C2thirty

Well, I can only speculate as to whether they actually come from the factory with the badges or not; what I do know for a fact though is that unlike competing dealerships in the US or Europe; there is only 1 authorized dealer in Qatar and its owned by a member of the royal family. I assure you, they don't need gimmicks to sell their cars; Qatar has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world; generally speaking the Qataris have more money than they know what to do with. This translates into marked up prices and to be quite honest I don't think an AMG badge will justify 50 - 100% mark ups in price (compared to the US and European MSRP). What does justify it in their eyes is exclusivity, and AMG badge or not, Mercedes do very good business here. All it takes is a drive through the city to see how affluent people are and as well travelled as I am, I have yet to visit a country with a higher ratio of luxury cars in relation to the population of the country.

That being said, the community of car owners who invest time and money into mods is relatively small; and so I'm sure the dealership don't argue if a custumer who is paying top dollar, wants an AMG badge put on the back. I genuinely don't think the dealership do it to increase sales though. Next time I pop down i'll be sure to ask.