550 pretender?
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Charger, Saab & Aston
550 pretender?
I was at my friend'd detailing/services place yesterday getting a wash, and he had sitting on his desk a new GL 550 badge. I asked him what was up with that and he said a customer of his that owned about 6 nice vehicles, one of which was a GL 450, wanted him to take off the 450 badge and put the 550 badge on! He said the guy has plenty of cash and easily could have bought a 550. I'm often puzzled at people who look upon having a nice vehicle as "not good enough" and then try and make it something else. One of my close friends does this all the time on his Benz or Porsche cars and I find it comical. I guess 99% of the people out there don't know enough that it's a fake and wouldn't be impressed anyway, and the 1% that does thinks it's pretty stupid...
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From: NYC/NJ
2022 E53 SG
I was at my friend'd detailing/services place yesterday getting a wash, and he had sitting on his desk a new GL 550 badge. I asked him what was up with that and he said a customer of his that owned about 6 nice vehicles, one of which was a GL 450, wanted him to take off the 450 badge and put the 550 badge on! He said the guy has plenty of cash and easily could have bought a 550. I'm often puzzled at people who look upon having a nice vehicle as "not good enough" and then try and make it something else. One of my close friends does this all the time on his Benz or Porsche cars and I find it comical. I guess 99% of the people out there don't know enough that it's a fake and wouldn't be impressed anyway, and the 1% that does thinks it's pretty stupid...
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'09 SL Black, '12 ML63, '13 SL63, '14 E63 Wagon, '14 458 Italia
More importantly - this is just sad. If you have a 450, be happy you have a 450 and are not living in a cardboard box. And if you (he) can't live with that, then he should know that anyone who knows jack about GLs will be laughing at him as he rolls past.
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From: Houston, TX
GL550
I have an '09 550, and I'm pretty sure it's not as simple as switching them out - the 550 has a significantly larger lower portion that looks like it would require a LOT of part swapping. Anyone know for sure?
More importantly - this is just sad. If you have a 450, be happy you have a 450 and are not living in a cardboard box. And if you (he) can't live with that, then he should know that anyone who knows jack about GLs will be laughing at him as he rolls past.
More importantly - this is just sad. If you have a 450, be happy you have a 450 and are not living in a cardboard box. And if you (he) can't live with that, then he should know that anyone who knows jack about GLs will be laughing at him as he rolls past.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,630
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From: Denver, CO
'09 SL Black, '12 ML63, '13 SL63, '14 E63 Wagon, '14 458 Italia
Obviously my pontification is all IMHO.
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Charger, Saab & Aston
Debadging/down-badging on the other hand is quite common in Europe, where you don't want anyone to know you have something "special".
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