The psychology of 'de-badging'

[Blown2CV]

a lot is talked about those that upwards re-badge their cars to be something they are not e.g. BMW 330 to an M3, covering mercs in AMG badges and so on. However, a manufacturer sanctioned 'badge-mod' is to remove the standard badge entirely. You have to make a conscious choice to opt for no badge as it's not the default config setting. So, i wonder why people do this. Clearly there are 2 camps:

1. I've bought the top model but i don't want to be a dick about it, so i've removed the badge
2. I've bought the entry model and I am hoping people will think I've bought something better

For 1, it's still obvious to pretty much anyone that would even remotely care that you are indeed driving the super-amazing and expensive variant, so is this just the hipster choice... pretending to be down to earth and a man of the people when in fact you know people will realise what you're driving anyway, so what does this say about the driver? For 2, clearly this guy is almost as bad as the guy that whacks M-sport, AMG etc badges all over his C180 or 320d.

Personally I think i'd just leave it on there - it's what i bought.

what do PHers think?

[Rawwr]

The only thing I'd contemplate taking the debadge option on is the current generation of Porsche products, simply because they have far too many clumsy badges stapled to their rear ends as it is.

[LocoCoco]

Some/most cars just look better without badges imo.

[toppstuff]

Rawwr said:

The only thing I'd contemplate taking the debadge option on is the current generation of Porsche products, simply because they have far too many clumsy badges stapled to their rear ends as it is.

The Porsche badging is certainly ugly. I would remove it too. A simple "911" is enough IMO on the back of the current car.

[matthias73]

Would debadge a car to make it look cleaner, probably wouldn't bother for the sake of going incognito.

[Justayellowbadge]

[MGZRod]

I'd do it mainly just to tidy things up a bit.

My MX5 had no badges and was all smoothed, was nice and neat

[PoleDriver]

Sometimes a company car driver will manage to 'do a deal' but management don't want everyone trying to get a higher model or complaining because one person has managed it!

[graham22]

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.

[Jim909]

I would personally have a new car de-badged, it just looks better, regardless of what model/engine/spec the car is, i just dont feel the need to cover the back with badges to remind me what i bought.

[cure]

On a bigger engined but not top-model German debadging does work. A 550i doesn't look all that expensive and thirsty if you're not a nerd and the badge is gone. For M/AMG models it just looks cleaner, and indeed, everyone will know anyway with today's styling.

[CAPP0]

I de-badged my Monaro for 2 reasons:

1. the scrotes were nicking VXR badges like they were going out of fashion, presumably to nail them to their 1.2 Corsas
2. the car caused so much head-scratching, "what IS that?" attention that I thought it mildly amusing to leave 'em wondering!

Haven't removed from anything else, although when I bought my FFRR the previous owner had up-specced it from Vogue to Supercharged so I had to put that right.

[nickfrog]

It's a shame that on PH everything seems to revolve around image and social status, as if the car you drive meant anything about either. Surely some car enthusiasts don't care about either. Having said that I debadged because to me the car looks cleaner (to me!) without it due to the awkward position of the badge originally. And it's easier to wash !

[Atrevetetete]

''I've bought a Vauxhall and I'm terribly ashamed of it''.

[Mr E]

Blown2CV said:

1. I've bought the top model but i don't want to be a dick about it, so i've removed the badge


For 1, it's still obvious to pretty much anyone that would even remotely care that you are indeed driving the super-amazing and expensive variant, so is this just the hipster choice... pretending to be down to earth and a man of the people when in fact you know people will realise what you're driving anyway, so what does this say about the driver?

Given that just about everyone runs the MSport/AMG/Sline options with the wheels and body kits; I suspect most people would be unable to tell a cooking 2 litre derv car apart from the larger engined brethren (full fat E63 AMG/RS6/M5 excepted).

[knotweed]

I de-badged my last car in order to tidy up the back end. That and the fact it was a yellow car and the letters for forever getting a halo of dirt around them.

It was nothing to do with hiding the spec of the car - it was a pretty good spec. People who knew a bit about the car would have known the spec without needing to look at badges, and people who didn't know about the car wouldn't have cared anyway.

[stroberaver]

I de-badged my 335i. It looks cleaner without any badging on - nice and symmetrical & uncluttered at the rear. Most of the E92s you see on the roads are 320d or 318i, and I like that mine has nothing on it to suggest it's anything different - just blends in. Obviously those "in the know" will realise from the exhaust pipes (and possibly rear tyre width) what it is, but I don't mind other enthusiasts clocking on. The discretion is also helpful at work where I'd rather the model wasn't spelt out for my colleagues to see and look up (and who aren't savvy enough to know what it is without the badge).

[sday12]

CAPP0 said:

I de-badged my Monaro for 2 reasons:

1. the scrotes were nicking VXR badges like they were going out of fashion, presumably to nail them to their 1.2 Corsas
2. the car caused so much head-scratching, "what IS that?" attention that I thought it mildly amusing to leave 'em wondering!

Haven't removed from anything else, although when I bought my FFRR the previous owner had up-specced it from Vogue to Supercharged so I had to put that right.

Nice Vectra

[Piersman2]

I've been thinking about de-badging the back of the range rover.

Mainly because the ones I've seen just look a bit neater without the oval on one side of the numberplate and the VOGUE SE lettering on the other. I might also change the RANGE ROVER lettering across the boot to black rather than silver.

Just looks a bit neater to me. Especially with the car being black.

[gforceg]

Blown2CV said:

a lot is talked about those that upwards re-badge their cars to be something they are not e.g. BMW 330 to an M3, covering mercs in AMG badges and so on. However, a manufacturer sanctioned 'badge-mod' is to remove the standard badge entirely. You have to make a conscious choice to opt for no badge as it's not the default config setting. So, i wonder why people do this. Clearly there are 2 camps:

1. I've bought the top model but i don't want to be a dick about it, so i've removed the badge
2. I've bought the entry model and I am hoping people will think I've bought something better

For 1, it's still obvious to pretty much anyone that would even remotely care that you are indeed driving the super-amazing and expensive variant, so is this just the hipster choice... pretending to be down to earth and a man of the people when in fact you know people will realise what you're driving anyway, so what does this say about the driver? For 2, clearly this guy is almost as bad as the guy that whacks M-sport, AMG etc badges all over his C180 or 320d.

Personally I think i'd just leave it on there - it's what i bought.

what do PHers think?

I think you're over-thinking it a bit.

Your second to last sentence deals with it nicely.