drop-ship sellers(I'm loath to call them dealers) offer the TaoTao brand. With 5 distribution centers which lowers shipping cost, low pricing, and willingness to sell to practically anyone who purports to be a dealer, Tao Tao is indeed a drop-shipper's dream. TaoTao fills the need for those shopping for the low-cost scooter option. However, as we're seeing more and more, that low cost option often comes with it's own set of problems.

Quite a few top-tier distributors have sourced their offerings from Znen. Znen has proved its ability to build a pretty impressive scoot.


Their are other major US distributors sourcing their offerings from a relative few Chinese manufactures.(Sunright, Excalibur, Cougar, SSR, come to mind) Its refreshing to see that these distributors in addition to spec'ing a higher quality Chinese scooter, are making alliances to bring in various Taiwanese bikes, ie: TGB, Adly, et al .

[cyborg]

It's not you,,, I've only been around a short time and I noticed it also

[kagetenshi]

Guess I'm one of the lucky few then. I have a Tao Tao cy50-a sport (VIP). I haven't had any issues with it that weren't caused by situations beyond my control (other drivers pulling out in front of me/getting over while I'm beside them).

[cookees]

Nothing wrong with luck!

I have to keep reminding myself the some 65-70% of scooters sold in the US are 50cc's. Here in western Pennsylvania a 50cc is rarer than hens teeth. Just to many hills to deal with. I think we maybe sold 8 or so in the 6 years we were in business.

[Alleyoop]

Yes the tao tao's are a pretty popular scoots. They are not expensive so a lot of folks can afford them.
They are not bad scoots and are easy to fix and parts galore. What I hate to see is when one comes on with a problem and the model is one of the weird ones that no information and or parts are readily available. I do not understand why someone would buy a model that is not well known. I would tell them whatever scoot they like FIRST check around and see if you can get parts for it and if hard to get stay away from it.
Alleyoop

[cookees]

Aug 1, 2015 15:14:17 GMT -6 Alleyoop said:

Yes the tao tao's are a pretty popular scoots. They are not expensive so a lot of folks can afford them.
They are not bad scoots and are easy to fix and parts galore.

The funny thing about TaoTao is that in my dealings with them, they are pretty upfront and decent people to do business with. They make no bones about their marketing philosophy. They're cheap and want volume. In the couple of times I've needed to resolve problems, they reacted in a reasonable time and manor. To them it's a numbers game.

[czmdiver]

good point here
one who been long time with a mfg, I /we policed the fake dealers all the time,
Dealers had to supply a photo of there store front along with tax id etc.
I busted a few suppling a adress to a Business suite only for it to be empty.
We caved to drop ships for Distributors and charged them a $5. drop ship fee for each one, in not imd short they would have racked up a pretty good dsf charge.
Dealers were No way, I had supposed dealers want to drop ship a order and give me there customers credit card #'s.
At the end of the day and the all mighty bottom line ya never turn down a sale.

[cookees]

I had a distributor tell me once of his trip to Asia to source scooters and atv's. He said in Taiwan the first thing the manufactures wanted to know were the engineering specifications, but that in China the first thing they wanted to know was the anticipated volume and price point.

[cyborg]

Gotta love those bean counters

[jjoshua20213]

Anything from china is more quantity vs. quality.


With that being said, all the 2nd hand tao tao bike have given me no problems.

But I wouldn't put it past em to spit out a few bad ones.

Everything done in 2012 has worked flawless (speaking from bikes i've worked on)

There is a strong possibility there is new management/workers if they are popping out bad bikes.

I wouldn't throw dirt on the name until you see other brands around. All I see around her is Tao Tao and honda, maybe a piece sport.