Oops,

Scott,
Was there ever a follow-up on the purchase of the 380? Did you ever find out what happened? Were you the one to break it to him?

__________________
2006 E350 w/ 155k miles (Daily Driver)

Previous:
1993 300E 3.2L Sedan w/ close to about 300k miles
2003 E500 Brilliant Silver (Had 217k miles when totalled!)
1989 300E with 289,000 miles (had for <1 yr while in HI)
03 CLK 500 cabrio (Mom's)
2006 C230k (Dad's)
1999 S420 (Mom's/Dad's)
2000 C230k Sport sedans
2001 CLK320 Cabrio (Mom's)
1995 C280 My First Mercedes-Benz... (155k miles. EXCEPTIONAL AUTOMOBILE. Was Very hard to let go of!)

I must admit that I have taken quite a liking to the freeway game of reading front windshield graphics - especially the pubescent male Acura and Honda offerings.

Today, I saw a Toyota Echo (3 cylinder Official Pace Car)
with the following graphics:

front windshield: (huge) STREET RACER

rear windshield: (not as large, but big) NO FEAR sticker,
under which was centered another sticker: "Blo Me"

"What is this world coming to?," I facetiously ask myself.

Rumour has it that deep inside Germany there is a Brabus EV-12 painted beige with a brown interior and a removeable taxi sign on the top... badge reads E250 D.

My own view: debadge. Keeps the car clean and discreet.

An interesting note...

In the days of the 6.9, the purchaser could request on the order to have the badging left off the car. Many European versions are like that. I don't think too many US cars left without the "6.9" on the trunklid. 6.9 owners wanted to show Detroit what Stuttgart had to offer--and still do!

__________________
Regards,
Aaron

I love the "de-badging" issue!
I see a lot of "de-badged" cars where I live (an area in So. Cal. with a lot of "up-and-comers", or at least "wannabe up-and-comers").
The standard line is "I debadge because I like the 'cleaner look'."
Which I can accept, except its odd that 9 out of 10 people that seem to favor the "cleaner look" also, *coincidentially*, seem to own the 318i, the 525i, the SL300, etc. For some odd reason, its very rare to see the 330i, the 540i, or the SL500/600 owner favoring the "cleaner look," at least from what I have observed.
(I know that a lot of people in Europe debadge the bigger displacement cars for a variety of reason, but I'm not talkin' about Europe!).

Here's some badge-upgraded cars for you:

This one's a Honda Del Sol
http://www.ecubed.com/bmw/CrapBMWDelSol/

Here's another, this one's a Mazda Miata
http://www.beaterz.com/one_liners/0200/020006_miata_z3.htm


My favorite fake Mercedes is an SLK owned by a guy in Italy. It is a 1997 SLK200 (without kompressor) badged as a "SLK320 Kompressor /////AMG". He had a picture of the engine on his webpage proclaiming that it was an inline 6-cylinder with Lorinser supercharger, but the picture clearly showed a normally-aspirated inline 4-cylinder. He has since removed the comment about the supercharged 6-cylinder and some of the pictures, but he didn't remove the badges.
http://www.geocities.com/slkclub/photos.html

Hi guys,

Those are really interesting comments. I once debadged my 55 hoping it won't attract 2 much attention as it was 1 of the few 2000 models here. However, things didn't actually go as I have planned! U won't believe how many guys want a shot at me without my badge!!! So after a week I put the badge back on and finally got some peace on the road (Amen).

Happy motoring,

ET

Perfect comment by Brian K. Couldn't agree more. The new BMW trick is the 323's with the "cleaner" look- guy I park next to at work owns one of these but I happened to catch the badge the day after he bought the car. It only took him two days to opt for the "smooth" look since a few other co-workers owned 328's or the new 330. Of course, factory M3 wheels were added 1 week later- just for looks I'm sure. Then there's always the guy who slaps an AMG badge on the E320 or the C220- model numbers removed of course but AMG badge gleaming. I'd have to say the most often de-badged mercedes are the W124 cars. I'm going out on a limb here but I bet 9 out of 10 are 300's or 260's. More power to you all who have 8cyl mercs with the "clean" look. I don't see many but at least they're comfortable in their own right. 2 cents.

Mike
500 SEC Euro
190E 3.8
(Both badged)

All a matter of personal taste, I guess. I purchased a replacement 300E badge for my car because the old one had been put on at a slight angle at the factory. I liked the much maligned 'clean' look, so I never installed the new badge. No attempt to fool anyone, I still run the 15" 15 hole painted rims and orange turn signals, so it doesn't exactly look like a rice racer. When I find the ideal 400E, I will debadge that one as well. Anyway, how could you tell the difference between a 300E and a 400E that had been debadged, without looking at the interior wood or under the hood? (That is a pretty safe bet anyway, since 10 times more 300Es were made than 400Es!)

The only thing I find funny on the badge issue are the cars with phoney badges such as the 240/289Z I saw this afternoon. Non factory gold metalflake paint, Gold V12 badge on the left, Gold Turbo badge on the right, TWO (2) giant side by side chrome coffee can exhaust tips, and stock Nissan wheels! The car sounded like a fly trapped between the glass and the screen! V-12 my @$$, unless he was referring to his valve train!

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

hehe Well since they only made my car as a 300CE, or E320 in the later years, there ain't no mistaking it with any other models.

The other day I saw a car, it was metallic green, as it passed me, the metallic green turned to metallic red/burgundy, and as it drove ooff again, it turned from the metallic red/burgundy to metallic gold/copper. Was the craziest paint I have seen in a while. Of course I couldn't tell what kind of car because I was too busy being blinded by the outrageous paint to see any lines ont he car, but the big 20 inch gold wire wheels did look out of place no matter what it was, and the tires were about 4 inches too wide on both sides of the car, protruding out giving the car and extra 8 inches of wide track.

The things some people do to cars is beyond me, I like my car to stand out a bit, but never stand out like that. I like my cars to look clean and understated, not loud and overstated. hehe

Alon

__________________
'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

Sounds like a Nissan to me. In europe Nissan has sold some Primera's with a chameleon color like the one you described. I have seen it 3 or 4 times now and the very first time I thought I saw a car that had been damaged and had some different color used parts added to the body...
The color goes from green to brown to green to red to green...when you drive past the car. It looks great.

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

Some of the designo paints have this effect, albeit they are a tad more subtle. My local dealership had a designo C240. It was blue/green/black (not green black) with bright green leather interior. Nice. Or not. All those fancy extras added a stack to the price: it was up at £42,000! Took about 8 months to sell. Saw it the other day; looked quite good.

They also had a green SL with the bright green leather. Again, not a quick seller.

__________________
JJ Rodger
2013 G350 Bluetec
1999 SL 500
1993 E300 diesel T
1990 190

I thought I would never have the opportunity to post on this thread but yesterday I saw a 80'ish Chrysler LeBaron with a 600ES on the right side of the trunk!
The guy was wearing a polyester suit and looked to be in his 50's so this was very confusing, I must admit he left me scratching my head for at least a minute.
Rather strange behavior!

Ross,
Actually there was a 600 series chrysler!!!

__________________
2006 E350 w/ 155k miles (Daily Driver)

Previous:
1993 300E 3.2L Sedan w/ close to about 300k miles
2003 E500 Brilliant Silver (Had 217k miles when totalled!)
1989 300E with 289,000 miles (had for <1 yr while in HI)
03 CLK 500 cabrio (Mom's)
2006 C230k (Dad's)
1999 S420 (Mom's/Dad's)
2000 C230k Sport sedans
2001 CLK320 Cabrio (Mom's)
1995 C280 My First Mercedes-Benz... (155k miles. EXCEPTIONAL AUTOMOBILE. Was Very hard to let go of!)

The issue of badging is tricky, I have seen few C36s or C43's as is to worry about it. You guys with the 500's well the Hammer was a dream of mine in college, yet I had a XR4TI and suffered. :{

If it is tacky or a stretch do not do it, yet to each is own. However since all my cars can hold their own I am not worried about what's under the hood of the guy next to me.

Troy
1996 C36 Fully Done...Brembo's 18"s...Supercharged..Xenon headlights and DrivingLights and on and on..
2001 BMW X-5 4.4 with 4.6 body kit.
2002 C32 on order August delivery, Silver with the works.