When it comes to scooter rumors, The Scooter Scoop's premonitions seem to always come true. So, we're pretty excited to see that our good friend Steve is reporting that the Yamaha T-Max is slated for a 2009 introduction into the United States market. For those unaware, the T-Max falls into the maxi-scooter category, boasting a displacement of 500ccs. Currently, the market is dominated by Suzuki with its Burgman scooter in both 400cc and 650cc sizes. Honda's offering is the Silver Wing, which is available with a 600cc twin-cylinder engine. Yamaha's largest scooter currently offered in the states is the Majesty, which struggles to compete with "only" 400ccs of displacement. For what it's worth, Kawasaki has so far chosen to stay out of the scooter game. Though the T-Max only has an extra hundred ccs, the European motoring press has been singing the top-level Yamaha's praises ever since it was first introduced a few years back. We look forward to finding out ourselves if they're right, and seeing what Yamaha rates its fuel mileage at.

[Source: The Scooter Scoop]

Yamaha is not the first manufacturer to tout the fuel efficiency of its line of scooters, but it is the first to go so far as to list the estimated fuel mileage on each of its website's product pages. Scooter riders will be happy to see that Yamaha is claiming 124 miles per gallon from its Zuma, though its two-stroke engine likely emits more pollutants than a comparable four-stroke. Thankfully, both the Vino Classic and C3 use four-strokers and still do better than 100 miles per gallon. If higher speeds are a necessity for you, perhaps the Vino 125 will do with its 96 mile per gallon rating and 50+ mile per hour top-speed. Moving up the line, the futuristic Morphous and its 250cc four-stroke engine manages 56 miles per gallon and is freeway capable. Yamaha's top-of-the-line Maxiscooter, the Majesty, offers a 400cc engine which still delivers over 50 miles per gallon.

The fuel efficiency of various scooter models has been under discussion as of late. Most outlets agree that 100 miles per gallon is only really possible on 50cc machines, but their larger brothers are still capable of figures which are well beyond what the average automobile is capable of. We'd expect other manufacturers to follow Yamaha's lead in making fuel efficiency a selling-point for scooters and small-bore motorcycles as gas prices continue to climb.

[Source: Yamaha]