I did some math, figuring that I would use the scooter 6 days per week at about 31 miles per day for the route, that's 186 miles. The scooter gets about 70mpg, and hypermiling my car yielded about 28mpg on the route. That's about 2.66 gal/wk on the scooter and about 6.64 gal/wk in the car. At $4.30 for premium (scooter manual suggests octane of at least 90), that's $11.44 /wk. The car, with about $4.09 for regular is at $27.16 /wk. That's a difference of about $15.72 /wk. If I were to use the scooter for the route only, with the scooter costing $2100 out the door it would take
about 118 weeks to break even, a little over two years, if gas prices remain the same. It'll pay off sooner if gas keeps going up. But, I use it often around town so that I don't take my car. That's not figured in. The fun factor was a major plus (the cool wind wakes me up at 4am...
) The maintenance on the scooter is much cheaper, and the longevity of my car is improved as well. Not to mention, the scooter came with a full two year warranty from the dealer. If anything happens to it outside regular wear-and-tear, the dealer will repair/replace the parts free of charge.
It may not have been fully worth it for the short term. But now I'm hooked on scooters and will replace it when it is out of commission, whenever that may be. I have heard of people getting 20,000-30,000 miles out of 'em if they are well maintained. I bought it May 7 of this year, and have already put about 1700 miles on it with no trouble whatsoever. It is reliable efficient transportation in a town with not-so-great public transit, distances too far to bike or walk, and a car is too much when it is only me.
Just my 2 cents though. I felt it was all around a good buy, I am happy with it, and don't regret it!
Hope this helps.