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I have had this doubt ever since i bought my car, but there was no right forum for me to ask it. Now that i am part of the community, thought i will ask the guru's. Please pardon me for my lack of knowledge or if this question comes across as too trivial.

I own a Chevy Spark PS. There is one variant that costs lesser than PS and there are two more variants, LS and LT that are costlier than PS. However, only LS and LT models have the variant name printed on the metal plate on the back of the car. I am not sure why is PS variant not printed. I dont think it is a cost factor, as this wouldnt be a considerable overhead anyways. I cannot come up with any convincing answer. But there has to be a reason. I see that this is the case even with Chevy Beat. I might be wrong here, but i guess i see this phenomena only in Chevy Vehicles.

Any answers please??

I dont see a reason to that. I hope you are absolutely sure about it. Have you checked all the PS variants?

Is it that since two variants are marked the third one is automatically understood? :)

I think both the standard variant and PS don't come with badging.
Its clearly for cost cutting - much like Maruti Alto LX/LXi comes with stickers instead of proper badges.
Same with new Maruti WagonR - LX variant doesnt have chrome badging, whereas Lxi/VXi has.

Imagine so many cars churning out of assembly lines, the cost savings can be substantial.

Yes TaureanBull, i am absolutely sure on this one. I have seen no car with Spark PS badging or the base variant.

Thanks for the reply DCEite. Agree with your comments. I thought so too. But just wonder how much of a cost saving does it really add. I can understand that things like power windows which is not available in PS, clearly contribute to the price difference among higher models, but badging is something that could have been uniform in my opinion.

Yes, Its for cost cutting.

But it may be noticed that FIAL also has the same strategy with earlier Palio where the EL- Power steering version was badged as "Palio ES" only where in the registration book it was EL-PS.

Thanks shineshine for the reply. Agreed with you say. Cost cutting seems to be the reason behind this

I think the base version was an after thought when there were no sales of the Spark when it was initially launched due to the high price. I think Initially there were only 3 variants PS without the badging and the LS and the LT with the badging. The base version was just a PS without the power steering and the works so this explains why they did not have badging for the lower 2 versions.

I think the sales figures for the base version still continues to be low. I have not come across a person who owns the basic Spark. In Bangalore atleast, i spot LT variant the most. However, basic version of Spark is still a better bet than Alto LXI which is roughly about the same price

I think adding such decals make the rear look ugly. Worst case: Hyundai, i20, CRDi, Asta, ABS - that's a lot of real estate. European cars do not mention the variant. Polo or Skoda, for instance, do not do that even in India. In Figo you find only the Titanium has the mention.

While i read the comments, may i ask what the purpose of displaying the variant name on the vehicle anyways. I am sure there is no legality around it. This is just my opinion and i feel there should be a consistency around this. Either badge all cars or dont badge any of them.

I for one don't think it's because of cost cutting. I mean come on, how much cost can that have? Rs 20? Rs 50?

I think it's just to not give the "this is the cheapest variant" badge. I might feel slightly better if my car says "Spark" instead of "Spark PS". And hey, its not just the Spark. The Beat PS also doesn't have this badging. AFAIK, Chevy only badges the LS and LT/LTZ trims

It's not just with Spark. I have seen many other manufacturers follow this 'strategy' of not having badges for the lower trims. Eg.
- NHCs without the Exi badge (while Gxi and Vtec have it)
- Ikon 1.3s without the 1.3 badge (while 1.6 and 1.8D have it)
- Fiesta 1.4 does not have it (while the 1.6 and 1.4TDCi have it)
- Getz 1.1 does not have a 1.1 badge, while the 1.3 has it.

This is what I also feel could be the reason.

Probably because they dont want anyone to prank the owners by putting a 'o' between P and S... POS.

its simple, its to diffrentiate between various models, in most cars to diffrentiate between a cheaper variant & the expensive one, similarly they do this with body color door handles, rvm's etc on higher end models & black ones on lower end ones

Even Skoda cars have different bumpers on different variants

I think some fix the badges just like a show. In the meantime it is a traditional marking of Mar II, Mark III in Ambassadors since 1980s. Those days there were no much options still they fixed these models in metal. Now also Maruti put sticker only for ABS.