Great scoot' with some flawed designs

I had my Gilera 180 from new. I was impressed by the quality of the plastics against the Peugeots in the shop and the bike was comfy with the added storage under the seat that will take a helmet. Over 5 years of ownership I did 25,000 miles and got rid of it when the repair bill made it uneconomical to repair.
From just wear and tear it started to destroy itself. Exhausts lasted about 18 months and were not cheap at £225 each. In 5 years I needed three exhausts and the second one exploded after just a year. The performance was fantastic to begin with and 90mph was possible but performance gradually started to fall off over the years. The handling round corners was never good due to the pivoting rear end linkage which made the back end vague. A main bushing failed early on and was replaced (badly) by the dealer under warranty. Later the whole back end linkage failed making it feel like the rear tyre was punctured. The suspension linkages includes plastic parts...bad.
The biggest problem was the Gilera dealers. Parts availability is very poor and everything has to be ordered apart from consumables such as tyres. Two different dealers could not get suspension linkage parts for months and one dealer sold me the wrong part insisting it was correct - it wasn't. Gilera do not stock 100% of parts in the UK and some have to be ordered from Italy - so expect to have your bike off the road for weeks or months.
The front forks collapsed after about 24,000 miles and they were also badly rusted, so I sold the bike to a dealer for parts.
Overall a good scooter if it has low mileage, but don't expect it to keep going for years and years without expensive problems. The Gilera (read Piaggio) dealers are a real let down and this alone would stop me buying another bike/scooter from this company.