Classic Vespa PX goes out of circulation, motorists saddened
August 24, 2008
Hundreds of scooter enthusiasts headed to the coast at a time when a model - a direct descendant of the bikes that are favoured by the Mods of the 1960s - ceases to be available in showrooms. Stringent new European emission norms mean that the Vespa PX is no longer economically viable.
Vespa stated that although sales of the three decade old two-stroke, manually-geared bike were fairly static at just about 15,000 units on annual basis, tightening emission legislation was the death-knell. It will now only produce machines that feature a fully automatic gear box.
The UK general manager, Tony Campbell, stated:
The EU government has set a number of standards to be met within certain deadlines in an effort to clean up emissions of all motorised vehicles, The new emissions regulations, known as “Euro 3″, make the production of a two-stroke engine larger than 50cc not economically feasible. The Vespa PX will go down in history as one of the best! A model does not last for three decades unless it was right in the first place.
The decision by parent firm, Piaggio, to cease production of the model saddened the followers of this design classic.
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