When badging goes too far...

Hungary Bill said:

Man, the Toyota's out here WAY overdo it with the badging.  It's like they intentionally sticker up their vanilla poo-boxes in a blatant attempt to sell the same bland appliance for twice the money it's worth.

Example:  Allow me to introduce you to "Mr. Toyota Camry Grande V6 from the 'Bebehani dealership'.  Did I mention I was 'GRANDE'???  That's riiiight, I said 'Toyota V6 Camry Grande'" 

(yes, that's its full name.  Just look at all those badges! )

 

 

I like the body kit.

Im probably going to hell for that.

In reply to Trackmouse :

Remember the days when GM put almost every single feature as badging somewhere on the car?

In reply to STM317 :

Pretty much just driving a non-turbo Subaru tells the world 90% of what you probably care about. 

Mr. Mazda Rotary Engine, no "RX-7" on the back of my car. Getting rid of the Mazda badge soon too.

I'm either "Toyota TUNDRA i-forceV8 4WD,"  or just "targa."

Dead_Sled said:

I thought this was going to be about the RAM trucks with RAM in 2 ft tall letters on the tailgate.  Everytime I see one and there's someone in the car with me (and sometimes when I'm alone) I ask if anyone knows what kind of truck that is.  Literally just pulled that joke on the way home from my nephew's baseball game tonight, 12 year old nephew laughed, SWMBO rolled her eyes.

I've still got it 

Like pretty much every truck in the '20s, '30s. '40s, '50s, 60s, and '70s?

Duke said:

In reply to Trackmouse :

Remember the days when GM put almost every single feature as badging somewhere on the car?

Remember when ever Japanese company did that? With stickers for how many cams, valves, AW steering, etc all over the rocker panels?

In reply to Chris_V :

Yea, but that "Chevrolet" tailgate is classy.  I don't see how this is viewed as anything but gaudy.

I agree--somehow the RAM's are the worst. The letters are too chunky. Same with the new[er] Fords that have it, although they're not as bad. 

The point is, tall letters spelling out the brand on the back of trucks are not new, and they've been on trucks forever. Complaining about it now is just silly and says " I don't really know all that much about cars and trucks."

Seriously, how is the old stuff "more classy" just because it's old? It's still a contrasting color and is large and in your face.

This is classy?

But this isn't?

They are truck tailgates with big lettering in either case. I really don't see the difference.

My badging pet peeve is on 80's Mercedes.

3 tri-point emblems within 6 inches of each other. You know, just in case you might have forgotten what the car was. 

In reply to Jumper K Balls :

That’s an example of German engineering. Make a team of people that work on one tiny part of the car. The small team says “as ze Germans we shall take pride in our work, let us put a company symbol on this piece!” 

And then you end up with a merc logo on every bit and bolt. 

Mr. Ford Focus ST ST ST ST ST ST ST times about 50.  The Top Gear guys went around and counted the number of M badges on the BMW they were testing and came up with an outrageous number, I think Ford was trying to beat that.

In reply to Chris_V :

I'm not sure how my comment about aesthetics says anything about how much I know about cars and trucks.

And I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because all the old vs new pictures you posted appear (to me) to reinforce my point.  Must be that whole beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing, though beauty is not really high up on my list of requirements when truck shopping so I guess these trucks aren't really for me.

In reply to Chris_V :

Stamped letters painted in contrasting colors and giant chrome letters are definitely not the same thing. The idea is similar but the execution is very different.

Knurled. said:

Whenever I see a debadged car, I think of the spendthrift ex-roommate whose car was rearended and the body shop was able to kick back his insurance deductible by not installing badges on the replacement trunklid.  So "debadged" will always make me think "wrecked car and cheap owner"...

I usually associate debadging with owners who don't want to advertise what level of car they bought.  Either it's the cheapest 3 series around and they want to look like they have more money, or it's an M3 and they want to blend in with the other 3 series on the road. :)

Yikes, I would known as Mr. Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S Twin Cam.  

I expected a comment about the new M cars. 

Something like 67 badges?

codrus said:

I usually associate debadging with owners who don't want to advertise what level of car they bought.  Either it's the cheapest 3 series around and they want to look like they have more money, or it's an M3 and they want to blend in with the other 3 series on the road. :)

In my experience, the former outnumber the latter by approximately 99,000 to 1.

EastCoastMojo said:

We don't need no stinkin' badges! 

Now that that's out of the way, I'm known as "Ms. Mazda" (no other badges on the tailgate) or "Ms. 4Runner Space Sombrero", depending on the day. 

That's a Japanese cowboy, and you know it.

Wife drives an H2

After explaining what a "Hummer" was she was less than pleased.  

so the truck has no badges. The tailgate is stamped "CHEVROLET". Does that count as a badge?

Chris_V said:

 

 

 

I always think of that as an instruction or an invitation!

In reply to Floating Doc :

' Dr Henry Metzger.'

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

well it's not horrible.  wing's a little big but that's okay too. 

Turboeric said:

 

 

I like that.  I also like the old Datsun/Nissan tailgates.

 

 

 

I always think of that as an instruction or an invitation!