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Just because 'new' might not make sense for you, does not mean it doesn't make sense for everybody else. Different folks have different circumstances and berating and belittling people for making a choice which suits them is very unbecoming.

If buying new made no sense then 1- very few would do it and 2- there would be no used market for you to enjoy because there would be no new bikes to be resold.

The debate re kymco being too close to the Japanese scoots in price is another thing entirely.

This is an apolitical topic so should be within the rules and is not dissimilar to the net neutrality topic.

First a bit of reading if you want to hear the fairytale version
publicknowledge.org/issues/ow

To sum it up, there is a group of people (mostly publishing companies / corporations / news providers) who want a situation whereby if they cannot 'reasonably' find the copyright owner of an image / video / book they want they get to use it for free AND should the owner find out damages do not apply, they only pay a capped token fee and the works owner cannot prevent them from continuing to use the work.

The justification for doing this is that it will unlock a vast amount of previously unusable work, make the world a better place and maybe bring back the dodo.

Put simply this is a fabrication. Whereas a bunch of teenagers before wanted it to be ok to have free music, this time companies just want to avoid paying for work. The unlocked library is a fallacy, getty, magnum, corbis et al have a huge library of video and pictures of every even since the inception of film and considerable libraries of illustrations and paintings going back to the dawn of pigments. The problem for companies is they have to pay to use them and this makes them very unhappy! It's terribly unfair in their view that photographers and videographers be paid for their work.

They say just registering copyright on the works will prevent this, but frankly it wont. Heres two scenarios,
1. I shoot a wedding and provide the client with the edited shots. They place them on facebook (this is fine with me) and some web designer for a company finds the image via google image search and uses it.
2. I shoot a portrait session and use a picture in a display at a bridal fair. Some numpty takes a picture of my work (this happens so much I want a trapdoor installed over a tiger pit to deal with them) posts it on flickr and it gets found and used.
In either scenario the clients find out, get upset at me and it tarnishes my reputation. Also I do not get paid, but most importantly I do not get a chance to refuse and nor can I prevent the use from continuing.
I pay for music, I pay for books and videos, why should my work not be respected. The arguments for bettering the world do not ring true, its simply an exercise in avoiding paying. Working as a pro photographer is not cheap, I have easily spent well into 6 figures on equipment, training, processing etc over the years. Whilst my rates are not craigslist cheap I do not make huge amounts of money (hell i work a second job as well), it seems that those of us in the creative industry are being demonised for wanting to at least have the chance to respect the privacy of our clients if not be paid for our work.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding the situation but this seems like a giant con, its a free pass to cheat and if you get caught the penalty if 1/10th the cost of doing it right the first time.

one thought may be if the OP lives somewhere hot and is running 20w50 or something similar because of the heat the top speed is likely to be lower, by how much I have no idea.
The basic premise that a 150 should be able to hit a true 50mph on the flat under normal conditions is pretty sound (with an average sized driver). I checked last night and I can get 68 indicated (62 actual?) flat out downhill, thats around 8500rpm indicated which rings true with the rev limiter. I'm 220lbs. The svelte mcalli no doubt can go a lot faster, being 100lbs lighter will help a lot.
Basically a 150 with 8hp on a good day can make 50 under most normal conditions BUT add in anything like altitude, an extra 100lbs weight, a headwind, an incline etc it drops. As mentioned above they have nothing in reserve, mine runs WOT a lot of the time (which cannot bode well for engine life). A stroker crank upgrade might improve things. IIRC if would add more torque (or rather proportionally more torque than hp) which should assist with maintaining speed in hills \ headwinds \ carrying loads.

Sure, most 250's would do that if not get pretty close, 400's for sure. The run up haleakala is the biggest push of the bike, more specifically the highway up from wailuku where theres a reasonable gradient and 55mph speeds.
A 250 EFi should get close to 80mph if not more flat out. A 400 EFi will do 100 thereabouts flat out. Perhaps 25% is a bit much, just feels like it when walking it

Thanks for the thoughts I guess I'm being a bit of a goldilocks. The downtown 300i and the xciting 250 are so close. If we had a sym dealer the choice would be easier although it would be nice with bigger wheels.

Thats for the absolute basic coverage, no comprehensive coverage or theft protection. I just checked and for a 250 (around 5k value) with a modest deduction comprehensive coverage with theft coverage runs 350 ish, 450 for a 400cc bike.

No worries, not much longer before China it outsourcing to the USA anyway

For a given definition of assembled it may be true in a certain light Perhaps if you define assembled as putting some decals on and screwing a few bits together. You know, marketing speak (thinly veiled lies somehow justified by a vague association to something akin to a truth).

The scoots are physically made in China (assuming they dont outsource some of the process or purchase parts from cheaper markets) but there is some final physical assembly in the USA after it is decrated. I haven't seen them marketed as such but it is possible somebody is saying that. Just saying depending on how you look at it it is correct (especially if you work in marketing or for a hedge fund).