No Label, Please

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31232, 2 December 1966, Page 11

No Label, Please

P*AR manufacturers seem obliged to stick a growing proliferation of chrom-ium-plated names, insignias and other badges to the bodywork of their products, and it is time someone protested against the trend, writes John Langley in the “Daily Telegraph.” “Companies which would reject out of hand even worthwhile improvements costing more than about lid on the

ground of expense are quite happy to clutter up the lines of their cars with several shillings worth of unnecessary brightwork. The tendency seems most marked on the “super de luxe” versions of the more expensive family models, although some of the more exclusive cars also seem to suffer from the disease. “When I am following the Blogsmobile Super Sport

2400 G.T. I am not really concerned as to whether or not it is ‘de luxe’ or even ‘automatic.’

“But I do know that the chromium-plated lettering plastered so liberally over the paintwork is difficult to clean, ruins sponges, goes rusty if neglected, creates rust-traps where ‘it is attached to the bodywork and probably will be prised off by a small boy with a penknife before the car reaches the breaker’s yard anyway.

“The latest Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars are an object lesson to lesser manufactures in this respect as in others. There are no name-plates on the body-work, merely badges on the rear bumpers and the radiator grilles. “With a radiator grille as distinctive as the RollsRoyce’s, further Identification would be superfluous. But a car doesn’t have to cost £6OOO to be distinctive: no-one could mistake a Mini. “To me, an excess of glittering or rusty insignia is an admission of weak design.”