Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a professional mechanic and just finished putting together this scooter that my wife bought my son for Christmas. The good points: it arrived on time, was partly assembled, and looks pretty good from a distance. The bad: it came with clearly-written assembly instructions that refer to a number of parts and features that are not on this model. The instructions are of little help, therefore. The neon-green paint on the hubs is poorly-applied, and there is significant black showing through. The black paint on the brake calipers is already flaking off (assembled, but not used yet!). The crimp-on caps on the ends of the brake cables both fell off (these caps prevent the sharp strands at the end of the cable from stabbing or snagging you). It's also a fun trick that some fasteners are metric and some are standard sizes -- make sure you have both sets available for assembly! Lastly, there are pinholes in a number of the welds -- I don't think these pinholes would cause any frame failure, mind you, they are simply a sign of very sloppy construction. Mongoose used to be a real bike brand, but now they're on par with Huffy as department-store junk. This scooter is obviously made by a company that cares only about making the cheapest possible product. Now, for the price, maybe this is what you should expect, but I feel that the problems listed above could be remedied with little extra cost and would result in a product that was markedly better. I can't say if there are any other better products out there at a similar price-point. I would suggest that it's worth at least trying a different brand: it can't be any worse than this one.