Badge engineering. A simple English word with a very negative undertone for car fans. Why?

Is not it great when big car companies get together to offer even better products at a lower price on the market?

That’s the theory. In the end, however, it is often just the simple dilution of a brand culture that has been built up over a long period of time. And then, for the negative impression, there are also many fusion experiments which in the end only showed one thing: losses and the experience that you cannot simply “re-label” a brand.

What can still work with such simple things as fan motors, power windows or brake pads, reaches its limits if you share the heart of a car with other brands.

Usually every brand has - every automobile manufacturer has its own philosophy and the buyers of the vehicles have internalized it and are often real fans of their brand, especially in the automotive industry.

Two major German car manufacturers venture a dangerous experiment from this point of view. Both Mercedes and Bayerische Motorenwerke have sought partners for manufacturing and knowledge transfer in engine construction.

BMW translates the current downsizing hysteria into a death sentence for the famous six-cylinder engines without supercharging and small displacements and is now looking for salvation in an alliance with the PSA Group. Peugeot and Citroen are known for their comfortable cars. The reliability and the sporty power delivery of the built engines are not that far away. And yet, especially with PSA, BMW Motoren wants to exchange engine know-how and so not only the BMW Mini and the BMW 1 Series run with turbo engines as can also be found in PSA models. Useful? One can probably be divided. Personally, I think it's a disaster.

And now Mercedes-Benz. One would think that Mercedes would have learned from the disastrous results of the tests with the US giant Chrysler and the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi. But far from it, now Mercedes wants to buy engines from Nissan-Renault. Likewise for the small series. Still. In addition, the exchange of platform technologies between Mercedes-Benz and the Nissan luxury brand Infiniti has been agreed.

Why exactly should an automobile buyer buy a C-Class when he will soon get the same technology in a better equipped Infiniti at better conditions. Because of the star “on” the hood?

In my opinion, that is far too short thought. The star on the hood was once a symbol of the technology under the sheet. Today is the star, as well as the white-blue propeller on the way to become only a fig leaf.

And with this strategy, both companies do not create long-term successes, but only short-term shareholder values. At the end there is a brand cover without content.

In the light of these developments, the tone between the - not interlinked groups is getting rougher. In the past, it was good decency not to speak negatively about your competitors - at the Detroit Motorshow it was only possible to see how the customs slowly deteriorated and the CEOs pinned down the claims with a pithy tone.

Asked about the new Cadillac ATS and the Lincoln MKZ, the US boss of BMW (Ludwig Willisch) made a clear statement:

“We don't produce trucks, nor taxis or buses,” said Willisch. "We don't produce sofas on wheels - and we don't take mass-market vehicles and rebadge them as premium."

 

GM chairman Bob Lutz, in turn, shot hard against his Japanese competitors: Toyota and Honda. But even here the answer wasn't long in coming.

You can read all the “house sounds” from Detroit in the carscoop blog ...

It is interesting that there are brands - because of their brilliant products, they can work with profits that others only dream of: Porsche for example.

Now that Porsche has been brought under the umbrella of Volkswagen, “typical” Porsche models should be enjoyed for a long time to come. Because Volkswagen is one of the groups that have successfully managed to add new brands to the group without diluting their own premium values. Instead, the integrated brands experience the added value of a meaningful group mix.

With the exception of Suzuki participation, the additional brands have all been at home on our small European continent - this may explain the problems of the other two premium manufacturers. Once again there is an attempt to delight corporations from other cultures with their own philosophies.

I'm curious to see how far it can work.

Edit: Photo artist and photographer Erkan Dörtoluk has made me a celebrity blogger, I haven't brushed my stomach like this for a long time 😉 - he got that from my badge rant Badge Day made and like the badge god his photo offerings presented .. rating: worth seeing!