A quick question: Do all of the badges on cars piss you off?

[toesuf94]

Today as I sat behind yet another Toyota Highlander Limited 4X4 Automatic V6 at a stop light, it hit me...all of this badging announcing to the world what your car is equiped with really makes me mad! It is unsightly, usually misalligned, and truthfully, what purpose does it serve? Add to it the obligatory dealership logo tag, and it really starts cluttering up the back ends of cars. Am I the only person who hates this? Also, a worst offenders or oddest thing you have ever seen listed on the back of a car as an option list would be fun to read.

I really hope that GM cuts down on the badging I have seen in early shots shown here of the G8 GT V8...all of which was proclaimed on the back of the car. Subtle is better. Leave the GM marks of crookedness though, I actually like those on the front doors/sides of the cars.

[CARBIZ]

I dunno, my father's '69 Chrysler 300 had the words THREE HUNDRED actually spelled out on the rear fender. I've always found that kind of classy. Some of the early '60s and late '50's vehicles had stylize writing on the vehicles.

Some vehicles pull it off more tastefully than others. I don't think car logos/tags are any worse than people who run around wearing T-shirts or ball caps with company logos on them.

I guess it depends on whether you are proud of the vehicle you bought, or bought it because it was all you could afford.

[Flybrian]

New Camry badges are all woefully misaligned. Also, some the tailgate badge on the back of the Ranger is about a billion times too large. I also like the small-penile V8 TITAN badges.

[Brougham-Holiday]

I love all of the badges and emblems, in fact I added the word "Buick" and the emblem to the front door of my LeSabre, as well as a "3800 Tuned Port Injection" badge to the rear under the pass. tail lamp. The factory loaded my Cutlass up with emblems. The out side has

The word "Oldsmobile Spelled out"-2

The old Oldsmobile emblem- 7

The "Rocekt emblem-3

The word "Holiday"-2

"Cutlass Ciera w/flags"-2

There is also the word Oldsmobile on the front lic. holder but its coverd with my Oldsmobile plate.

I also have 2 Oldsmobile decals from the GM heritage center and one Oldsmobile Club of America decal.

[Drew Dowdell]

I've always hated the "Fuel Injection" or "ABS" on the outside of the car. To me, those make just as much sense as "60/40 folding rear seat" or "Power steering" would. I can understand V6 or V8 <and Ford's V8 symbol is the best, Cadillac's Northstar symbol is the worst>, and even 4x4/AWD <Honda's SH-AWD is disqualified for being a stupid name>.

It's the cluster of plastic lettering that says "&#036;h&#33;! We built it, but now we have to tell people what it is!" on the trunk lids that looks like ass. Putting trim levels on the outside is stupid if the trim is only a group of meaningless letters <SS, R/T don't count since those are acronyms>. Who really cares if it's a Taurus GS or LX or ZZ, or UGLY? Only one manufacturer currently can get away with a letter designation like that and it's Chrysler with the "C" on the 300. On the other hand, if manufactures use a name instead of a meaningless letter combo that would be acceptable <i.e. 300 Touring, LaCross Super, Vue Red-line>

Sorry Acura and Jaguar, the word "Type" is now dead. Blame Jaguar... they killed it with the S-Type R

Even the on car I've owned with the longest "name" still managed to include the entire name on the car without being gaudy about it.

Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente....

Oldsmobile was on the front fender just behind the wheel... where the GM badges are now

Toronado was on a piece of 1 1/2 inch tall brushed stainless steel trim across the back of the trunk

Caliente was on the b-pillar

Sorry Fly... your Bonneville SSei-ei-oh gets swept up in all this mess.

[Enzora]

Excessive badging is one of my pet peeves, even outside of the automotive world. I hate that we live in an era of sensory overload in which businesses find it necessary to fill every available blank space with some sort of advertising for their product.

And for me, even if the badge itself looks good, the car as a whole will probably look better without it.

[Ravenfreak13]

It should go as far as Make, model, trim, and engine size i.e: 2.4, or V6

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Yes, and it's why I'm going to remove all of the badges on my truck and leave one reading S-10 and have a huge ass bowtie from a new Silverado on the tailgate.

[Delta Force79]

My Riviera is very simple....the name Riviera on the two rear quarter panels just behind the doors...and the R trunk lock cover and the R in the grille...and on S/C models a small Supercharged emblem on the right side corner of the trunk lid. very minimal and clean IMO. My Delta said Oldsmobile on the trunk, and two Rocket logos on either side of the car aboce the tailight and the word Delta-88 on both front fenders....plus another Oldsmobile above the front grille, and Royale emblem inbetween the two grille sections, a rocket logo hood ornament and two Royale emblems on the sail panes of the roof ( c pillar) quite a lot if you ask me.

[Flybrian]

Sorry Fly... your Bonneville SSei-ei-oh gets swept up in all this mess.

Bonnie's all about the excess.

[gm4life]

I hate it when people repaint there cars and they can't put the factory badges back in the right place. I love my Bonneville's badging... Nice Pontiac Arrowhead up front between the bad a$$ dual port grille. Then the SLE in a italics on the doors and the newly freshend for the 2004-2005 GXP and 2005 SLE - Bonneville on the trunk lid, with dual Bosal mufflers and oval exhaust tips it looks pretty nice.

[tmp]

Some badging is okay even if it's large- the old Imperial ones from the 50's for instance or the Ninety-Eights of the 60's

Others, not so much. Toyota's badging is pretty terrible- the Camry's look like an afterthought and the Tundra pretty much shrieks "erectile dysfunction"

[LosAngeles]

Yeah...

"Fuel Injection" (after FI was standard on all cars)

"ABS"

Mereceds "V12" badge on a BMW

Any badge from the wrong brand

...all retarded.

But the worst?

The wheel size badges the DUB magazine crowd throws on their vehicles.

Gotta love the bejeweled "24"" badge on a truck or "22"" badge on a car....

....that had to swap back to the STOCK wheels! Usually because his expensive rims were either stolen from it or in the shop getting the scrapes and places where it hit potholes repaired.

I can see just fine what size your wheels are. That's like having a badge that says "cowl induction" or "big aluminum spoiler" or "candy paint" on your car. Just stupid.

[Flybrian]

I can see just fine what size your wheels are. That's like having a badge that says "cowl induction" or "big aluminum spoiler" or "candy paint" on your car. Just stupid.

Make me a badge that says, "Large Chrome Badge."

[Ravenfreak13]

I saw on the back of an old accord something that read like this on the trunk lid:

Honda Mitsubishi Accord Galant

[Drew Dowdell]

Make me a badge that says, "Large Old Boat"

fixed

[AAS]

Bonnie's all about the excess.

Hell Yeah!!! The SSEi badge on our '92 is still one of my favorites. Especially because the badge was color matched to the car!

[Hollingsworth]

Excessive badging is one of my pet peeves, even outside of the automotive world. I hate that we live in an era of sensory overload in which businesses find it necessary to fill every available blank space with some sort of advertising for their product.

Microsoft is one of the worst offenders. They're marginally better with their Vista packaging, but the Windows Me and 2000 era products were a study in overloaded package design.

Anyway, I think that the model and engine size should be the only badging on a car. None of this XLE, SES, GS, LX crap. And certainly none of this mid-eighties/early-nineties ABS/Fuel Injection stuff.

Dealership badges also tick me off, because they seem to grow in size with each passing year. And most of the ones [around East Tennessee] are hideous. Some of them look like they were created in MS Paint.

[Drew Dowdell]

Microsoft is one of the worst offenders. They're marginally better with their Vista packaging, but the Windows Me and 2000 era products were a study in overloaded package design.

As shown here.....

[Flybrian]

I will say, though, it gives you something to read.

[Ravenfreak13]

i hate the SE, LX type trim stuff but I like the more "limited", touring", Rallye" badging.

[Intrepidation]

As shown here.....

I like the badge placement on our cars...although I wish the chrome wasn't coming off

Edited June 27, 2007 by Dodgefan

[gm4life]

And something to gawk at if they are miss-placed.

[AxelTheRed]

Keep with the big three: Make, model and trim.

I don't care what engine it has, I don't care if its a FlexFuel or hybrid, I don't care if its AWD...just get to the point, I don't want to absorb everything about the car at a glance while I'm behind it at a stoplight.

And on a similar, but unrelated note that this topic got me thinking about: on my way to Ohio a few months ago I was behind a Dodge Ram with the brand name misspelled. "Dogde". Talk about a glaring oversight. My friend and I followed him on the expressway for about five miles laughing all the while.

Edited June 27, 2007 by AxelTheRed

[the_yellow_dart]

Pretty good on the Cobalt: Bowties front and back, no spelled out "Chevrolet" anywhere on the car, and "COBALT LS" together on the trunk lid. Fine by me. Mine came with dealer badging too, I took it off right away.

[Robert Hall]

My Escort had a badge that read '5-speed' on the rear hatch, with the cool, tiny 'diesel' badges on the front fenders.

My pet peeve w/ badging are the cars where the model name is on the left side of the decklid/hatch and the brand name is on the right side... don't see it as much anymore, but it just looks wrong, esp. in English where you read left-to-right.

This reads correctly--'Toyota Camry'

but this is just plain wrong, reads as 'Grand Marquis LS Mercury'...

I've never understood why so many automakers made this mistake...

Edited June 28, 2007 by moltar

[Intrepidation]

The Shadow reads:

Dodge Shadow

on the hatch, and says Shadow on either side...it's part of the "pinstripe" decal...and it has a Pentastar on the hood

The Prizm reads:

Geo Pr

on the back ("izm" apparently fell off some time ago),a nd it has the Geo logo, complete with Bowtie on the grill.

The Intrepid reads:

I N T R E P I D

Across the back of the trunk lid, DODGE on each front door, and a Ram emblem on the hood (or at least where one should be). Some models say SE or ES on the black part of the rear door...mine doesn't. R/T models say DODGE R/T on the doors.

The Caravan reads

Dodge Caravan LE

Although "Dodge" fell off the back and is resting on the bumper. It also has a standing Pentastar

Fly's LeSabre has B U I C K across the top of the grill, a standing hood ornament, and "LeSabre Custom" badges on either side of teh rear quarter panels, as well as saying BUICK on the right side of the trunk...and something else on the left...maybe LeSabre too...I forget.

[balthazar]

>>"My pet peeve w/ badging are the cars where the model name is on the left side of the decklid/hatch and the brand name is on the right side... don't see it as much anymore, but it just looks wrong, esp. in English where you read left-to-right. This reads correctly--'Toyota Camry' but this is just plain wrong, reads as 'Grand Marquis LS Mercury'..."<<

Agreed 100%, and this is yet another weird twist that was primary introduced by the imports (along with off-center trunk locks). Absolutely hate it.

Doesn't the 'i' in --say-- 325i signify fuel injection??

B-59 had a large decklid emblem, a large rear fascia "Buick", small front fender "Invicta"s and rocker trim "Buick"s, plus a hood ornament with "Buick". I think the hubcaps had "BUICK" in the centers, also. It's all come off, tho I may use the rocker "Buick" emblems. The "Invicta" emblem will move to the inside, where the only original ID was the old-style emblem in the steering wheel center and an echo of the hood ornamant on the pass side of the dash.

[Oracle of Delphi]

>>"My pet peeve w/ badging are the cars where the model name is on the left side of the decklid/hatch and the brand name is on the right side... don't see it as much anymore, but it just looks wrong, esp. in English where you read left-to-right. This reads correctly--'Toyota Camry' but this is just plain wrong, reads as 'Grand Marquis LS Mercury'..."<<

Agreed 100%, and this is yet another weird twist that was primary introduced by the imports (along with off-center trunk locks). Absolutely hate it.

Doesn't the 'i' in --say-- 325i signify fuel injection??

B-59 had a large decklid emblem, a large rear fascia "Buick", small front fender "Invicta"s and rocker trim "Buick"s, plus a hood ornament with "Buick". I think the hubcaps had "BUICK" in the centers, also. It's all come off, tho I may use the rocker "Buick" emblems. The "Invicta" emblem will move to the inside, where the only original ID was the old-style emblem in the steering wheel center and an echo of the hood ornamant on the pass side of the dash.

You mean like this, this is the dumbest thing I've seen yet! The naming convention is backwards! Not that I like to pick on Holden, because we all know this is (cough, spit, cough) a Pontiac!

Edited June 28, 2007 by Pontiac Custom-S

[knightfan26917]

I hate it when people repaint there cars and they can't put the factory badges back in the right place.

*nods*

Me, too!

Course, I'm a bit of a "purist" . He he

I don't mind some badging, but I've never understood the additional "V6" and other such badging on cars....

*shrugs*

And, I, too, prefer when it "reads correctly" left to right across the back....

Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.lego.HO.model.MCs.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"Wouldn't that be something?" ... Finger 11 ... '1 Thing'

[Ravenfreak13]

The Saturn doesnt even have a model badge...just SATURN on th rear bumper, a saturn emblem on the fenders and between the headlights. Although I Took the "S" from the breezes replacement door after the accident(door came from a Stratus ES) and stuck it on the saturns trunk lid. My mom said "hmm thatp S has been there for 9 years and I just noticed it". I told her though.

[Cory Wolfe]

Some vehicles pull it off more tastefully than others. I don't think car logos/tags are any worse than people who run around wearing T-shirts or ball caps with company logos on them.

I guess it depends on whether you are proud of the vehicle you bought, or bought it because it was all you could afford.

I just prefer a clean look and badges are senseless clutter. I hate those shirts, too.

My Millenia kept it simple with just "Millenia" and "Mazda on the trunk. I removed the "Mazda" so people can look at the eternal flame and try to figure out who the hell makes my car. What? It can be pretty entertaining.

My Grand Am was the complete opposite. "Pontiac Grand Am" was spelled across the trunk, "Grand Am" was on the doors, "Pontiac" was on the grill, "Pontiac was spelled out on each wheel, "16 Valve" was on the fenders, "ABS" was on the trunk, and "GT" was on the b-pillar. Talk about excess.

[Oracle of Delphi]

I just prefer a clean look and badges are senseless clutter. I hate those shirts, too.

My Millenia kept it simple with just "Millenia" and "Mazda on the trunk. I removed the "Mazda" so people can look at the eternal flame and try to figure out who the hell makes my car. What? It can be pretty entertaining.

My Grand Am was the complete opposite. "Pontiac Grand Am" was spelled across the trunk, "Grand Am" was on the doors, "Pontiac" was on the grill, "Pontiac was spelled out on each wheel, "16 Valve" was on the fenders, "ABS" was on the trunk, and "GT" was on the b-pillar. Talk about excess.

Pontiac just wanted everyone to know how proud they were of that car! Nothing wrong in taking pride in something you build. Do you not sign your car sketches?

[Cory Wolfe]

Pontiac just wanted everyone to know how proud they were of that car! Nothing wrong in taking pride in something you build. Do you not sign your car sketches?

Once... Just in the corner by the wheel. Not across the windshield, around the rear, initialed under the front, my sexuality shown above the hood, nor a self portrait on the door as well. Edited June 28, 2007 by blackviper8891

[Camino LS6]

It's not the proliferation of badges which bothers me, rather it is the lousy quality of most badges since the 80s.

[Sixty8panther]

The Japanese are bad... the Koreans are worse.

Like "Huyndai SantaFe)>-+++_+=="

[trinacriabob]

I don't mind it. I like the GM badge. Heck, Fords and Chryslers carry some manufacturer badge. Some cars have too little of it, especially on the interior. Nowhere inside a GP or a LaX, for instance, does it say what the car is. Not even the make, for that matter, except for the emblem on the steering wheel horn pad. We could actually use a little more.

Also: I tend to dislike cursive labeling...even on a Cadillac.