Something I noticed while perusing lists like this:
MPG Guide: The Fuel Economy Of 250 Top Selling Scooters
Modern scooters like the 50cc Honda Dio 144mpg?? What sorcery is this... (well technically i'm not surprised, but I was surprised when I first discovered it) What I mean is, others on the list get like HALF that, it's like things have really climbed into the stratosphere for some of the newest scooters. I mean on that list it's exclusively 50cc scooters (except for the 90cc honda joker) above 100mpg. And yet some others don't even post 70mpg which baffles me.
Or is the mpg figures actually a lie? I've read people saying their Dio gets 75mpg, is it no magic but marketing, and things like driving 18mph that you'll never see otherwise... what i'm really asking is, what will I honestly see for MPG for modern vs older scooters? Is it driving it easy or keeping up with the 40mph faster urban roads? In my seeking of extreme efficiency i'm willing to join the ranks of the townbound rarely exceeding 30-40mph, but if I don't actually get well over 100mpg I don't see the point, since it sounds like 125cc motorcycles get a pretty solid real world 90mpg and 250cc ones in the 70-80mpg range even driven poorly. And when I read of ecomodders getting 90mpg plus on a Ninja 250cc, and there's probably little if any room for further improvement on a tiny scooter as it's probably wrapped to 110% just trying to keep up (no P&G here), I wonder whether the 250cc is the way to go.
PS are there any older (ie cheap used, ie what can I get for like $500? :P) 4 stroke scooters that will get me 100mpg since once I start saving fuel money I can save up for something better later?