One year at a UK sales meeting there was a near riot when one of the salesman's company Cortina's was spotted sporting a GL badge in the car park.
When I worked in the reinsurance industry, the company I worked for in the 80s and early 90s was incredibly status-driven, right down to whether you were allowed two draw pods in your desk or two arms on your office chair. When I qualified for a company car I was issued with a very strict list of vehicles I was permitted. As far as I could see the selection wasn't based around actual cost or performance, it was all about perceived status, mostly around the badging. Very strange. I took the cash option instead, I already had an MGB and a Land Rover IIa, I didn't need another car on the driveway.
It was also linked up with where your space in the car park was - the nearer the door, the higher up the hierarchy. Once you got to Assistant Manager status, you were allocated a numbered space which was yours as long as it was used a certain number of days a week. I was quite pally with an AM who usually walked to work but didn't want to lose his space, so he leant it to me. Caused a bit of a stir but as it wasn't actually against any rules. So among the lines of Audis and BMWs, was usually a scabby old IIa Landy. I occasionally was asked if I shouldn't get something more appropriate, but I had a great excuse: "I live out in the sticks and need to be certain that I can get into work to fulfil my duties, If I had something less capable I might not make it to work!"
