So I drive a Mazda3.  We’ve had it for a little over 2 years now and it’s been a great little car.

But, “Mazda3” is only the American name for the car; it’s sold in Japan under the name “Axela”.  I actually considered going into a Mazda dealership, the last time I was in Japan, to pick up some swag, but didn’t.

Anyway, so there’s a guy in our apartment complex who also has a Mazda3, only his has an “Axela” badge on it in addition to the Mazda3 badge.  I noticed this a couple of weeks ago, and I had envy.  Not envy enough to, you know, rip it off or anything, because I have Standards, but envy.

Then I googled it, and found an online Mazda parts shop that was more than happy to sell me a “Genuine Mazda Part” Axela badge for a mere 25 bucks.

This seemed excessive.

On the other hand, if I wasn’t all that fussy about it being a “Genuine Mazda Part”, I could get one off eBay for $3, which of course was all kinds of moral conflict for about 2 minutes.

I should probably feel bad about that, but I don’t.

Now I just have to wait for it to stop raining and I can slap it on the back of our Mazda3 in order to, I dunno, impress people who actually notice these kinds of things, which is pretty much nobody.