Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Choosing a Scooter

My wife's currently expecting our 2nd child. After she (that's what the doctor predicts) is born, it'll be too much of a hassle to get the whole family go with me drive to my office, then my wive continues to drive our son to his school, and go back home every morning. It will be much better if I can get our son to his school, then myself to the office, while the wife and our baby stays at home. But ideally, our car also stays home in case of emergency *knock on wood* and for my wive to drive to the hospital for our baby's scheduled visits to the pediatrician for vaccinations, etc.

So we need another vehicle. For efficiency, functionality and versatility reasons, our choice goes to a scooter. Now we're in the hunt for one!

We're not looking for the fanciest scooter available. Based on our friends' experiences and suggestions, we think that an entry-level scooter with CVT transmisson will suit our needs just fine. Suzuki, Yamaha, and Honda are battling against each other in this massive market with their newest products: Address, Mio M3, and All New BeAT eSP & All New BeAT POP eSP, respectively. Kobay in his blog KobaYogas.COM compares them all comprehensively in 1 post without actually concluding which one is best as, at the end of the day, it boils down to personal preferences and requirements. However, let's try to quantify his analysis.

Here's his comparison between the scooters–in terms of engine, features & accomodation, as well as pricing–translated into English:

Power and Torque
  • Address 113 cc: ±9 PS – 9.3 Nm
  • Mio M3 125 cc: 9.2 PS – 9.6 Nm
  • New BeAT 108 cc: 8.68 PS – 9.01 Nm
I'll give 3 points for Mio M3 as the winner here, 2 points for Address at the 2nd place, and just 1 point for New BeAT coming last.

Weight
  • Address: 97 kg
  • Mio M3: 92 kg
  • New BeAT: 95 kg
Now 3 points for Mio M3 being the most lightweight, 2 points for New BeAT at the 2nd place, and 1 point for Address being the heaviest.

Fuel Consumption
  • Address: 53 km/l (ECE R40 method)
  • Mio M3: 55.5 km/l (eco indicator mode)
  • New BeAT: 63 km/l (with ISS - ECE R40 method)
This time, New BeAT is the winner (3 points), Mio M3 comes 2nd (2 points), and Address last (1 point).

Features & Accomodation
  • Suzuki Address has the largest fuel tank (3 points), Yamaha Mio M3 comes 2nd (2 points), and New BeAT last (1 point)
  • Suzuki Address' baggage capacity is the largest (3 points), the New BeAT duo comes 2nd (2 points), and Mio M3 last (1 point)
  • Address and Mio M3 have the seat opener feature (1 point each) while the BeAT duo don't
  • Brake feature; won by the BeAT duo (1 point)
  • Only the BeAT duo have the ISS active/dynamic fuel saving feature (1 point)
  • The BeAT duo and Mio M3 have SSS (1 point each)
  • Only Mio M3 has the Eco Indicator (1 point)
  • Address has the biggest front pocket (1 point)
  • Only the BeAT duo have the ACG silent starter (1 point)

Pricing
    • Address: Rp. 13,890,000 – Rp. 14,440,000 (MotoGP Livery)
    • Mio M3: Rp. 13,080,000 – Rp. 13,980,000 (CW type)
    • New BeAT: Rp. 13,850,000 (standard BeAT POP) – Rp. 14,950,000 (top variant New BeAT eSP)
    Looking at the top variant prices, 3 points for Mio M3, 2 points for Address, and 1 point for New BeAT.

    In summary,


    Based on this scoring system, Yamaha Mio M3 comes out as the winner with a solid extra 3 points above the others. Surprisingly, Suzuki Address–which is somewhat the underdog in this competition–is at a tie with the All New Honda BeAT eSP. If we only look at the features and accomodation (the 1 segment where Yamaha Mio M3 comes last), Suzuki Address is even the star with a subtotal of 8 points, mainly due to its large fuel tank and baggage capacity. The All New Honda BeAT eSP is by no means inferior. It never comes up as the best in any of the categories above, but it always falls in the middle. We might even say that it has the most complete feature among the three, but as a consequence, this is also reflected in its high price.

    As shown above, Yamaha Mio M3 has the highest power and torque with a very decent price along with various other features. One downside of it is the tires that are considered out of proportion. However, I still think it's fair to crown Yamaha Mio M3 as the champion, since we need to take 3 points off of it to bring it down just to be equal with the other contenders.