• MSNBC/AP, Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:30 AM

Dealers across the nation report brisk sales for fuel-stingy motor scooters and smaller motorcycles, particularly for those that get from 75-120 miles per gallon. Sales of name-brand scooters such as Honda, Yamaha, Vespa and Suzuki rose 24% in the first quarter of the year, says Mike Mount, spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council--noting that it's not exactly a hot sales period because of cool weather in much of the nation.

Many lesser-known scooters from China, Taiwan and South Korea also are sold in the U.S., but Mount says those sales figures are not readily available. The boom in sales for smaller scooters isn't transferring through to bigger models. Mount says sales of small and medium-sized motorcycles rose 7.5% in the first quarter, but sales of larger, more-expensive motorcycles were down 11%.

"Ninety-five percent of those who come in mention high gas prices," says Lonnie Trujillo, sales manager for Vespa of California.

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