The psychology of 'de-badging'

[Blib]

I asked the garage to debadge my car when I specced up my XR3i back in 1983. So, I'm 30 years ahead of fashion.



I did it to have a less cluttered rear end.

[Terminator X]

My 130i M Sport has no badge and 99% of people wouldn't know it from a 116i M Sport which is fine by me!

TX.

[paulmnz]

graham22 said:

Simple - driver 2 is a scrote, nicks badge off of driver 1's = top spec cars without badge, lowly car with aforementioned badge.

More likely because like said above, most cars look cleaner with no/less badges. Not sure if anyone would realistically re-badge a 335i with a 318d purely for sleeper reasons.

I was given a GL badge which I stuck on my Astra Merit company car many years ago - caused alot of upset amongst other branch managers who thought I'd been given an upgrade, was worth doing only for this alone.

May I present my E36 316d ;-)

[OGR4M]

I fancied a giggle and did this once:


Since been de-badged to repaint the bootlid - never saw the point of putting them back on.

[Odie]

I like the de-badged look, just the rear badges that say the model/engine size etc, I think it looks cleaner and less cluttered, id like to get my current car de-badge but i'm wary that the paint will be faded and it would look silly.

I was thinking of doing it myself but id probably make a mess of it. For the moment its staying as is.

[nickfrog]

OGR4M said:

I fancied a giggle and did this once:


Since been de-badged to repaint the bootlid - never saw the point of putting them back on.

Genuine LOL here. Brilliant !!!!

[Justayellowbadge]

nickfrog said:

OGR4M said:

I fancied a giggle and did this once:


Since been de-badged to repaint the bootlid - never saw the point of putting them back on.

Genuine LOL here. Brilliant !!!!

Really?

It will blow your mind when you see HANGOVER on a 4x4.

[TheEnd]

BaronVonVaderham said:

Anyone who says thay do it for a 'cleaner' look is wrong, and clearly is a maxpowermodifying enthusiast.

I have never removed or added badges to a car.

Clearly eh?

[nickfrog]

Clear as mud.

[Escort3500]

I was told by a BMW salesman a few years ago that a lot of customers when buying a new diesel car from him asked for the 'd' to be removed from the badge, or asked for the whole badge to be removed if it was a lower capacity engine.

[BaronVonVaderham]

TheEnd said:

Clearly eh?

Yep. It's just part of the whole tragic 'modifying' scene and it's the cheapest 'mod' for little jonny to do to his saxo because he only has to borrow his sisters hair dryer and then he can post photos of his awesome 'mod' and gain Internet respect

Not many supercar/classic/proper sports car owners remove their badges, mostly just yoofs cheap hatchbacks, innit.

For example, an awful lot of people remove the Clio or Megane badge from Renaultsports, why? It looks ste IMO. Cleaner is a BS reason for wanting to fool others that the car isn't a clio or megane.

If you want a vehicle to be worth any amount of money in the future you leave it 100% standard.

[steve singh]

You want to go to the Porsche forum...any sign off debadging must mean the car had a heavy shunt !!!

[nickfrog]

BaronVonVaderham said:

TheEnd said:

Clearly eh?

Yep. It's just part of the whole tragic 'modifying' scene and it's the cheapest 'mod' for little jonny to do to his saxo because he only has to borrow his sisters hair dryer and then he can post photos of his awesome 'mod' and gain Internet respect

Not many supercar/classic/proper sports car owners remove their badges, mostly just yoofs cheap hatchbacks, innit.

For example, an awful lot of people remove the Clio or Megane badge from Renaultsports, why? It looks ste IMO. Cleaner is a BS reason for wanting to fool others that the car isn't a clio or megane.

If you want a vehicle to be worth any amount of money in the future you leave it 100% standard.

I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. And many cars come with a delete option as std from the factory anyway, so how does that work ?

A de-badged car is worthless ? Even if it's more OE than a re-badged car that came badge-less from the factory ?

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 12th November 01:48

[Frik]

Blown2CV said:

if you actually read what i wrote, i only suggested this might be the case for the first example i used.

You said there were "clearly two cases", where in fact the reason most people on this thread cite is neither of those.

You can see that manufacturers tend to design cars with a make badge on them, but not the model. That's why they tend to look like they've been stuck on as an afterthought.

[Debaser]

Apart from having a cleaner look to your car, de-badging has the added bonus of winding people up.

[OGR4M]

I would only see the point of de-badging for cosmetic gain, but that's my $0.02

I didn't take my TDI badge off to hide the fact it's a diseasel - that fact is obvious whenever I apply the throttle.

[E65Ross]

My 745i is debadged so it looks like a 730d. Quite like it that way as I don't think people expect a car the size of Bismarck to shift the way it does! With 745i on the back it'd be less of a surprise

[-Z-]

The M5 I've ordered is debadged, where I work means you have to be careful about anything that might display money. They don't know that the terrible PCP 'deal' on their 520d means they probably pay the same as I do.

Went for an anonymous colour too like this:



Plus it'll be good fun to toy with whichever S-Line Audi TDI that decides to tailgate me onto a dual carriageway.

Edited by -Z- on Monday 11th November 18:44

[Stenjay]

I debadge my car because I'm aware of the model and engine size and I don't need to tell anyone else. I don't have a big sign on the outside of my house stating how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has. It's the same with dealer stickers/number plates, they get removed within minutes of a car purchase. I've no idea why people are so happy to give car dealers so much free advertising.

Even if you do happen to care what others think, a badge makes little difference. With something like an M3 everyone with an interest in cars can identify one, anyone who has no interest in cars wont care anyway.

I've noticed that loads of E60 520ds are debadged. Makes me laugh as the single pea shooter exhaust confirms what it is anyway.

[E65Ross]

Stenjay said:

I debadge my car because I'm aware of the model and engine size and I don't need to tell anyone else. I don't have a big sign on the outside of my house stating how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has. It's the same with dealer stickers/number plates, they get removed within minutes of a car purchase. I've no idea why people are so happy to give car dealers so much free advertising.

Even if you do happen to care what others think, a badge makes little difference. With something like an M3 everyone with an interest in cars can identify one, anyone who has no interest in cars wont care anyway.

I've noticed that loads of E60 520ds are debadged. Makes me laugh as the single pea shooter exhaust confirms what it is anyway.

For many cars I'll agree with that but some just don't work. My 745i looks identical to a 730d. An E34 M5 can look all but identical to a 525i Sport.

To most people who aren't interested in cars I suspect they wouldn't spot the exhaust difference between an E60 520d and a 550i, yet they sure as st are more likely to notice a difference if they bother to read a number on the boot.