Scooter Review Vespa ET2 50 The smallest Vespa makes perfect sense if you want style and simplicity in your life
- When Vespa launched the new ET series in 1996, much was made of the fact that it was Vespa’s first four-stroke release, a decision which had more to do with tightening anti-pollution legislation than with anything else. At the time, the venerable “real” Vespa, the PX range, was to continue in parallel. Those days are now over, with the announcement that the two-stroke PX has reached the end of the line.
But don’t despair if you love two-strokes. At the launch of the ET4, there was also another scooter released: the diminutive ET2, a twostroke version of the now classic shape.
The ET2 carries the Piaggio Hi-PER2 engine, also in line with Euro 2 standards as a result of its two-way catalytic converter and Secondary Air System, which feeds fresh air into the exhaust port, igniting unburnt emissions and cleaning up the exhaust pollutants. Perhaps more importantly, from an Australian perspective, the ET2, being a 50cc automatic scooter, conforms to legislation in WA, SA and Queensland which allows the use of a 50 with a car licence, and no requirement to hold a motorcycle licence.
 The ET2, since it uses everything from the ET4 bar the engine, has also benefited from the recent upgrade to the ET4. Now the seat height is lower and there is a sidestand, both of which make the little Vespa much more user-friendly.
And, of course, all of the ET4 accessories apply to the ET2, so there is a range of bags, top-boxes and other goodies waiting at your local Vespa dealer.
The ET2 also conforms to the speed requirements of the various legislating bodies, but even so, it is quite at home at the usual; traffic speeds of the now heavily congested major cities, or at the more genteel pace of country life.
If economical transport combined with a large dollop of the classic Vespa la dolce vita style is what you’re after (and you don’t want the extra hassle of motorcycle licensing), then the ET2 is hard to beat.
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 28/10/2003
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