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What I mean by Supplement, a family buys a Scooter and uses it in place of one of the family's cars but the family cars remain. For example, when I bought my scooter last year as a means of transportation, I did NOT get rid of my Jeep. I kept both. On days with snow or ice I use the Jeep. On days when I have to move more then myself I use the Jeep. On all other days (abut 90% of the time) I use my scooter. I joked that with the Scooter I have to go to the Gas station twice as often as I did with my Jeep, but only spend 10% of what I did when I pulled in with the Jeep (The Jeep gets about 20mpg with a 15 gallon tank, the Scooter gets 90 mpg with a 1.2 Gallon Tank). The Scooter is worth every penny I spent on it, in fact given that I have put 12,000 miles on it, it has almost paid for itself.
When Gasoline was $3 a gallon I calculated the Scooter saves me about 10 cents a mile over operating my Jeep, At 4 dollars a gallon almost 15 cents a mile. That does not sound like much but at 12,000 miles I have put on the Scooter that is a savings of $1200. Now I only paid $2000 for it and base on the price of Gasoline over the last year, I saved about $1000 at 10 cents a Miles, and saved another $300 at 15 cents a mile. If I use it till about 15,000 miles it will have paid for itself (I have put on 11,000 miles on it since last July, so going to 15,000 is NOT that difficult given I use it as a replacement for my Jeep for any trip I do not need the extra room or four wheel drive option, which is most of the time).
My point is that more people will opt for a Scooter not as a second car replacement, but as an alternative that saves gas. Instead of being a second car, the Scooter will be the primary car, with the existing cars kept for trips not possible with the Scooter (i.e. where the extra room of the car is important, such as grocery shopping to hauling someone else somewhere). I once told someone that in Five or ten years I expect most people who have Pickups today, will still have pickups, but most trips will be in a Scooter with the pick up saved for the time where its bed is actually used.
Please note is has been longer reported that market surveys have indicated a severe difference in attitude between mini-van drivers and SUV Drivers (With Pickup driver more like mini-van drivers then SUV drivers, even as most SUVs are based on pickups). The attitude difference is why I suspect Pickups, mini-vans (and the "cross over" vehicles which are replacing the Mini-van) and SUVs will survive (more as second hand vehicles then as new purchases, especially for SUVs). The difference is how one views one role in Society. If you view yourself as a "Individual" you opt for SUVs, for the same reason people use to drive Sports cars, it show other people your "status" as a high status person. Pickup and Mini-van drivers view themselves as helping members of Society, and thus they bought a pick up or mini-van to haul things not only for themselves but for friends and neighbors. Unlike the "Individual" such "community" people emphasis what they can do for society as a whole, not just for Society to look at them and see how successful they are. Given this difference, as SUVs drop in price, the community people will see them as enclosed pickups and buy them to use a a hauling vehicle (especially as the "individuals" drop them as more and more people blame SUVs for causing high Gasoline prices). Thus my comment that SUVs will survive, people who are buying used pickups and mini-vans will buy them as replacements for their pickups and/or mini-vans for the same reason they are buying pickups and Mini-van (hauling capacity not image). Such people will also be buying Scooters to save gas, but want the hauling capacity when they or one of they friends need it. More a comment on the difference is how the SUV will be used in ten years then on Scooters, but I fully foresee such people owning both.
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