Dealers say gas prices are bringing in many older buyers.

State Journal and Associated Press

With the average price of gasoline closing in on $4 a gallon, many cash-strapped motorists are turning to fuel-stingy motor scooters and smaller motorcycles. Dealers in Madison and across the nation report brisk sales this spring, particularly for those that get from 60-120 miles per gallon.

"There's definitely been more interest," said Jeremy Spann, general manager of Vespa Madison, who attributes the increase to rising gas prices.

"More people are stopping by, and one of the first questions they ask is 'What's the gas mileage?' where before it would be 'What's the top speed?' "

Sales of name-brand scooters such as Honda, Yamaha, Vespa and Suzuki rose 24 percent in the first quarter of the year, said Mike Mount, spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council trade group — noting that it's not exactly a hot sales period because of cool weather in much of the nation.

Many lesser-known scooters from China, Taiwan and South Korea also are sold in the U.S., but Mount said those sales figures are not readily available.

"We believe, anecdotally, that fuel prices are definitely having an effect on scooter sales," he said. "It seems likely that that's playing into scooter sales this quarter, as well."

The lowest-priced scooters such as the Chinese imports cost about $800, while name-brand bikes cost $2,000 to $3,000 and top-of-the-line models can go for $6,000 to $8,000.

Randy Knudson, owner of Madison-based Scooter Therapy, said not only are sales way up this year, the faces that come through the store are changing.

"The age of the person who walks in here has gone up about 30 years," he said. "It used to be primarily young people, and now it's people in the 45, 55, 65 range."

"I think scooters are becoming more socially acceptable," said Robert Hintz, general manager of Madison's Englehart Center.

"It used to be that only nerds would ride a scooter. Scooters now are in the mainstream for transportation. ... We're getting adults that are riding them to go back and forth for work."

"It's a different kind of buyer because they're coming in with a need, and not a want," he said. "They're looking at this as a main transportation to replace their car for eight months of the year."

Joan Kohler is not a typical new scooter customer. But the 51-year-old restaurant owner bought a candy-apple red Honda last week as worries about the price of gas overrode any trepidation about learning to drive it.

Within a day of buying her scooter in Pierre, S.D., Kohler had 35 miles on the machine. She said the price of gas was a major consideration, even though her daily commute is just a few miles.

"One-hundred miles to the gallon is great," she said. "I don't do a lot of driving. It's just mainly going to work and back. And I thought, it can't be that difficult to drive."

Gingerly edging to a stop on her driveway, she said her husband worried about her safety, and so she promised to be careful.

"My family was so concerned that I'm going to get killed that I went out and got a mesh lime-green vest with reflective tape, and if other drivers can't see me, they're blind," Kohler said.

Johnny Scheff of Motoworks in Chicago, which sells Vespas, said high gas prices are prompting consumers to find alternative means of transportation. Scooters can pay for themselves in fuel savings over one to three years, he said.

"April was a terrible weather month in Chicago, and the things were just flying out the door," he said.

At Vespa SoHo in Manhattan, the largest Vespa dealer in the country, owner Zach Schieffelin said scooter sales also are being propelled by New Yorkers fed up with commuting on the subways.

"We are starting to see the big uptick we were expecting, and it's all starting to boom now," said Schieffelin. "All of us who ride on a regular basis are having people stop us and ask what kind of fuel economy we get."

But the boom in sales for smaller scooters isn't transferring through to bigger models. Mount, the trade group spokesman, said sales of small and medium-sized motorcycles rose 7.5 percent in the first quarter, but sales of larger, more-expensive motorcycles were down 11 percent.

Harley-Davidson chief executive Jim Ziemer said high gas prices aren't bringing in new customers to their dealerships — but that fuel costs may help customers rationalize purchases they'd already decided to make. The Milwaukee-based company is seeing sales erode as its customers pull back on spending amid the struggling overall economy.

State Journal reporter Nick Heynen contributed to this report.