By Mark Hinchliffe
The Courier Mail
January 13, 2009
MOTORISTS desperate to survive tough economic times are pawning laptops, furniture and television sets to buy scooters for cheap transport.
Scooter sales rocketed 7.6 per cent last year, helping the two-wheeled market to a record 3.2 per cent increase, according to figures released yesterday by the Federal Chamber of Austomotive Industries.
Car, van and truck sales dropped 3.6 per cent.
Major Brisbane scooter dealer Joe D'Ercole said he expected sales to continue rising, The Courier-Mail reports.
"The whole reason Vespa exists is that after World War II there was a credit crisis, mortgage issues and high fuel costs just like today," he said.
"The main problem is that people can't get credit to buy a $2500 scooter. People are even selling off household items just to buy one.
"I had one guy trying to sell his big flat screen TV because they had two of them. The trouble is, what's a second-hand TV worth?"
FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said the drop in fuel prices below $1 a litre would not slow the scooter or low-capacity motorcycle market.
"With the sort of economic challenges around, people will still be looking at those sorts of economic alternatives," he said.
Piaggio scooter brand manager Simon Gloyne said the factors that drove scooter growth in the past six years remained.
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