Does it make sense to buy “grey market” scooters?
The term “grey market” is widely misunderstood. It has nothing to do with the expression “black market”, which refers to illegal sales of an item. The “grey market” is the LEGAL sale of an item that is not officially sold in that locality, for whatever reason. In the scooter world, this will include any scooter not sold new by dealers. For example, as of early 1998, Honda has not imported the 250cc Foresight into the UK, so dealers there sell it strictly “grey market”. This represents an unknown strategic decision by Honda, since it is sold elsewhere in Europe. There are many reasons why scooter companies fail to officially import their vehicles, but in most cases it will be because of a lack of interest sufficient to justify whatever expense is involved. Scooters get into the “grey market” by one of two paths. The first is when an individual personally imports a scooter that was not officially imported and then later sells it, including to a dealer. In this situation, the individual i
