Tank Scooters - The Tank Viaggio Urban 50cc Scooters To Touring Class 250cc Scooters

It is true that the first wave of China made Tank scooters suffered from poor quality control and buying a good working Tank scooter has the same odds akin to drawing the first prize in a lottery. This is actually not a country specific problem but rather due to the initial hiccups involved in any technology transfer. It happened with the Japanese made scooters and cars as well. Just twenty years ago, Toyota and Honda were considered crap metal cages that can move on wheels, but now they are premium cars trusted by many consumers for safety and performance.

Nowadays, the imported Tank scooters have satisfied the strict DOT and EPA standards required by the United States on overseas vehicles. While we are not sure about all China scooters, since there are hundreds of Chinese manufacturers of varying standards and reliability on the market, the quality control of Tank scooters are quite high.

Like it or not, China is now the largest scooter manufacturer in the world in terms of production volume according to the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC). China made 50cc to 250cc scooters account for more than 50 percent of the scooters being made today. Given their lower labor and production costs, they are dominating the lower to mid end scooter market. Perhaps, the only issue holding back people from buying these china made Tank scooters is the rumors of poor build quality, frequent engine problems and horror stories such as the scooter falling apart when going for a test drive on the road.

Reviews of Urban/Sporty/Touring Tank Scooter

You can find that recent consumer reviews on 100cc scooters from Tank are more on the positive side, with regards to design and performance. Riders with limited budget that wanted a Japanese style scooter now have a cheaper option from the various models from Tank Sports, which are nearly on par with their more expensive counterparts from the Taiwanese and Japanese scooters.

In fact, it is a good time to buy Tank 150cc scooters because the company is still trying to break into the international market and you can expect a discount factor on their current prices. Given the perception of china made goods and the well known problems detected with earlier Tank scooters, this manufacturer is unable to raise its prices at the moment for fear of hurting sales.

However, you can expect that once their brand power becomes strong with continued marketing, good R&D and quality control, you will not be able to get 200cc Tank scooters at such discounted prices like today.

You can do a search for reviews on Tank scooters online in blogs and enthusiastic scooter forums. You will get the direct feedback of Tank scooter riders as well as service mechanics that are discussing on the value and problems of the various models like the Tank Urban, Racer DS etc. By the way, new Tank scooters come with a 36 months or 36,000 miles warranty.

Tank Scooter Catalog

You can find a wide range of models in the 50cc, 150cc and 250cc class. In the 2009/2010 catalog, there are the Tank Urban 50, Viaggio 50 and the Tank Sporty. There 6 different 150cc Tank scooters, making them the largest range, including the Racer DS 08, Racer DS 09, Race TR16-08, Touring Deluxe, Sporty and the Viaggio 150. And finally, the Touring 250DE-08 250cc class scooters.

If you compare with previous years catalogs, you will realize that due to the economic downturn the number of different Tank scooters have currently shrunk. As for color selections, most of the models are available in black, red, yellow and blue.

Tank Viaggio 50cc Versus 150cc Scooters

Comparing the performance of the Tank Viaggio 50cc versus the Tank Viaggio 150cc scooters, both have a four cycle engine, auto transmission and 1 gallon gas capacity. The Viaggio 150cc provides 8.84 horsepower and a top speed of 55 mph while the Viaggio 50cc has 2 horsepower and a top speed of 30 mph.

Scooter Mileage

The expected mileage for the 50cc scooters is around 70mpg and 60mpg for the 150cc models. You can find a new Tank Viaggio 150cc selling for less than $1200 and the Tank Urban 50cc for less than $700 if you shop around.