I often wonder why cars have a badge on the rear announcing - provided that you get close enough - that this is a 3.5GLX/CDI/Turbo/4WD/Executive - you get the drift. My current Alamo barge is a 'Classic' model which announces to all who need to know that this is the bog standard bottom of the range model. Oh the shame!
Or you can specify your new Merc or BMW to have no rear badge, so you can drive an M5 and practice 'reverse snobbery.' However those knowledgeable enough to know about an M5 is will recognise the fat tyres, exhaust, and lowered suspension and those who think M5 is a ghastly UK motorway(well at its northern stretch) will be non the wiser anyway.
My point is that I know what I am driving - why is it necessary to tell others?
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Snob value or oneupmanship (is that one word?) I suspect. I've often thought it an odd thing to do, as far as I can see they perform no useful function and IMHO detract from the lines of the car.
On second thoughts, they maybe help a punter judge the car when looking to buy. How else would they know to expect gold-plated ashtrays or whatever?
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This seems to be most prevalent on the BMW 3 and 5 series. I wonder why....
Andy
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I always take my badges off, they are ugly and pretentious.
If someone doesen't know what car it is, it's because they don't care! Fiesta, Vectra! Well blow me!
Would you have big badges on your house saying..
3 Bedroom deluxe
and maybe a discrete chrome insignia on the drainpipe that says "En-suite"
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Would you have big badges on your house saying.. 3 Bedroom deluxe and maybe a discrete chrome insignia on the drainpipe that says "En-suite"
You mean yours didnt come with? ;-)
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Personally I prefer not having any badges denoting the model - IMO it keeps everything looking tidy.
One of my pet hates is those horrendous \"gold\" look badges you often see on Lexus LS400\'s and the occasional Honda Legend or CRV*. IMO they look so cheap and tacky - I always look to see if it\'s Del boy driving!
Chad.
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Sorry to hijack this thread a bit, but why do manufacturers go through phases of having/not having the cars engine size on the rear?
Perfect example is the Focus, before the mid-life update none of them had engine badges, after it they all do (apart from the 1.4 apparantly). Is it some sort of fashion thing?
--
I'm a loser, baby....so why don't you kill me?!
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Perfect example is the Focus, before the mid-life update none of them had engine badges, after it they all do (apart from
the 1.4 apparantly). .......
IMO it's definitely a snob thing - the bloke who has forked out nearly 20K for the RS220/ST170 (or whatever) wants to advertise the fact and the guy driving around in the 1.4 "classic" probably doesn't.
Chad.
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The funniest such thing I recently saw, but involving the whole car, not just the badges, was a two-models-back Civic. The guy has badged it as "Type-R" all around (boot, bottom of front doors), lowered the suspension to a ridiculous level, and thrown in a set of huge (17in-ish) wheels.
So you see it and say 'wwwooooww'.
And then you notice the rear drum brakes, say it's probably a 1.4, and walk past LOL...
Vagelis.
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I've always assumed that a debadged car meant "poverty spec", but I take the point about those tacky gold badges you see on Lexi.
Do people really debadge top of the range cars?
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According to BMW-driving colleagues this is very common on their forum among the mainly young 3 series owners. I can only imagine that this is to hide the small engine size and try to kid the rest of us that it's really an M3.
imo I really don't care either way. Whatever the factory stick on is fine with me and I've never felt the urge to alter it.
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In Germany "debadging" used be seen occasionally on the 7 Series and S-Class saloons, especially in a ecomonic recession and especially if the car was used by the CEO of a large company.
Don't know if this still a trend.
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I too prefer no badges, and specified my current V70 without. Infact, there was no option of a 'Trim level' badge anyway, so it's just advertising the engine designation that I did away with. It happens to be a 2.4T, so has more than reasonable poke, but I don't really care whether one person thinks I'm being coy about a T5, or another that I'm hiding a poverty spec motor. For that matter, I don't really care if it is a Volvo, BMW, or Vauxhall, either. It's whether it delivers driving pleasure, and suits my needs over the extended period of time that I intend to keep it, that matters.
Having known several people who owned cars of similar value and desirability, from whom they were stolen to order, is perhaps just another reason to be reserved.
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On the previous generation 3 series, debadged usually meant the dreadful 318 tds.
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Some years ago in Germany when the 450SEL(6.9)Mercedes was the top of the line limo - excluding the 600 - a number of owners fitted 180D badges.
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And the dealers that stick horrible tacky plastic badges on the car in the vicinity of the make/model insignia. Currie Motors used to be particularly guilty of this.
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'And the dealers that stick horrible tacky plastic badges on the car in the vicinity of the make/model insignia. Currie Motors used to be particularly guilty of this.'
Absolutely! They are hateful. If I was negotiating with a dealer that did this he would have three options. Remove the badge leaving no trace, pay me a reasonable sum for advertising his business or watch me walk away.
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A lot of Citroens now only have HDI or V6 badges and not LX, SX or Exclusive etc.
The SX badges look tacky on the C5 anyway.
Ben
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De-badging started, in Germany at least, when factory managers/owners didn't want the workers to know what model of Merc/BMW they were driving. When I was there in the 70s there was a local 2CV with bamboo fablon on it, a small window box and lace curtains with a badge on the boot saying 450 SEL! Nobody was fooled though!
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Ah, SjB a fellow Volvo driver. I have a C70 and as far as I can tell by looking at others, they never have the engine size on anyway.
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Ah, SjB a fellow Volvo driver. I have a C70 and as far as I can tell by looking at others, they never have the engine size on anyway. <<
Well, my father\'s S80 does, and my brother\'s V70 does, and despite me specifying \'badge delete\' so did my V70 until I asked for it to be removed.
Maybe most Volvo purchasers simply prefer to be discrete! ;-)
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Justas a small question, does an F40 even bother to say so?
Rudolf
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The badge fell off the Landie the other day - couldn't find it.
Deos this make me a snob in the eyes of others ?
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Hah! A Landyman, you did well to notice the badge had fallen off among all the other bits! ;-)
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What about those who embelish the manufacturer's badging? Remember all those "injection" transfers some folk stuck all over their XR3i's? And those large, cursive letters which one assumes must be the owner's intials stuck onto bootlids? I always assume no badge = bottom of the range. There's nothing wrong in buying bottom of the range. I saw an ageing Volvo 340 or 380 or something (horribly ugly) like that last year onto which someone had affixed the epithet "EXECUTIVE" next to the boot badge in what looked like letteraset. In block capitals, too. It wouldn't have raised the prestige of that shed even when it was new IMO.
8 ball
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We used to laugh at those people who claimed in large italics on the rear window that they had
"The Fiesta Touch" or "The Astra Touch"
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