Vespa's Primavera 150 Sport builds on the Primavera CC (chrome crest) with a handful of unique paint packages and an upgraded instrumentation package. It sports the usual Italian good looks paying appropriate homage to the marque's rich history but maintains a contemporary flavor that is confidence inspiring. Since the fuel consumption is just a few points shy of 100 mpg, the Sport delivers a very economic ride/commute.

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Design

Vespa hits all of the usual design milestones in the layout for the Primavera 150 Sport to tie in with its own deep roots within scooter history. When viewed head on, the classic legguard area makes a direct connection to the earliest days of development, and it sports the old-school “tie” graphic to spruce up the Primavera's visage.

Recessed turn signals contribute to the clean look up front, and up top we find a couple more classic references in the round, cyclops headlight and headlight housing that extends to become a handlebar fairing and instrument housing, all-in-one. Here we find one of the details that sets this model from the rest of the family, the 4.3-inch, full-color TFT screen that bundles all of the instrumentation together in one convenient place right behind the headlight.

Under the hood, the Vespa Multimedia Platform gathers and logs critical data from your ride, and it networks with your smartphone to pipe in phonecalls along with your favorite tunes. A glove box in the inner fairing gives you a place to stash your mobile electronics, and there's a stock USB port that lets you power/charge your gadgets under way.

The step-through is nearly full, and even though it does have a tunnel that interrupts the foot deck it has a flat top with a patch of non-skid for some 'tween-feet storage. As usual, you will find more storage locked away below the bench seat, along with a grab rail and flip-out footpegs for your passenger.

The shape of the side covers follows the classic influence of the early “wasp” models with its characteristic tapered teardrop look, and as with the front, the all-LED rear lighting comes in a pair of recessed blinkers and a solo taillight above the plateholder.

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Chassis

Piaggio has long been an advocate for monocoque support systems, and that carries directly over into the Vespa Primavera family. Stamped sheet-metal members are spot-welded together to form a rigid structure, all without the bulk and weight of a proper underframe. The front suspension is the single-side, aircraft-type strut that relies on a trailing link and coil-over shock for its support and damping functions.

Out back, the usual stressed-engine/transmission arrangement makes up the swingarm with a coil-over monoshock for support. The rear shock comes with four detents in its preload adjustment to make up the only ride-quality tweak on the thing.

Die-cast aluminum rims round out the rolling chassis with a 110/70 hoop up front, 120/70 out back, and a 12-inch diameter all around. The rear brake is a bit of a disappointment with its antiquated, mechanical-drum construction, but the front brake makes up for it somewhat with a 200 mm hydraulic disc and ABS protection that serves as the only electronic safety feature.

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Drivetrain

Power on the Primvera 150 Sport comes from a forced-air cooled, four-stroke thumper to the tune of 12.9 horsepower at 7,750 rpm with 9.4 pound-feet of torque that maxes out at 6,500 rpm. The mill runs with the same 58.6 mm stroke as the 125 cc unit, but the cylinder is punched out by 6 mm up to a total bore of 58 mm for a 154.8 cc displacement. A single over-head cam times the triple-valve head, and induction control falls to the new electronic Port Fuel Injection.

The 2.1 gallon fuel tank and 98 mpg fuel-economy rating gives this little scoot some very long legs indeed. Power flows through a centrifugal dry clutch and continuously-variable transmission for a top speed of 61 mph along with twist-and-go operation, and thanks to the vibration dampers in the bottom end, power delivery is relatively smooth.

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Pricing

The Primavera 150 Sport rolls in Beige Sahara, Rosso Profondo or Blu Armonia for 2020. Starting MSRP is $5,649, but there is a full line of accessories that will help you inflate that with all the available whats-its and gizmos.

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Competitors

It's tough to follow such a classy act, but I had to pick something, so let's look at the options. Honda has its classic-looking Metropolitan that seeks to channel that iconic Italian style, and visually, it's fairly close to the mark.

Honda Metropolitan

The high-mount front fender and leg-shield area on the Honda Metropolitan are straight out of the history books, as are the handlebar fairing and cyclops headlight, but the Metro falls behind in commutability with its small, 49 cc powerplant. It may be good around campus or neighborhood roads, but it isn't a scoot to be taken on the interstate. For that matter, neither is the Primavera, though the Vespa can handle highway speeds where the Metro riders should not dare to tread.

At $2,499, the Honda Metropolitan is less than half the price of the Primavera 150 Sport, but those savings won't make the Metro any faster, so it won't be able to compete on quite the same footing. You can score any number of what you might call knock-off models from Chinese and Korean manufacturers, but they are somewhat less-noble machines overall and usually trade price for value. Vespa prices itself at the top of the scooter range, so if you're hard up for cash, you may find them a tad out of reach, but you should never be afraid to pay for the best. You're unlikely to regret it.

Read our full review of the Honda Metropolitan.

He Said

“The adorable Vespa look persists for a sixth decade, and while that's a renowned pedigree, the Primavera 150 Sport seems worthy to carry on the family name. I imagine this scooter to appeal to a certain sort of rider, because you can get a lot more protection from a maxi-scoot, but if you want that old-school Italian look, it's hard to beat the Primavera line.”

She Said

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, “I really like the modern TFT display, and it's a big 4.3-inch full color screen so all the metrics are easy to read. I believe it's the same TFT display as on the Elettrica. The matte finish on the Sport is quite attractive in any of the color choices, and the spun metallic and graphite two-tone wheels fit nicely in with the rest of the colorway features. The new iGet engine is smoother than the previous version, so with the Primavera 150 Sport, you get a nicer ride and a snazzier package.”

Vespa Primavera 150 Sport Specifications

Further Reading

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