The trouble with badges is that they say something about you, whether you want them to or not.
They say you are driving a Ford, Bugatti or whatever. They don't say anything about your means or background or attitudes or taste in cars, except to passers-by with active but stunted imaginations.
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"I like cars with personality, and if I can use the artificial inflation of prices that some badges attract to depress the value of other more anonymous brands/models, then I'm all in favour!"
That is my philosophy for my cars, hence I drive an Outback which is both a fantastic car, but also anonymous.
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The newest and most expensive car I have owned is a Vectra.
The oldest and cheapest car I have owned is a MB.
So what? People laugh at the Vectra, and admired the MB.
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As a Berlingo owner I was struck almost dumb by a comment at work about my car.
'A very middle class car, the Berlingo.'
After a lot of reflection (well, ten minutes), I tend to know what was meant and tend to agree. Would never have thought about the car like that before hearing the comment.
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'A very middle class car the Berlingo.' I tend to know what was meant and tend to agree.
Interesting. I have a rough idea what might have been meant, but whether my idea is the same as yours, I cannot know. It raises lots of interesting questions about Berlingos. I think this might we worth a thread on its own.
(by the way, mlj, www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=66...0 )
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badge snobbery is often prolonged and made worse by the media. I mean, how many times do we hear that all BMW owners are tailgating gits wearing stripy shirts and too much hair products and that all Skodas were a pile of junk?
The reality is somewhat different but as previous posters have stated, you need to be a grown-up to rise above it.
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Exactly! A friend of mine always has BMWs, he is not flash or arrogant and is a very careful driver, he just likes BMWs. When we were looking to change we had a test drive in a Skoda Octavia 4x4 and were very impressed, the only reason it got taken off the short list was that the seats were too hard.
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I find the whole issue quite annoying sometimes i.e. the judgemental approach some people attach to car ownership
few years back being recently divorced, well into buying my own house, good job with good pension... and no dependants then........ I went a bit mad and bought my dream car ( 2.75 year old high spec Jaguar S Type)
i bought it for me and me alone, not the neighbours or work colleagues or someone sat next to me at the lights. I wanted it because of dreamy childhood memories of that marque and the fact it was a British, quality, high spec car, I like cars and at that time the thinking that I couldn't take all my ill gotten gains with me when i depart... not for someone else to see me and be 'impressed'.
some of the snide comments that came my way were unreal
now that it's 9 years old and to some people's eyes an old banger it still doesn't bother me...i love that car....and that's all it ever was something between me and the car, not a fashion statement or signal to the world.
How false and vacuous some people are.
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>>now that it's 9 years old and to some people's eyes an old banger
Well, it appears these are now worth under £1,000. Handsome motors - perhaps a better bet than the XJS I was thinking (very vaguely) about.
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My form of snobbery is never to buy new. Historically I have bought between 18 months and 3 years old, but more recently I got a 17-y-o 205 GTi, purely for nostalgia, and because there is a vanishing number available. I suppose I feel smug that others have paid the worst part of the depreciation.
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"17-y-o 205 GTi"
Just shows how most cars have quietly improved over the years. I don't recall many small cars from earlier eras, GT's or otherwise, lasting that well. My Scirocco was just as rusty as my Lancia well before that age...
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>I don't recall many small cars from earlier eras, GT's or otherwise, lasting that well.<
JBJ - as I said, there is a vanishing number still available, and many of those are GTi's. Most standard models have disappeared, except from country districts where they soldier on, mostly diesels. But I don't think they have rusted away - just worn out after >100K miles, mainly. Mine is still intact and original, and has just a little rust over the screen, as stated in HJ's CbC Breakdown (I think).
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Small boy in garage forecourt, looking at my garish orange Skoda Estelle: 'Mister, your car's crap.'
Me, smiling coldly: 'Know a bit about cars, do you?'
You could lock the ignition switch in a fifties Bentley, but you didn't have to. One day I was driving along Marylebone Road when a van driver in the next lane told me I had left the keys in the nearside front door and they were hanging there. I thanked him. He then added: '... the keys to your safe.'
In Paris once, some jerk went to the trouble of writing a long, stupid, insulting note in English about Skodas and left it under the wiper of my parked 136 Rapid.
Clearly, badge snobbery looms very large in some people's consciousness. Perhaps it is the nearest thing they can manage to automotive taste and expertise. But it isn't remotely interesting although it is sometimes funny.
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In Paris once, some jerk went to the trouble of writing a long, stupid, insulting note in English about Skodas and left it under the wiper of my parked 136 Rapid. <<
That's hilarious.
Especially when the old Rapid wasn't a bad car. Complete oddball but interesting.
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"Small boy.."
I've got one of those. Terribly opinionated, aren't they?
Mind you, I can (just) remember feeling that way about Beetles at a similar age, based on no knowledge whatsoever. Shades of opinion didn't come into it!
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"all BMW owners are tailgating gits"
Absolutely. QED :-)
That's the car owners, of course - BMW bikers are a different breed, although I seem to recall that PU has both, which must make him rather schizophrenic!
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you could be right JBW...he seems to tick all the boxes
ex badge snob, now inverted badge snob, ex couldn't care less Landie, current poser biker, combined with a bit of VW common sense.........:-))))
or maybe like the rest of us hasn't noticed any of it
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People laugh at the Vectra and admired the MB.
Must be some very strange people about, Vectras are average, aren't they?
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Quite frankly I think all this badge snobbery stuff is nonsense. People should buy what they want.
Most of the criticism is jealousy. I don't care what folk drive, especially if they have bought it themselves.
I saw that Brown bloke in a Jag on the news, I didn't think he was a snob, I thought he was an incompetent, useless, the worst PM we have ever had. I don't think he has ever bought a car.
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Do you know i'm not sure people really notice the badge at all, stay with me....
The problem i believe is that so many people are clones, live on estates with identical houses, dress the same, do the same things, have similar jobs, even their children have a clone like appearence about them. And almost without fail they will have the standard fashion choice of vehicle whether its the latest saloon, or people carrier, or even convertible.
So along comes one of us with our 2 or 10 year old (it makes not a jot) vehicle completely different to the norm, and thats what causes the problem IMO.
I even had strange comments when i bought my old landcruiser, ugly as sin, but probably only 4 of that model in the county, some very strange comments came my way.
My MB coupe is now 12 years old and i still hear odd remarks.
I don't think the clones can cope with an individual, who may have actually had the nous to choose a set of wheels that they wanted, not what everyone else drove.
I'll bet that those of us who prefer different cars also dress and behave differently too, and that causes even more dismay with them.
They can't understand it so must mock instead.
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Surely badge snobbery is based on the concept of buying into a badge's image and how it makes you look.
Reverse that and you have someone who doesnt care what the badge says nor how it makes them look - so why then would you assume that they pass any more judgement on other peoples cars than their own?
Im certainly no badge snob, I dont even care that my car is a silly colour. I am however happy to have a good giggle at people buying certain brands under the assumption that they are getting something superior, which while it may have been the case 20 years ago, is now just a canny marketing ploy.
That is certainly a funny thing to me and I will continue to snigger away happy in the knowledge that I dont waste so much money on my self image :-)
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One of the great advantages of owning a Hyundai Coupe is that most people don't know what it is.
When they find out it's "only" a Hyundai, not the more exotic breed which its looks suggest, only then do I get all the nonsense about "hairdresser's cars".
Couldn't care less; I like it.
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Fair enough Harleyman. Quite right, whose business is it anyway ?
BTW - Should I treat split ends with conditioner or will I need to have them trimmed ?
;-)
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Personality Ned fell out of bed
dreams of grandeur in his head
he drove a Badge-queen on a quest
snort and gloat over the rest
He tends to see in black and white
as you know, he`s always right
posting here and posting there
negative-caustic, he don`t care
trapped in traffic with his trollop
meets another, gets a wallop
for badge snobbery`s really in the psych
not the badge on car or bike
;)
Edited by oilrag on 10/09/2008 at 22:26
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I think my snobbery is common, i.e. I prefer to buy cars which are relatively rare.
Thus original Mini [in 1994],
Espace
Saab 9-3
Legacy Outback
New Citroen C5 [still only seen one on the road]
I have nothing against Mondeo's [actually the best hire car I've had but did love the S-Type too], Vectras etc., just prefer less common.
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