Honda SH-150i

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I thought I had mentioned this, but I cannot find the post, so I will address the issue. The rumors have come full circle. Honda is bringing a 150cc scooter to the U.S. market this spring. It will be the SH-150i which has been available in Europe for some time.

The upsides:

• Fuel injection
• Dual disk brakes (apparently linked)
• 16" wheels
• It's a Honda

The downside:

• The projected MSRP is $4500
  

At first, I had a lot of negative feelings about this offering from Honda, simply because of the price. I'm now kinda waffling in my feelings about this scooter. At a likely OTD price of more than $5000, the SH150i comes into the pricing territory of a Vespa LX150, or a Suzuki Burgman 400.

On the one hand, the proposed MSRP seems excessive. A 150cc scooter, even with all the bells and whistles, isn't something most people are going to spend more than $5000 on. Sure, a Vespa will command that kind of price, and I'm thinking a Honda is probably better put together than a Vespa, but then you're paying for the name when you buy a Vespa. $5000 is a lot of money for the average American to fork out, especially now with everyone pinching pennies.

On the other hand, one could argue that when you buy a Honda, you're also paying for the name and the quality it comes with. No one can successfully argue that Hondas are junk. I'm sure they've made a few lemons along the way, but they are the exception and far from the rule. Perhaps that will be enough to convince some folks that the SH150i is worth it. Personally, I'd never be able to afford one, but as was mentioned by poster KZ1000ST on Scootdawg.com, they will probably last forever and give their owners back every penny that is spent on them. If it were a SH 300i at that price, well, then I might find a way to afford one eventually, but it's not.

I do think the pricing was a very bad move on Honda's part, but then, the Japanese companies seem to think that Americans are made of money. They don't seem to really pay much attention to trends. Had they been paying attention, they would have noticed that gas prices were going up three years ago and brought more mid-range scooters to the U.S. back then in preparation for the surge in scooter sales. As it was, three Japanese manufacturers (Honda, Suzuki, and Kawasaki) lost a lot of likely sales to the other manufacturers, while Yamaha was the only one of them to have anything mid-range still in production, and the only one of them to bring a new mid-range (albeit 125cc) scooter to the market in time for this model year (Zuma 125). Yamaha's pricing is also very competitive, despite their dealers' tendency to add on exorbitant dealer fees.

So, to sum up, yes, the Honda SH150 is way overpriced for what the market will bear; however, it should still be worth every penny in both quality and longevity.