Inconsistent presence of trim level emblems on Rogues

[texasrogue]

There's no doubt that Rogue is selling well considering how many I see on the road these days. But what I usually check out when they pass me is the trim level emblems on many Rogues. On the Rogues that do have trim level emblems, I see more SV models than anything else, the SL being the 2nd most common.

But when doing my little mobile census, I've noticed a large number of Rogues lack the trim level emblems.

Is Nissan removing these emblems or offering the delete as an option?
Are people removing them for some odd, insecure reason?

Anyone else noticing this inconsistency?

[chunt5]

Normally it is the S trim level that is missing the emblem. This is consistent with the Altima's also. I know one person who purchased an Altima S trim level and it did not have the emblem. He asked his salesman about it and the salesman said he did not know why, just some come with the emblem and some don't. This was confusing to Altima owners because they had a trim level below the S trim the year the person mentioned above purchased his.

[datechboss101]

All manufacturers are doing this type of thing. Look at Honda, they only put the trim level emblems if it is an Special Edition, Sport, Touring, or Touring Elite.

[Rogue One]

Q: Is Nissan removing these emblems or offering the delete as an option?
A: No.

Q: Are people removing them for some odd, insecure reason?
A: Partially. As texasrogue pointed out, it saves Nissan money by not putting the S emblem on the base model. In 2017 Nissan sold 403,465 Rogue's. Assuming one third are the base model (134,448), and only half didn't get the emblem (67,244), and the emblems cost say $4
each, that's a savings of $268,976.

And then there's the vanity angle. Some people change their badges because they're embarrassed to be seen driving a base model vehicle. Case in point, when I worked at a Nissan dealership in Maryland we had a woman trade in a base model Rogue that she had re-badged as an SL.

[DTASFAB]

when I worked at a Nissan dealership in Maryland we had a woman trade in a base model Rogue that she had re-badged as an SL.

So if she had one that already had the S, it might have cost her only $2 to add the L, rather than $4 to add the whole thing.

[texasrogue]

And then there's the vanity angle. Some people change their badges because they're embarrassed to be seen driving a base model vehicle. Case in point, when I worked at a Nissan dealership in Maryland we had a woman trade in a base model Rogue that she had re-badged as an SL.

That's a sad testament to the level of consumerism and class insecurity in this country. And it's nothing new, either. Some readers on this forum may not have been born then, but back in the mid 1980's it became very popular for people to place fake cellular antennas on the back window of their vehicles. This gave the external appearance that you were rollin' with a car phone and loaded like Gordon Gekko.

Some enterprising company even made a fake head unit to place inside the car. I remember someone on our college campus had that and their car was broken into. When the truth came out that this person had a FAKE phone stolen, laughter prevailed for some time.

I've seen some Mustang owners place "GT" emblems on their vehicles when clearly they're driving the V6. And the exhaust note never lies in that case.

While this could warrant an entire post on its own in this forum, I often wince when I read how people want to install the latest steering wheel or rims from the current Rogue models onto their older model. Always wanting that new, shiny-shiny and not being happy with what you have will forever condemn you to the indebted life.

Be happy with what you have for God's sake!

[datechboss101]

I think its more consistent with BMW cars. Very recently I saw a BMW 550i that had the M badge next to it, making it a BMW M550i. The owner might have forgotten to remove the 50i part of the badge. Another one was a 428i convertible, with of course an M badge, making it an M428i convertible... Typical broke Americans that try to act like they are rich and bought an M car when they bought a 320i.

[amc49]

'Always wanting that new, shiny-shiny and not being happy with what you have will forever condemn you to the indebted life.'

I love that and so very true..............this planet buries people like that and many never see it at all.

The emblems like anything else cost money and there may as well be supply chain issues to the assembly lines. Nissan may have chosen not to badge 100% of the lower level models and another reason is that rental car companies often want a specific trim/option line that has maybe just one piece of a normal package missing. In that case the car is not EITHER level at all so what to do? Why my Focus was not branded as an SE even though it was except that for some reason it got manual windows, everything else was power like the SE package and it came built off the line like that. I had a Topaz car not marked for some reason, it was loaded and no badge for it, it may even be a theft deterrent thing as that one was a renter too.

On many marques/models the lowest level trim gets no special tag at all. It's a money saver thing for the CEO's bonus.

[prj]

That's a sad testament to the level of consumerism and class insecurity in this country. And it's nothing new, either. Some readers on this forum may not have been born then, but back in the mid 1980's it became very popular for people to place fake cellular antennas on the back window of their vehicles. This gave the external appearance that you were rollin' with a car phone and loaded like Gordon Gekko.

Right?!

Sad indeed.

I'm also an owner of a 2004 Nissan Titan truck. Occasionally I browse on AutoTrader for a newer model. One of the models is called the Pro-4X. It comes with off-road tires, skid plates underneath and up front under the bumper, red stitching on the seats and Pro-4x decal on the sides of the box.

You would not believe how many I see online where the dealer slaps the Pro-4x decal on the sides of the box and tries to sell it as that model. The pictures of the truck always give it away...red stitching is absent on the seats and no skid plate under the front bumper.

Seriously? Who cares about an emblem that much?