I am interested to start a new scooter rental company for college kids at a large university near my home. I was hoping to eventually end up with a few hundreds 4-stroke scooters that I would rent out on a monthly and semester long basis and do all the maintenance myself or in-house by my business partner, a qualified mechanic. Because I would be placing such a large order of scooters, I would also order and stock a full container of parts that I would use to maintain the scooters for the next few years, cutting out the issue that I hear most about, the lack of parts for Chinese made scooters.

I am currently finalizing the business plan now and I am trying to figure out if its better to buy the cheaper chinese brands, knowing that I can do all the maintenance and will have all the parts, or if its better to spend more for higher quality scooters that should last longer. Which will give me the best return on investment? Considering that I will do all the maintenance in house for no cost to the students renting the scooters, I need to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck and have scooters that last at least four years to make the investment worthwhile.

I figured that if I can fix the scooters, I would be better off with lower priced chinese manufacturers than spending more for the higher quality Taiwanese and Japanese brands, even though they require less maintenance. Tell me if this if my thinking is wrong. With the chinese scooters, what parts seems to break most often and at what mileage?

I appreciate any help that I can get from the Forum. Your thoughts are well appreciated. Mike