2011 Taotao ATM 50 A1 Scooter Review

by Virginia Morris
(Southbury, CT)

I purchased this scooter about a month ago, it was delivered to my home in a crate, it took about 2 1/2 hours to assemble it. I had ordered a red one.

Well first of all I had a few problems with it, after it was all assembled I needed to get it started, I put gas in it, checked engine oil and gear oil, everything looked good. I charged the battery while I was assembling it.

Now, the battery is installed and it's ready to start, turned the key tried to start it, after an 1/2 hour I then realized it would not start, checked spark plug, getting spark but no smell of fuel on plug, so followed fuel hoses and found fuel line pinched under seat mount which was done at the factory, fixed hoes and tried again started right up, took scooter for short ride very short ride, handle bars were shaking up and down like you were riding a horse.

I brought the scooter into the garage and lifted its front tire off of the ground and spun it once and the tire looked oblong not centered with the rim, tire was defective called where I ordered scooter and they said the would send me a new tire, a week later tire came (wrong tire) called them again said they would send me the right tire, one week later new tire came in & I installed it, scooter now ran great.

I rode the scooter for about 3 days and put 145 miles on it. Then my rear trunk started to shake a lot, I investigated the problem. The trunk rack that was mounted to the scooter was moving up and down as if it was loose, The bracket inside the scooter under the body plastic was loose or seemed loose. This was going to be a huge project taking all the plastic off to get to the rack mounts!

Well what I found with this scooter was very discouraging, being built by the Chinese, and let me tell you it's one scary job, welds were very poor, scooter frame was not lined up, they used washers to fill in for 1/4 inch spaces where parts did not line up, frame tubing was not lined up or even close to being square, very shabby work, found bolts that were stripped and just laying in the holes, this scooter was an accident waiting to happen, and as-fore the trunk rack that was bolted to the frame, garbage no way you can fix it to make it stronger, real thin metal bracket.

The way the bracket is designed will break sooner or later, only bolted down in 2 places, yet rack uses 3 bolts. As I checked the scooter, I found gear box bolts loose, bolts that hold the front disc brake on was loose, kick stand bolts loose, etc.

Well everything is now fixed except the trunk rack no fix for that. It's just the way they built the scooter...

I do like the way it runs... plenty of pick up for a 49cc... it goes up these real steep hills at 30 mph. Top speed on a level road is about 47 mph, gas mileage is close to 100 miles per gallon, love the color red, nice and bright.

Final word: I do not think I would buy another Chinese scooter just because of the workmanship, very shabby, This scooter was affordable with a total price delivered $639.00... guess you get what you pay for.