2006 United Motors Matrix 150 XX

A friend bought this against my advice of not buying Chinese scooters because of poor reliability. This scooter more than lives up to the stereotype. After 3500 miles the carburetor was clogged with gunk so I cleaned it but the engine wouldn't idle without stalling so I bought and installed a new ... carb ($63). It had the same idling problem so to keep it running I rigged it so the throttle would always be open a little and keep it idling between 3-4k rpm. The silly CVT keeps trying to push the scooter forwards but I don't let it so it just heats itself up to spite me. After being annoyed by that, starter solenoid fried itself, so I bought a new one for $9 on e-bay. After driving 5 miles the starter motor fails with a horrible grinding noise (which continues while the engine is running). The kick starter requires you to pull the scooter onto its maintenance stands to use and you'll need to be in decent shape to get it started. I bought a 450cc 1982 Honda motorcycle for $600 (the same price this scooter cost my friend) on Craigslist that had 30k miles on it and It's still running great with OEM parts after 38k miles. Since the Chinese parts are cheap, it's slightly cheaper per mile to drive than say... a ford f-150, but this scooter is not a good choice for economical transportation.

At 500 miles it started backfiring.

not more than 800 miles later and I've already spent another 1,000 on replacing parts and fixing the damn thing.

I would not recommend this brand or bike to my enemy.