The two best known brands in the Scooter world are Vespa and Piaggio, although many people don't realise that Piaggio are the company that manufacture the Vespa!   The Piaggio group now encompass a number of brands, including Spanish brand Derbi, and Aprilia, as well as motorcycling legend Moto Guzzi, making them the fourth biggest manufacturer of motorbikes/scooters in the world, and the largest outside of Japan.

Still made with the iconic monocoque steel chassis, unique amongst modern scooters brands, Vespa have been in production since 1946. They are the quintessential scooter - with the brand name often used synonymously with the product, like Hoover, Thermos, or Vaseline! But there are very good reasons why they look like they do, and are built like they are - which is why superficially the Vespa hasn't changed much over the years, although under the skin, they are right at the cutting edge of modern technology.

The Piaggio brand utilises different design elements due to the constraints of the Vespa format, allowing for radical innovation in models like the MP3, but also budget priced models, such as perennial top-sellers, the Zip, the Fly and the new Typhoon 50 and 125.