You have to not blame the dealers. They are small operations, usually operating out of their homes, on a shoestring budget. I can’t guess that Tomos is treating them the best. I would have expected that this time of dollar-a-litre fuel that we are experiencing should cause moped sales to skyrocket. But that doesn’t seem to be happening, at least not very quickly. You would think that any vehicle that gets 150 km per 3.2 litre tank (about 2.13L/100km) couldn’t fail to sell like hotcakes.

And whenever there are people about, and I am parked, there is clearly no shortage of people who show a keen interest in mopeds, and show clear evidence of having given the matter of buying one some thought. We invariably strike up a conversation about mopeds, and clearly they are enthusiastic and interested in mopeds. They ask a lot of questions, and I try my best to answer them.  With all the interest being shown, I wonder why there are not more mopeds on the road.

I seem to be the only one I know driving a moped, although I am beginning to see more and more scooters. They are almost as fuel-efficient (one blogger reports around 2.22L/100km), can go faster, but lack maneuverability, mostly due to small wheels and a high center of gravity. When I had to do an obstacle course as part of my road test for my licensing, a person driving a scooter was also being tested, and she found it difficult to make it around the pylons. The small wheels affected her turning radius, forcing her to only make gradual turns. It was clearly not due to her driving ability. With my moped, I had larger wheels and a generally compact size of a vehicle, I was able to make it around the pylons quickly and gracefully.

Of course, the other advantage of a moped is that when you have a breakdown or are out of gas, you can still pedal it. You can’t do that with a scooter.

I am unsure as to why Tomos is not selling more agressively in Canada. They really need to come off of this mentality that vendors operating out of their garages is the way to go in Canada. Most people will instead tend to see it for what it appears: a Mickey Mouse operation. If you are going to spend $2500 on a moped, you clearly would like some assurance that these people will still be around to repair your vehicle, and that they are well-established. I would not call people operating out of their home garages to be “established”.  The person who sold me the moped, “established” by Tomos standards, used to operate out of his garage, but was later given space in a motorcycle shop. Then he left, owing the shop owner rent money. The motorcycle shop wanted nothing more to do with mopeds, and sent any further business to a nearby motorcycle shop, who also didn’t seem to appreciate the business.

Most moped business operators in Canada are small-timers who if they are very lucky can afford a bit of garage space in a rental unit. One operator ran his business from a U-Haul garage. I don’t get the impression that they are up to any kind of professional standard, nor do they have training in sales, or even how to do ordinary customer service. With one operator I spoke to over the phone, it didn’t seem to occur to him that with the questions I was asking that he could be making a sale. I ran the whole conversation and asked all the questions. He offered no information unless I asked for it. I felt like I was cross-examining him. This was a person who was one of the more professional operators, by Tomos standards. He ran a well-stocked shop and didn’t operate out of his house.

In the moped world, my understanding is that Tomos is the only manufacturer remaining in a field once populated by mopeds by Peugeot, Sears, Piaggio, Kromag, Motobecane and countless others. Tomos head office is in Slovenia, in what was formerly Yugoslavia.