Trim levels

[yme402]

Back in the day, you could tell how well someone was doing in life by the badge on the back of the car - L, GL, or Ghia for example.
Most of these trim levels have since fallen by the wayside however I would say the longest continuously serving badge is Vauxhall's SRi that has been in constant use since 1983 (Mk 2 Cavalier)...a total of 34 years!

Is this the longest used badge, or are there any others?

[texaxile]

Might be an obvious one but Gti (VW)?.

Gone are the days of going to the scrappy and prising the "ghia" and if you were super lucky "ghia x " badges of the back of a Ford.

[yme402]

Good point...

[80quattro]

1963 Ford Cortina MK1 'GT' is the earliest trim I can think of that is still used today.

[Riley Blue]

'Armoured', first available during WW1, still available today

[blueg33]

BMW M cars

[Yertis]

80quattro said:

1963 Ford Cortina MK1 'GT' is the earliest trim I can think of that is still used today.

And the Audi 80 'quattro', since 1983.

[Plinth]

Yertis said:

80quattro said:

1963 Ford Cortina MK1 'GT' is the earliest trim I can think of that is still used today.

And the Audi 80 'quattro', since 1983.

The 1951 Lancia Aurelia B20 GT is often described as the first to use "GT" as a model designation, though there were many "Gran Turismo" cars before this, but were not named as a GT.

Ferrari used GT for the first time on the 250GT in 1955, according to my sources.

So "GT" has been around for quite a while...

[williamp]

Mini's Cooper has been around a long time.

Aston first used the "Vantage" term to denote a more powerful engine on the DB2 in the early 50s.

[a8hex]

williamp said:

Mini's Cooper has been around a long time.

Aston first used the "Vantage" term to denote a more powerful engine on the DB2 in the early 50s.

But doesn't it now denote "entry level" like "L" on a Cavalier?
I couldn't understand how they could introduce a V8 Vantage without there being a V8 to base it on.

[williamp]

a8hex said:

williamp said:

Mini's Cooper has been around a long time.

Aston first used the "Vantage" term to denote a more powerful engine on the DB2 in the early 50s.

But doesn't it now denote "entry level" like "L" on a Cavalier?
I couldn't understand how they could introduce a V8 Vantage without there being a V8 to base it on.

Quite. The "magic" of Bez. See also: Cygnet, 4 door Rapide racing car at the 'ring rather then focus on Le Mans, Rapide build overseas, selling marketing rights, appearing in a Bond film etc etc..

[a8hex]

williamp said:

... See also: Cygnet...

I saw an ugly duckling in the High Street in Marlow once, I wonder whether they ever actually sold one?

[Trabi601]

Alfa Romeo have been using the Quadrifoglio since 1923 on race cars and since 1963 on road cars.

[velocemitch]

Trabi601 said:

Alfa Romeo have been using the Quadrifoglio since 1923 on race cars and since 1963 on road cars.

But most of the time it is just a badge, only very rarely is it a trim level, even then the name changes with different translations.

[wildcat45]

Land Rover started using Vogue on Range Rovers in the early 80s. It started as a year's run of special editions called In Vogue. It became Vogue when they made it a regular production vehicle.