A few words about Chinese scooters

I am getting bombarded with questions about 49cc scooters, what to buy, and what to beware of. Chinese scooters are the thing to beware of. It's all hit or miss. Generally, if a scooter is offered brand new, delivered to your door for under $1200, stay clear of it.
Inferior batteries (some with a 2 week warranty), poorly machined carburetors and engines, substandard hoses, cheap tires, and hard to come by parts are only a few issues these bikes have.
I've gotten word that most dealerships who carry these bikes don't honor the warranties that come with them, and trying to deal with a Chinese manufacturer makes things even harder to deal with.
One of the locals here in Estes Park picked up a used Roketa scooter for $500. Brand new it was $950. The thing is a little over a year old, and we can't tell how many miles are on it because the speedometer broke a long time ago. As a matter of fact, it quit working at mile 15. This gentleman bought it for his wife as a birthday gift, and brought it to me to fix up a bit before he gave it to her.
I opened up the carburetor and was stunned to see all rough edges to the machine work, like a dog chewed on it. The needle jet inside was very cheaply made with some sort of plastic part on top of the needle that will surely deteriorate fast with the gasoline in there with it.
The hoses already had signs of deterioration, and the brakes were completely worn out. Now, let me say that Estes Park spans maybe a 5 mile radius, so it's not like this bike had a few thousand miles on it.
From my rental mileage, I would guess that this scooter MAYBE has 2,000. Far too few to be showing this sort of wear and malfunctioning.
Other brands like Tank, Roadrunner etc. have had mixed reviews. Mainly dealers giving good reviews, and customers giving bad.
Some customers have said that the scooter shows up in a crate, and they never get it started.
Some get them started, but with in 500 miles have repairs to contend with, and no source for parts or service.
My advice, pay the extra money for a Honda, Yamaha, Kymco, Derbi, etc... What you get are reliable brands, little maintenance, machine longevity, and something any mechanic can work on.

Some websites say, "Why pay twice as much...?" Because you want it to work the first time, and every time.