Thoughts on De-Badging + Poll

[airbag]

Hello, I am proud owner of my first MB, a W203 C320.

On this vehicle (estate) it has C320 on the left side of boot, and MB symbol in the middle, nothing on the right side.

I have been thinking of de-badging this.. and it got me wondering for what reasons people do this.. I know why I want to do it, but I thought it interesting to ask in a poll.

I figure that there are 4 main reasons to bother to de-badge a vehicle. (This is just my opinions).. and I would be happy to hear from others about this.

1) An owner has a small engine size.. and wants to remove this from public view so the car is not labeled.
2) An owner has a large engine size.. and wants to look understated (wolf in sheeps clothing type of senario).
3) An owner thinks its is visually appealing to remove badges and wants a clean paint job on the rear.
4) An owner has so much money.. they just want to spend it on anything

 

[NewMB]

1. Spot on.

2. Spot on again, but why do this? Perhaps to avoid people scratching the car just because you drive say, a S600 and not an S280?

3. We do this at our company. No bagdes.... including the ML420 Cdi driven by owner. Looks very nice though.

4. It's a No Cost Option.

 

[A210AMG]

Hello

Funny in the UK people tend to debadge lower models or even up badge them (318's with M3 badges..)

In Europe, especially Switerland and Belgium then tend to have the high end models and debadge them.

If you know your cars you generally know whats what and can tell roughly with the exhausts, single, twin, down, oval etc.

I think its just a personal choice, I have badged cars wrongly as in a 205 Gti that I owned years ago I put 205 GRD on the boot for a laugh. (you could C180 on yours?)

I now have a ML350 and have left them on, its actualy a 3.7 and pure smeg factor and nothing else I would rather have them. I know there are 430's 500's andd even a 55 AMG but its quite a new model so for me there staying on. (well may change it to ML35)

 

[whitenemesis]

Three pointed star is all you need.

Makes it easier to clean too

 

[oldcro]

1. Spot on.

2. Spot on again, but why do this? Perhaps to avoid people scratching the car just because you drive say, a S600 and not an S280?

3. We do this at our company. No bagdes.... including the ML420 Cdi driven by owner. Looks very nice though.

4. It's a No Cost Option.

Regarding your point 4.

It doesn't seem fair to have to pay for something whether you have it or not. On this basis if you opted for nothing you would have to pay the dealer £30,000 and recieve...nothing!

 

[A210AMG]

As above that gets me when for example you choose the AMG wheels.

My dad this this on his SLK (back in 1998) something like a £1400 option. The car Was say £30K with standard wheels.

So really you should get the standard alloys back also

 

[johno2004]

As in post 3 i put a grd badge on my 1.9gti for a laugh and got nicked by the old bill for mis representation, fixed penalty was going to appeal but did not know who was right law or me ?

 

[airbag]

4. It's a No Cost Option.

Hi NewMB, I was thinking of an aftermarket de-badging operation, rather than a factory option, hence the "spending money" option.

Valid point that oldcro made ... it should then be cheaper without badges than with badges when buying from new.... so in the optional extra lineup there would be:

Optional Rear Badges.... £320 lol

 

[jberks]

1) I had an E240 that didn't have a badge on it. Not exactly the poverty spec on but I think, overall, I prefer the look of a car with nice crome badges. I didn't care enough to actually buy the badges though.
2) I had a 4 door escort 1.3L that I specced up to a GL and put an xr3 engine into. I deliberatley kept the 1.3L badge, steel wheels and plastic wheel trims to keep it looking as standard as possible - used to be fun at the lights - probably sent a few 1.6 owners back for a tune up!
3) Not me!
4) Simple - Just give it to me.

 

[jpbp200]

BMW say that it's their most popular no cost option. I think most people do it for vanity reasons ie to hide their small engine. I owned an M3 BMW once and I wouldn't have considered removing the badges as only subtle differences when casually glanced at identified it as an M3 (thankfully BMW have now made it obvious again that the car is special without the need for a badge, in which case I might consider removing it). Putting M3/AMG etc. on a car that is obviously not however just makes you look an idiot in my opinion although it might fool someone with no interest in cars but then they don't care anyway so catch 22!

 

[JEZ.S320L]

No badges - to me anyway - indicate that the car is a base model, and the owner doesn't want anyone to know they can't afford the next one up.

Regarding Point 4 - My understanding, is that Liverpool car owners have that option imposed on them by default - whether they want it or not..!!

 

[jpbp200]

jonno, you got nicked for THAT! I would have appealed. What would be the case say if you put a V6 in an escort l and added electric windows, tinted windows etc etc.

 

[stumpy]

Taking the badges off a fast model just makes it more fun when you leave somebody behind, as most people assume you have the poverty model. It is hard now with the German cars to tell which engine they have when the badges are missing. Our 535d has no badges and looks identical to a 525, though the exhaust pipes are a smidge bigger.

 

[MarkCL]

Hmm..well in answer to this poll I voted 3, but then thats only as that would be the only reason why I would ever de-badge a car. I've yet to have a car where the badging offended me so haven't done so yet.

On the same topic though, my C43 has been de-badged, either by the original owner or one of the others since then. Now I'm seriously considering getting them put back on! This is for a number of reasons:

1) I like the AMG badges and feel my car deserves to be badged up as it should be.

2) I've had loads of people saying to me: "Oh not another boring Merc", me: "It's not boring", them: "Well what is it? C180? C200?" me: "AMG C43 actually" them: "What?! Then why aren't the badges on there?! Didn't you like them or something?" It's starting to annoy me now. It's always as if it was ME that took the badges OFF in the 1st place for some reason.

3) Personally although I understand that it was someone else's choice to de-badge it, I actually feel that having lived with it like this now for over six months that I always feel something is missing when I look at the boot, so I think when I can spare the time & money I'll go get the AMG and C43 badges from Mercedes and put them back where they belong as that will be MY choice with this car 8)

Just me 2p

Cheers,
Mark

 

[johno2004]

jonno, you got nicked for THAT! I would have appealed. What would be the case say if you put a V6 in an escort l and added electric windows, tinted windows etc etc.

If you put a V6 in you have to notify dvla so not mis representing, Police did a check on my car whilst i was on the move and it showed up as 1.9gti so they pulled me suspecting false plates on a diesel. lol paid up and back with the gti badge.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

Three pointed star is all you need.

Thats the quote for me. No need to say anymore.

but I will anyway

The people who need badges don't know what it is. The people who know what it is don't need badges.

Do you staple your qualifications to your head every morning so people know how many letters you can put after your name? Same with Cars.

Its a Mercedes, thats it!

 

[jpbp200]

Ah DVLA issue. fair cop then! I agree with slinkyjoe.

 

[Phil D]

A fair number of company chairmen / chief execs have really top end company cars but de-badge them to try and avoid undue stick from shareholders, but in most cases it's base models where the owner is trying to kid himself - let's face it most people with anything more than a passing interest can spot all the other tell tale signs anyway
Phil

 

[100%Bitch]

I debadge, simply because it's none of anybody elses business.

 

[NewMB]

Regarding your point 4.

It doesn't seem fair to have to pay for something whether you have it or not. On this basis if you opted for nothing you would have to pay the dealer £30,000 and recieve...nothing!

Excellent. Probably the way MB thinks.... as do Volvo, BMW etc etc etc