De-badge or not to de-badge that is the question?

[Bristolf2b]

Why spend lots of money to then blend in with the base models.

That was exactly why I de badged all of my A4 3.0Tdi Quattros, which were SE spec on standard suspension. It made them look like 2.0 Tdi's so people wouldn't see what they really were.

I took the Quattro badges off as well. Only an Audi Geek would realise what the black grill and twin pipes meant

Edited 16 December, 2014 by Bristolf2b

[ednmra]

Funny, isn't it. I always said that if I ended up with one of those red mobility scooters I'd want to COVER it in Ferrari badges.............oh well, each to their own!!

[mk4gtiturbo]

I de-badged mine because I like the clean look.  I have always de-badged my cars.  Another reason is people who will be impressed by it will know what the car is by looking, people who need to read the badges ain't gonna be impressed in the first place!

 

There was a whole thread of differing views when I did mine

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/310536-debadge-and-rebadge/?hl=+debadge

[bigchrisg]

When in doubt do nowt so have decided to leave the badges on. Can however definitely see the appeal of de-badging. My VRS being delivered tomorrow!

[Crogers]

Someone debaged my VRs for me, with a screw driver and, it cost me £140 to put it right!

[ednmra]

Can't see the point - the car is the car is the car. One of my friends bought a big Chevrolet saloon and put Bentley badges on..........so what?

[AllanDJ]

From what i've seen in my area most new non VRS or special edition Octavia's don't have any badges anyway, my car just came with the Skoda badge and Octavia name on it. I don't know if this is some ploy from Skoda to make their cars seem more upmarket by only badging a few of them or maybe the dealers can't be bothered putting on badges saying S, SE or Elegance!

[littleade]

From what i've seen in my area most new non VRS or special edition Octavia's don't have any badges anyway, my car just came with the Skoda badge and Octavia name on it. I don't know if this is some ploy from Skoda to make their cars seem more upmarket by only badging a few of them or maybe the dealers can't be bothered putting on badges saying S, SE or Elegance!

I don't think any model other than the vRS has ever had badges on them. My SE+ mk2 only had TSI on the rear hatch and I've only ever seen that or TDI on non vRS's

[AllanDJ]

I have seen Elegance badged older models of Octavia and have seen a few new non VRS ones with model badges on them but maybe the owners put them on themselves? Not greatly bothered, just curious really as up until now every car I've ever owned has been covered in badges telling you exactly what model it is, usually on tailgate and front wings of the car. Less is often more in my view, too many badges are not really a good thing and if you've ever had a Ford Ghia car, these little badges were rather expensive when they either fell off or got too weather beaten, ditto rear Ford badge where the Ford name just peeled off completely on my last car and I didn't see the point in having to buy a new one just to tell people that my Mondeo was a Ford! The new style Skoda rear badge looks a bit more robust than the Ford ones so far and nicely understated too.

[ednmra]

I'm on my 4th Octavia in a row now and this is the only one that only has the word Skoda, and the word Octavia on the boot (plus the Skoda badge of course).

 

All the rest (Mk. 1 vRS,   Mk. 2  2.0FSi    and Mk. 2 1.8TSi) all had some indication of the model spec.

[Gerrycan]

If I were to do something then my preference would be to de-badge and also replace the new silver Skoda badges with the old green ones, front and rear.

The old ones were/are distinctively different.

[pipsyp]

Slightly off topic I was interested that my Mk 3 (1.4 TSi) does not have the model lettering on the rear of the boot lid, just "Octavia". Wonder why?

Skoda did away with the engine tech badging for MY 14. Only very early MY13 regular Octavias have the badging (where the vRS badge is on a vRS).

[AllanDJ]

Personally, I like the look of the new Skoda badges better than the older style, the lack of other badges is a bit odd but not any big deal. As I said before I've seen loads of the new Octavia's around but very few

with any model badging on them whatsoever, seen a few TD badges on some early versions too.

 

Funny thing when I think about it, that the area that I saw the biggest number of new Octavia's was in and around the Isle of Skye. I took a day or so off in September and headed up to Skye and was amazed at the 

huge number of Octavia's on the roads to and from Fort William and Skye. Probably a lot of them were tourists and some of them Dutch/ German etc but just never seen so many of them in such a small area

and more than a few of them were Estate versions too. 

[tonysnake]

I might paint my badges black to go with the black grill etc. Saw a BMW with matt black badges and look different. Will keep you posted when I get round to it.

[TomLux]

I might paint my badges black to go with the black grill etc. Saw a BMW with matt black badges and look different. Will keep you posted when I get round to it.

Cheers for the idea...I have a metal grey on order and thought about removing the badges (The Skoda and Octavia one, the VRS can stay), But now I'll give some black (matt or not) plastidip a try and see if that works with the metal grey.

[tonysnake]

Didn't think about plastidip. Santa, please bring me some. Let me know how yours goes if you do yours first Tom

[TomLux]

Don't wait for me: Mine won't be built until mid Feb 15 ;-)  I thought about plastidip in case it won't look good I can always go back.

[mikemorton]

There are a fair few debadging videos on YouTube. I guess they all work, but is there a best way for Skoda badges? I don't have a heat gun, but maybe a hairdryer would do. My car's only a week old, so hopefully the glue hasn't really begun to set yet. Any thoughts?

[V6Jules]

Hair dryer is probably a safer bet anyway. Wouldn't want to damage your paint with a heat gun set too high

[mikemorton]

Yes, sounds good - thanks!

[billybskoda]

Now you see... Im awaiting my mk3 Vrs from a UK port location - they had exactly what I wanted... Black, with sunset and black pack... and nothing else that doesn't make the car any lighter or faster... we did talk about junking the aircon, to be honest it never gets THAT hot in rural Gloucestershire borderlands. So Ive gone black... again (Mk1 and Mk2 black vrs's). I share Kitsets point of view to be honest... If I were to leave badges, it would be the Skoda and Octavia ones that Id leave and ditch the VRS ones... More stealthy by far. I do like the suggestion of black badges too..

So, Im considering visiting the dealership and requesting a total debadge, apart from winged arrows, naturally. I have to speak to them anyway about stage 1 tuning after the run in period.

Then just wait for the transporter to arrive...

[V6Jules]

Now you see... Im awaiting my mk3 Vrs from a UK port location - they had exactly what I wanted... Black, with sunset and black pack... and nothing else that doesn't make the car any lighter or faster... we did talk about junking the aircon, to be honest it never gets THAT hot in rural Gloucestershire borderlands. So Ive gone black... again (Mk1 and Mk2 black vrs's). I share Kitsets point of view to be honest... If I were to leave badges, it would be the Skoda and Octavia ones that Id leave and ditch the VRS ones... More stealthy by far. I do like the suggestion of black badges too..

So, Im considering visiting the dealership and requesting a total debadge, apart from winged arrows, naturally. I have to speak to them anyway about stage 1 tuning after the run in period.

Then just wait for the transporter to arrive...

The air con is more than just a chiller, it keeps the humidity of the car down, especially useful at this time of year. It also uses very little fuel so I can't see it using a noticeable amount of power?

[Smeghead]

The air con is more than just a chiller, it keeps the humidity of the car down, especially useful at this time of year. It also uses very little fuel so I can't see it using a noticeable amount of power?

+1, especially if you didn't spec the heated windscreen option. It takes forever to clear the screen on a cold damp morning without A/C and chamois leathers never really seem to do the job properly without making more mess.

[billybskoda]

Cheers guys, but never used it to clear the screen, never needed to. I have a garage... Drive with the window slightly open most of the time anyway. Its not the fuel, tbh, fuel economy never bothered me, was all about the drain in power.. I can honestly say I never used aircon in the mk2, or the mk1 if it had it.....

[V6Jules]

Cheers guys, but never used it to clear the screen, never needed to. I have a garage... Drive with the window slightly open most of the time anyway. Its not the fuel, tbh, fuel economy never bothered me, was all about the drain in power.. I can honestly say I never used aircon in the mk2, or the mk1 if it had it.....

I doubt you would notice the loss in power. A dyno could possibly show it up but even then the compressor is running all the time on a modern car even with the ac switched off?