The other day I found myself stopped at a light behind a new Chevrolet City Express, which is a badge-engineered Nissan NV200. They are essentially identical save for the badging which in this case, as with most current Chevrolets, consists of a Chrome base with a Brass/Gold colored plastic insert that is apparently held on with double-sided tape. Except in this case the center section has already become detached from the base…
Personally I am of the perhaps overly sensitive opinion that the worst feature of any current Chevrolet is the badge which I find tacky (no pun intended) as I am not a fan of Brass/Gold ornamentation on modern cars and many of the colors or non-colors in which they are available. My wife, who is usually very reasonable, downright hates it and insists it is a valid reason why she will not consider a Chevrolet product. Not good as there are several that I like.
However I’m guessing there is rich history behind the badge color and thus the reason for its continued existence. Per the Chevrolet website, when configuring a 2016 Silverado, Chevrolet offers the option of badges with optional black badge inserts for $185, a Porsche-Options-List-like charge which I find offensive as well but shows that Chevy is not against removing the Brass/Gold.
I believe the time has come for the Chevy Bowtie to be represented as a Chrome outline only which would not clash with anything and help Chevrolet save money on badges as well as warranty claims when things go bad. What do you think?
I was unaware of this vehicle. Does this mean the all-American Chevy van has gone the way of the Ford E series and Dodge/Ram vans? On another note, I’m sure glad that add-on dealer badging is uncommon in California. I would not accept a vehicle with this applied. In fact, I’ve always removed dealer license plate frames, although I’ve left one on the front (only) of my new pickup, as the dealership is just named after our city, so it looks like local pride more than free advertising.
It’s smaller, meant to compete against the Ford Transit Connect (the little one, not the larger Transit van that replaced the E-series). Chevy still has the ancient full sizer available.
GM’s badge engineering of a Nissan is evidence of desperation in updating their domestic van range; as with Ford’s Transits, Dodge has two sizes of ProMasters (Fiat Ducato & Doblò). For everyone’s sake, I hope these are as reliable as European correspondents claim.
The Colorado was a much, much wiser new product introduction than a new GM domestic compact van, especially since there’s no longer a domestic market for passenger versions.
Thanks for the info. Our town has had no GM dealership for several years and Ford seems to dominate the light duty commercial business here (their truck lot is bigger than their car lot, and 80% of the trucks are white) so I’ve lost touch with GM’s offerings. I wonder if this bowtie-badged Nissan will be a future CC like an Isuzu Hombre?
They will only be as reliable as the servicing techs allow them to be.
That model of Quality Control hasn’t worked well.
“Solving problems after the sale, or blaming the Bloody [Yank] Customer, helped Britain & France lose the US car market.”
Boy howdy you ain’t kidding ! .
I know many many people who love and still drive old LBC’s daily .
I use my Nash Metropolitan FHC as a daily driver and Rally Car ~ IMO most older British cars were designed o.K. but poorly assembled and needed much fettling by the owner before they’d make daily driver duty .
The Brits refusal to accept that the U.S. market _needed_ (verse wanted) vehicles that could run all day long @ 75 MPH with out grinding them selves to death .
Not a difficult thing to do : Laycock overdrives were easily fitted, I simply added a higher final drive ratio (3.72) from a different BMC product and all is well, decades later .
Same deal with old Trumpet Motos ~ SO fun to ride but not really suited to crossing America….
My old Triumph Mechanic buddy assured me that every Triumph twin ever made needed new pistons every 20,000 miles .
I disagree but he built them, I don’t .
-Nate
I’ll disagree with your buddy’s assessment somewhat.
My ’69 Bonneville was still on the original motor at 32,000 miles when I sold it (bought it twenty years earlier with 8500); however, I’d have had the head off twice for valve guides in that time.
I will happily say that my totally original Bonnie was as reliable as any like condition ’69-74 Honda CB750. However, what I had to go thru to keep that kind of day to day reliability is another matter. Yes, we’re talking wrench it Friday night if you’re planning a serious Saturday or Sunday run; whereas the Honda owner would probably just wash his Friday night.
Finally let it go in 2013 because it had reached the point where it finally needed that complete frame up restoration. As I neither had the ability to do it myself, nor the ability to pay someone else to do it, I sold it to a gentleman who had the same plan.
What is damn funny is that GM sells a comparable size van in Europe… The Opel Combo… which is… a rebadged FIAT Dobló, and that means the SAME van as the RAM Promaster City… so if they brought it here they would end up selling the same van as FCA…
Hilarious, thanks! I wondered why GM didn’t import/adapt an Opel design.
BTW both the Dobló & Transit Connect are made in Turkey, though Ford has more manufacturing in Spain & Romania as well.
Here’s another one:
Renault Trafic = Opel~Vauxhall Vivaro = Fiat Talento = Nissan NV300.
Renault = GM = FCA = Nissan.
The Van market in Europe is really hilarious. If I’m not mistaken, the VW Caddy and Transporter, the Mercedes Vito, Iveco Daily and the Ford vans are the only ones not rebadged elsewhere. And when a manufacturer breaks up with another, they quickly find a new partner: See VW. Broke up with Mercedes, now the Crafter is an in-house design and shared with subsidiary MAN; PSA got rid of FCA to get Toyota in its place. FCA for its turn joined Renault/GM…
“Trafic” is also the title of a Jacques Tati film about getting a small camper to an auto show…. with the attendant screw-ups essential to any Tati film.
Car buffs will also appreciate Tati’s “Mon Oncle,” featuring the funniest sight gag about a cigar lighter ever committed to film.
The Ford E series is the 2nd best selling van only being beat by the Transit. Yes you can still buy both though the E series will end just past the door so you can add your own body. It will be around for at least 3 more model years. The GM full size twins aren’t going anywhere anytime soon either as they are being moved to a new facility to be able to meet demand.
This is Nissan trying to make the NV 200 not a huge drain on profitability by hoping they can move a few more units with the much larger distribution network of Chevy dealers and GM thinking hey we will take a few dollars for shuffling a few for Nissan.
It’s also useful for Chevy dealers to match Ford’s lineup.
Yes there are some fleets that one a one stop shopping experience so having something to fill their compact van needs is a good idea to help sell those full size vans and pickups.
Chevrolet bowties should always be BLUE .
Period .
-Nate
+1 ! 🙂
My favorite example of the blue Chevy bowtie was on the grille of my dad’s ’69 Impala.
The old ’70 C10 had a big chrome bowtie with a blue insert on the middle of the front of the hood. I agree Chevy should have stuck with blue. It wasn’t a cheap taped together emblem like GM put on the Nissan. You would think the last thing a manufacturer would want is it’s trademark to fall apart. A family member has a ’07 Chevy Cobalt and the gold insert on the trunk lid bowtie also fell off, although it was glued on, not taped.
The last thing a manufacturer wants to fall apart is it’s trademark. Just think what effort Chevrolet puts into the rest of their vehicles.
^^This.
+1
Bow ties on the cars are blue, while trucks are gold. That has been the case for at least 15+ years.
Not on my ’69 C/10 it isn’t ! =8-) .
-Nate
Their all gold now
The bowtie can be covered over. See this MotorWeek
I like the gold bowtie.
Two points. First: before I was writing things online, and back when GM was approaching bankruptcy, it was common to see Chevrolets (with the gold-center emblem) in which the gold was prematurely turning into a slotchy grayish-goldish plasticky mess. My Heavens people, when you can’t get your emblem to last for 12 months, how do people perceive the quality of the rest of your product?
Second: I am with you on the gold center. No, it does not have a rich heritage, but goes back to around 2000 when GM was making almost nothing but bad decisions. Making it worse is the need to make the center look like it Vees out in the center. At least they buried the “fat bowtie” of the 2000s that fouled up the proportions as well as the color.
THIS is a classic Chevrolet emblem. I have no idea why Chevy can’t work their way back to something like this. Are they afraid that Ford has co-opted blue? Ford had blue before there was a Chevy, so there is nothing wrong with it. Look at any Chevy emblem going back to the beginning and you will find a blue bow tie. All cars today are black white silver and gray, and blue goes with all of them.
Or this
OK, just found this. So 1982? Even more reason to deep-six it.
The 1913 seems to almost incorporate the GM square – referring to those two lines above and below the Chevrolet, the spacing seems correct.
I think my favorites are 1913 and 1936. 1969 blue is OK too. But if Ford is a potential issue then back to just an outline, one piece, cheap to make, works with every car color. They did use blue in the first of the FWD Malibu’s in that weird combination logo with the wave.
I think the ’79 Malibu has a yellow bowtie in the centre of the wheel. It’s better than the mid-90’s curse of just molding the logo in the plastic of the airbag cover.
The peel off paint (see my comment above) is available in a couple of blue shades.
Yes corporate decisions can be made on such petty matters. One of the reasons Ford Australia stopped supporting the Triple 8 race team in V8 Supercars allegedly was their sponsor Vodafone’s corporate colour was red…
The Bowtie needs to be blue, though I do own a Chevy product that only says Chevrolet it two places and no bowties at all. It does have a bunch of fancy faux crest of arms on the hubcaps though.
I agree, blue all the way!
Well, GM has had so much poor figurative badge engineering over the years I guess literally poor badge engineering is a logical next step.
I’d never seen a City Express until I walked by one at Darien Lake this spring and went “what the heck is that??”
I could see modernizing your mascot if it were for Uncle Bens Rice or Betty Crocker. Times change and perceptions change and what was acceptable in 1950 may not be today. However all of the tweaking that Chevy does to their mascot is just foolish. It should be blue. Anyone who pays 185 dollars for a black one should be committed to the ha ha hotel.
Ford spent decades in the logo wilderness. Although they kept the famous blue oval as a corporate mark, it never appeared on Ford cars after, what, 1948? I remember when the company began re-introducing it on cars in the early 80s, and 30 years hence, it continues to do its original job.
As for redesigns of the Chevy logo, I imagine it a perfect synopsis of GM’s problems at the time. “Chevy’s not selling as they should? Must be our logo. It makes us look out of touch. It can’t possibly be the cars.”
Fun fact: Ford hired a redesign of the logo in the 1960s. Apparently Henry II hired Paul Rand to redo it, then at the end decided that the heritage of the old logo was worth keeping.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/the-ford-logo-that-almost-was/?_r=0
Wow, I never saw that 1960s proposal. That was just 9 kinds of awful!
In the early 60s, Ford’s standard logo (in print, there was no logo on the cars) in the UK was the “four hexagon” look seen in this ad. I remember seeing this on dealership fascias. The blue oval was pretty much unused at this point.
Here’s an Aussie XL Falcon (’62-’63). The rectangular badge on the front fender behind the wheel is a blue Ford oval in an aluminium rectangle. Like Mopar and their pentastars, for a while in the early sixties Aussie Fords had this badge on the passenger-side fender (sometimes here, sometimes mounted lower), and a totally different fifties-style ‘coat of arms’ badge on the trunk lid. Go figure!
Oops – forgot the picture!
The bowtie just as an outline, might be perceived as being “empty” or “broken”, and that’s why it’s not used.
Apparently (?), no one remembers a few years back when someone at GM thought it would be a good idea to stick small “GM” badges on all GM products….a la Chrysler’s fender mounted pentastars. In both cases the badges were about the size of a dime.
I remember the little GM badges well. If I recall correctly the decision to put them on was driven by the same logic that led Acura to drop actual car names in favor of meaningless letter jumbles. Buyers supposedly couldn’t trace their “Legend” or “Chevrolet” back to the parent company. I don’t buy it, but then again I’m not an auto executive.
I think in GM’s case, that they (GM) wanted other (Toyota?) owners to see that the parent company (GM) builds an assortment of brand names. My SRX had one (click on the picture for a larger view).
British Leyland did the same thing, with this, which looks exactly like your bath water running out
Going down the drain, how appropriate.
I like the 1913 bow tie proportions and Chevrolet font. But regarding blue … isn’t blue just associated too much with Ford at this point? Ford fans “bleed blue” and Ford factory racers are members of the “blue team”, etc. I vote for chrome, and keep the shape constant until forever.
Actually, blue is now(was recently) being associated by non-U.S. brands with eco-friendly….usually diesel powered, vehicles. Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and at least 1 other brand who’s name escapes me (VW?) use Blue-Tec when describing their eco-friendly cars.
Toyota uses a blue “shadow” for their logo on hybrids.
I just nominated this van for “Worst New Vehicle Sold in the US Today”. The City Express/NV200 twins are a whole lot worse than the RAM and Ford small commercial vans, despite being priced about the same. The whole thing sits on the bones of a 2007 Nissan Versa. That alone should tell you everything you need to know.
What makes the Chevy worse than the Nissan is that Chevy dealers don’t know how to sell or service them. There are 4 Chevrolet dealers in Metro Las Vegas. Only a single dealer even bothers to stock the City Express. They have 4 in stock, two of which are leftover 2015 (!) models. That should tell you everything you need to know.
Does anyone remember the red outline bowtie on the Celebrity Eurosport of the mid 80’s?
The 80’s Red bowtie was also prominent on Cavalier Z24’s of the era.
The current raised center logo looks ok, but nothing beats the 1969 Blue Bow Tie.
I maintain that the quality of the badging on an automobile long-term is indicative of the quality of the automobile long-term. There was a run of the F-150 that had some endemic issues (especially the ’97 to ’03 trucks!). Not coincidentally, it’s rare to see one of those trucks with all of the paint still filling in the lettering on the “F-150” badging. Also not coincidentally, these are trucks that were engineered largely during the Trotman and Nasser eras, during which the cost-cutting was thought to be the ticket to everlasting riches.
So to see a new “Chevrolet” with the main insert already missing from the badge? Yeah… Not a good sign.
Worst offenders I’ve seen: Saab, BMW, and Volvo. Long-term quality of those cars? You be the judge.
Agreed. If a badge is to have a coloured insert at all, it needs to remain there and maintain its colour for the life of the vehicle.
Not that I expect a return to cloisonne-type die-cast badges, but for the insert to be so cheaply taped in place (and there are longer-life tapes available to the trade), it doesn’t say good things about the quality of the vehicle in areas we can’t see.
You might be thinking of the ’04-08 F-150s (and ’05-10 Super Dutys), which had black paint in a chrome badge that was known to flake. The ’97-03s, which were chrome on black, seem to be fine.
The TrailBlazer did EXACTLY the same thing.
AS the old Zenith ads would remind us….”The Quality goes in Before the Name Goes On” ??
I’m not sure why all new vehicles have to have a logo both front and back. After 1967, Impalas Only had a Chevrolet script on the right side of the trunk and no logo. All new vehicles seem to need fifteen nameplates scattered on the back, and a belly button logo in the center. I too, like the blue 69 Bow tie but, on the anonymous boring colors of today, the silver logo with black outline as seen on 72 Impalas would probably work best.
I think that the most emblems on one car had to be my 88 Lincoln Town Car.
One for the hood ornament
One between the headlights on each side
One each on the side marker lights
One on the trunk
One on each wheel hub
One on the thermometer on the drivers door
One on the steering wheel
Four embroidered in the seatbacks
16 total plus “Lincoln” script on the front end, the rear end, the dash board and 4 mudflaps. Up to 23 total. “Town Car” script on the trunk, each front fender, and the dash, plus “Signature Series” script on the C pillars, makes it a total of 29. I don’t think I forgot any.
I once had a ’73 Chevy K10. Silver bow with a gold center. I promptly painted mine blue. Problem solved.
Reverse CC effect! I was at the street and thinking of talking here of what I’ve seen. Some of the last Cruze wagons sold before Chevrolet pulled off Europe were snagged by cab drivers in my neck of the woods, and a LOT of them paint the inlay of the logo in black. I think it looks ok actually. Today coming to CC, kaboom: an outtake talking about the inlay of the logo… first time it happens!
The PO of my Cruze put black inserts on the Bowtie, I like the look.
Your Cruze is actually pretty good looking, and the black logo inserts match the roof very well 🙂 Is that Lacetti the one you traded in the Cruze? Wow, that’s what I call a grow up in much more than size from one generation to another…
Yes, the Lacetti was my trade-in, a 1000 percent difference between the two.
Ouch!
Not price, let me rephrase that, the Cruze is a 1000 percent improvement over the Lacetti.
Oh, you’re right. Here most sedans and hatchbacks are privately owned, but the wagons were rapidly growing with cab drivers. Chevrolet in Portugal was actually getting good sales when the old Daewoo lineup was all replaced and the cars became quite good, but Opel was suffering, so they had to pull out. And did at the right time, as Opel is actually going much better now.
Self ejecting badges are old hat.
My mom’s 72 Gran Torino had a badge covering the trunk lid keyhole. It was a big round metal part that you pushed aside to get the key in the lock. In the center of the metal part was this round plastic bit with some sort of art department heraldry in it. I noticed that, before the car was 4 years old, that plastic bit had unglued itself and made good it’s escape.
Found a pic on the net of exactly the badge I’m talking about.
My 08 Taurus X had nice alloy wheels. In the center of each wheel was a blue oval logo. At the expiration of the warranty all four logos were on the job. Within a year, I made a discovery: they were decals. In the space of two years after the warranty ended, all four of the wheel center decals had jumped ship. Most came off a piece at a time so for several months my fancy, top of the line, ride was running around with half a decal before the rest fell off. After I sold the T-Rex, I was giving the garage it’s spring sweep-out and found this one, intact laying on the floor. Apparently the adhesive had been so carefully engineered that it fell off on schedule, in spite of the car being stationary and protected from the weather.
Bad engineering but good quality control – they shouldn’t fall off, but the fact that they all did so so quickly and together indicates that everything was tightly to spec. 🙂
The gold bowtie was introduced with the 1973 models but it took until the early ’80s for it to be used across the full passenger-car line due to a fad for individual model badges in the ’70s. Blue, used on ads, brochures and letterhead throughout, was reintroduced on cars in the mid ’90s. And only cars – the intention was a color code;
Blue – Passenger car
Black/red – Peformance car
Gold – Truck/van/SUV
That lasted about ten years at which point they went to all gold all the time (This is the only external difference between a 2005 Impala and an ’00-04, btw).
In my opinion they should move from the somewhat wan brass/gold to a true, bright YELLOW like it appears in print ads – it would stand out against a black grille and a grayscale car and contrast well with a red or blue one.
If I ever buy a Chevy with Gold Bowties they are getting covered in Blue since Gold is tacky. That is pretty pathetic that the Gold badge fell off so soon, wonder if it happened at the dealership? The City Express logo is quirky, it is growing on me.
I have seen some Chevys with black bowties.
There was a precedent at least in Argentina. A rebadged 1990s Renault Trafic in Argentina was sold as a Chevy.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/notable-eco-cars-old-new-spotted-wild-post-24527-60.html#post442284
We could wonder now if it was a prelude of things to come?
That van looks like it’s suffering a bad case of galloping scriptitis, and from the look of that Chevy badge, it might be terminal.
If they’re so desperate to save money, they could surely eliminate some of those badges. It’s a van, guys, not a car. This isn’t the fifties. Just one Chevy badge is enough.
It seems kind of strange that GM doesn’t have a small Holden/Opel/Vauxhall that they could ship to or build in the U.S.
They do…
…this…
http://www.opel.ie/vehicles/opel_range/cars/adam/index.html
I think what Johnster was referring to was a small van produced by offshore GM divisions.
In Europe, Opel sells the Vivaro, which is a rebadged Renault Trafic and the Combo, which is a rebadged Fiat Doblo. It appears no GM division has a small van it can call it’s own, so, with their existing relationship with Renault/Nissan, it’s natural they would rebadge the Mexican built Nissan for the US market as it is both cheap and available.
I would really like to see the Adam in the US as it appears to be a tidy package, without the excessive cuteness of the Fiat 500, but Chevy already has the Spark, which is cheap,
Yeah…Johnster probably was refereing to a van with his comment. GM is afraid to try and compete in ANY small van segment becase they just can’t seem to get their finger on the pulse correctly. I also agree that the Adam should be imported/built here. It’ll never be a Buick, but would make a decent Chevy and would have been an even better small Pontiac! (RIP)
Oh…Opel also sells the Karl which is a Chevy spark as well. If Opel can, then why not Chevy?
Oh…Opel also sells the Karl which is a Chevy spark as well. If Opel can, then why not Chevy?
It seems that GM US has decreed that everything B class will be from Daewoo. The Sonic is on the same Gamma II paltform as the Spark, as well as the Trax and it’s Buick version.
The Adam appears to be on a platform that Opel shares with Fiat, so it would be an oddball. creating service and parts supply problems in the US.
Additionally, the word is the Adam is expensive for it’s size and I don’t think the GM honchos can get their head around the idea of a B class car that isn’t a penalty box.
Nice little test drive video in an Adam. I like the more purposeful instrument panel vs the Fiat 500’s cuteness, and the engine makes nice noises. It’s increased length also makes it look less like a phone booth on roller skates, like a Smart does, or, to a lesser degree, a 500.
Yes, I meant a small Holden/Opel/Vauxhall van that they ship to or build in the U.S.
Strangely enough, I guess they don’t build such a thing. Thanks for the info Steve.
I’ve always liked this rendition of the Bowtie…
O_O
What do you mean by “O_O”? It’s common knowledge that the City Express is a rebadged NV200.
I’m still with the Brazilian “Chevropel” badge of the early 2000, at least it used to last as long as the car lifespan.
I thought about this one too, but couldn’t post earlier. I’m glad Opels are again sold as such here in Chile. Those rebadge jobs just always looked wrong to me.