I had the same kind of conversation with an employee of ours. I mention that my car (internally) is really a Benz and that any work to be done on it probably won't be cheap, like his Mitsu Eclipse. He doesn't quite believe me and makes a comment of, "Well since Mitsubishi is partially owned by DC, I don't call my car a Benz".

I'm like "Listen you fool, my car was made in Germany in the same production line as the SLK and other Benz's". "Also, my brakes and internal tubing have the 3-pointed star". It took like 2 weeks before he understood that my car is a re-skinned SLK.

I was glad however when I went to get my oil changed at a local place the guy immediately knew of the MBZ parts and said not to look it up under Chrysler for part numbers.

Non-car people are fools and it's hard to carry on a legit small-talk convo if they have no knowledge of what they're refuting.