KIA Badges

[ELI 10]

It's interesting to note that the first thing new KIA owners want to do is remove the KIA Badges from their cars! Me Included

You sure don't find that many VW Golf or Ford Fiesta owners trying to de-badge their cars. There is a HUGE market for KIA replacement badges. I wonder if KIA is in tune to this phenomena; if so they can't be too happy about it. Maybe that is why they put tabs under their current badges so the replacements can't be used without minor surgery...

[cobra259]

The reason they are hard to take off is, they don't want them to come off.......make sense?

[Aegisranger]

I was going to put different badges on the front and rear, but I'm just too cheap to spend the money. What I did was tint them a bit with VHT Nightshades spray. In bright sunlight you can read 'KIA', but it's hard to read if it's cloudy. I've also removed the wheel covers so I just have the black steel wheels and chrome lugnuts because I'm too cheap to buy black aftermarket wheels. The only thing I've paid for is professionally installed window tint. I like the blacked-out look of the glass, badges, and wheels on my white Rio5.

I'm probably going to paint the wheel covers satin black and put them back on.

[Racineur]

Debadgers ashamed of owning a Kia? Kia stigmata??? 0ne of the biggest trend now according to the Kia forums is to debadge as soon as possible your new Kia. Also could it be that, as I stated some times in my posts, that Kia still suffers from a bad reputation, name? What one would have done with my Neon? Debadge it right away!!!!

[ApXWingman]

I debadged my car not because I am ashamed of owning a Kia, but because I like a clean look without the badges there. I also do not like the look of the Kia logo, which is why I am putting on my K3 emblems. I am very proud of my little rio, and I tell everyone that asks me that it is a great car

[marleyfan61]

I debadged my Nissan and rebadged my Kia. I will probably do the same for the next car I have. I'm not doing it out of shame. I'm doing it because I like to be different. I don't pretend to know the motives of other rebadgers.

[Jademac]

I just didn't like how plain the KIA emblems looked, wanted something that was a little different...

[Mouse]

There is no way I would spend in excess of $20,000 on a car I would be ashamed to drive or own.....that would just be insane
I have debadged all my cars because thats what I like to do

[seven7]

If you don't want to drive a car with a Kia badge don't drive a Kia, simple as that IMHO.

I am quite happy to drive a Kia, that's why I bought one.

One muppet in our village had a Vauxhall (Izusu) Frontera, replaced all the Vauxhall badges with Honda ones, why the fek didn't he buy a Honda.

I paid for the badges when I bought the car, certainly not buying some different ones so that I can look like a chav (or worse).

Do you think people are so stupid that they don't know what Kia's look like.

[OzSLS]

I don't have the slightest urge to remove the Kia badge. Those who want to do it purely for the reason that it says "Kia" are obviously too concerned with what others think of them. Most people who look our car over don't even know what it is anyway WITH the Kia badges. I've had two people approach me when I've been washing or photographing it also, saying how great it looks.

Why be ashamed? Makes no sense.