Wear your badge with pride- even if it's a Skoda

Badge prejudice is rife and a shining beacon of blessed ignorance. With so many cars sharing parts, being built in far away places not served by Thomas Cook and in the ownership of consortiums whose board meetings that look like throwing out time at the United Nations, there is no way you can be too fussy about your motor’s international content.
The truly xenophobic can, of course, always by a Bristol, hand crafted in the West Country by Mr Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Now Vauxhall has redesigned the Griffin badge to bring the mythical beast up to date. It will first appear in the Insignia at July’s Motor Show.
This will have cost a pretty penny so is it worth it?
Damn right.
Skoda made some of the best cars for the money you can buy. In fact don't know why anyone buys a VW where there is an equivalent Skoda product.
Oh, yes I remember, because when your neighbour sees the big, green Skoda roundel he will think you have been demoted at work.
Can you bring to mind the Mazda seagull-in-flight badge? Bet you can’t remember when they changed it from something that looked like the flame in Ali Baba’s lamp.
Rover couldn’t sell the 25, mainly because it was as up-to-date and hose and doublet, but when they put some skirts and an MG badge on it they could even sell it at a profit!
Even the shape of badge matters. Take note of how strikingly, tastefully, similar the Porsche and Ferrari badges are. And how overbearingly bullish the BMW motif is, two inches from your rear bumper.
The ultimate badge tribute, though, has been paid to both Mercedes and VW.
You know you’ve made it when you are an icon of street-cred neck jewellery.