These Ain’t No SUVs: Vespa Opens Boutique
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
There’s an alternative to all those SUVs and swanky sports cars cruising around Newport Beach: a pale green scooter that looks like it’s straight out of a 1950s Italian flick.
Italy’s Piaggio SPA, maker of the Vespa motorscooter, recently opened a 6,000-square-foot-plus store in Newport Beach on Pacific Coast Highway, an Orange County first.
“It’s a nice central spot,” said Garth Hammers, the store’s general manager.
That it hardly rains in Southern California helps, Hammers said. And Newport-types love to take sleek scooters to vacation spots via their boats, he said.
The store started selling in early summer and had its grand opening at the end of August.
In that time, Hammers said he sold 80 Vespas, which is an “excellent” start but a fraction of the buyers he hopes to snag.
Hammers said he is shooting to sell 500 to 600 Vespas a year out of the Newport store. He’s pushing two models, the EP2 ($2,665) and the EP4 ($3,995) that come in cobalt blue, platinum, pearl and black, among other colors.
But first he’s got to get the word out.
“We’re finding that we’re really having to educate people that Vespas are sold (in the U.S.) again,” Hammers said.
It helps that Vespa is one of the world’s most recognizable brands. Enrico Piaggio designed the first Vespa in 1946, and they’ve become an icon in Europe.
Piaggio introduced the scooters to the U.S. about 15 years ago, and pulled out when their engines failed to meet domestic emissions rules.
The 50-year-old company brought revamped scooters to the U.S. in 2000 by opening a Sherman Oaks store. It since has opened about 80 other boutiques, including in New York, Florida and Texas.
Along with Sherman Oaks and Newport, there are area stores in Santa Monica, Riverside and San Diego, which opened last week. One of Vespa’s rivals is Taiwan’s Kwang Yang Motor Co., known as Kymco.
The OC store is targeting a broad market, Hammers said.
“It’s really for anybody that’s tired of always being in an SUV,” he said, “somebody that wants something that’s easy to drive and park.”
And they’re easier to ride now, he said.
The vintage Vespas tended to “lean to the right” and the driver had to shift, work the clutch and kick-start the engine.
The new versions, while still as funky with pink two-tone and flame accents, are automatic, balanced, have an electric starter and go faster. The ET4 goes up to the 65-mph-range vs. vintage models that maxed out at 55 or 60.
