Here Are All (Well, Most Of) The American Cars With Illuminated Badges, Which Should Have Been More Of A Thing

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You what I don’t understand at all? I mean, other than every human language other than English and the continued existence of circus peanuts? I don’t understand why cars with illuminated badges weren’t a bigger deal here in America. America is the birthplace of the gaudy, illuminated advertising sign, the birthplace of Las Vegas, home to more illuminated signage than anywhere else in the known universe, and a land that welcomes showy, bold displays of branding. So why have our cars been so tepid about lighting up their badges? Well, not all of them have, so let’s look at the small set of American cars that actually did take the effort to make their badges shine.

Before we talk about American illuminated-badge efforts, we pretty much have to talk about the one marque that has become synonymous with the idea: Wolseley, of Britain. Wolseley had been putting little light bulbs inside of their badges since 1932, and continued to do so until the marque, which had been a badge-engineered Morris brand since the 1950s or so, shut down in 1975.

Wolseley

Wolseleys were used as cop cars in the UK in the ’50s and ’60s, so I bet that glowing badge was a dead giveaway that a cop might be behind you. In that sense, these badges may have done a great service to motorists all over Britain. Also, knowing that these cars tended to have Lucas electrical systems, I wonder how many times a Wolseley driver has attempted to drive home in the dark with only that night-light-level badge light?

I suppose it’s fun to imagine the life of a Briton stuck out on a wet 1960s night with no working headlights, but we have a job to to here, and that’s consider, meaningfully, what American cars had illuminated badges. I think the first real exploration of this concept wasn’t exactly a badge, but illuminated hood ornaments, like what Pontiac liked to use in the late 1940s and early 1950s:

Pontiac

Objectively, these are kind of odd things, these illuminated Pontiac hood ornaments. The illuminated bit is almost always an amber plastic representation of the head of the Odawa (Ottowa) Native American tribe’s chief, Pontiac. Chief Pontiac started a rebellion against the British after the French and Indian war, which included an attempted surprise attack on Fort Detroit. He was a noble figure, which may be why it’s sort of odd to see his orange head grafted onto the bodies of what look like art deco aircraft.

Maybe the first actual illuminated badge-badge would be the 1965 Chrysler 300L, which had a red-white-and-blue round emblem front and center on the grille, and it lit up with a little bulb behind it:

300l

(image from American Torque)

The connotations of the letter “L” may today may make this undesirable, but I don’t think that’s an adequate explanation for why illuminated badges were so infrequent for the next roughly two decades.

Well, actually, it’s not that simple. Should we only consider front-end badges for this? That’s how I normally think of illuminated badges, in the context of grille or hood badges, but if we want to count other lighting, we have to go back to Pontiac, who used badge-shaped rear side marker lamps for the Firebird in 1968 and 1969:

Firebird

And, if we go back up front, what do we think of illuminated badges that aren’t for the carmaker themselves, but rather specific to the model of car? In that case, the 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado boasted two illuminated front end grille badges:

Toronado

These seem like they could be sidelights or position lights, but that job is being done, in a style typical of the time and place, by the indicator/parking lamps. So, these really are just decorative lights.

Things calmed down again in the illuminated badge world until 1986, when the Mercury Sable decided to illuminate the whole front end of the car with a bold bar of glorious light; initially this bar did not incorporate the logo which was on an un-illuminated panel in the middle, but by 1989 lights were behind the badge and into the early 1990s, Mercury applied this bar of light to multiple models across the range, from Tracer to Nautica.

Mercury

My question here is does an un-illuminated badge set upon an illuminated bar constitute an illuminated badge? I’m not so sure it does. I think to actually qualify, a badge needs to be illuminated from within, as we all are with the all-encompassing love of automobiles. Mercury eventually did manage to find the True Path, and by 1997 the now-redesigned Mercury Sable boasted a true illuminated grille badge:

Sable

Man, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen one of these lit up, somehow! And yet if you look at the part, you can see the plug right there for the wires that carry the life-giving 12V that set aglow a little light bulb in that badge.

Currently, we’re in a renaissance of illuminated car badges. Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Hummer, and other carmakers are getting into it as well. What was once rare and obscure may soon be on its way to becoming commonplace.

Modern

While I revel in any attempt for a carmaker to have some fun with lighting, I will miss the challenge of identifying a car simply by its headlamp signature on a dark or even foggy night; an illuminated badge would just make it all too easy.

Still, I suppose it’s about damn time.

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74 thoughts on “Here Are All (Well, Most Of) The American Cars With Illuminated Badges, Which Should Have Been More Of A Thing

  1. I need a ruling from the Judges please. The call is for a U.S. car with an illuminated emblem, correct? However I can find no limitations on the range of light in the spectrum illuminating said emblem.

    Therefore I place before the esteemed and erudite panel, for their consideration, the 2001 – 2006 Cadillac DTS with Night Vision. The infrared light of the system projects through a Cadillac Crest in the center of the grill.

    Therefore, the infrared light bulb illuminates the Cadillac emblem although admittedly the light is not visible by the unaided human eye. However, that ain’t no matter, right? Light is Light, right? Right!

    https://www.generationhighoutput.com/2000-cadillac-deville-dts-thermal-night-vision-system/

    1. I’m not esteemed and definitely not erudite but that example looks like it’s thermal imaging which is a camera that can see heat which is different than how night vision works. But now I’m thinking. Radiators are usually behind badges. Radiators put off heat. Heat is light. And light, as you mention, is light.

    2. but there’s no crest in the grille hole, just the camera. but I’ve always admired those and wish cadillac kept using them on their models.

      1. Therefore, the infrared light bulb illuminates the Cadillac emblem although admittedly the light Emblem is not visible by the unaided human eye. 😉

  2. Here in the UK, and Europe generally I think) illuminated badges aren’t allowed, something about it being advertising or something.
    I’ve always like concept cars that have the rear badge illuminated as the third brake light, an Audi and a Mazda come immediately to mind. I didn’t realise such things actually existed in the US, and presumably elsewhere.

  3. Lincoln Navigator Black Label is a new-in-production car with one. It looks very sharp as you approach the car it lights up, it’s not just for the people outside.

    1. The illuminated badge on MB cars means that it doesn’t have the radar system. It basically advertises the fact that you bought the cheap version. Which amuses me to no end.

  4. Huh… always knew about the 1st/2nd gen Sable light bars. But had no idea that the 3rd gen had an illuminated emblem!

    The 2nd gen Taurus SHO’s borrowed some pieces from the Sable’s front end, but also had to fill in the gaps left between the sable headlights and the ford grille… so they made what the SHO community called “fishtanks” that don’t light up, but some people have modified to do so.

    https://www.ford-taurus.org/taurusinfo/G2/Fishtanks.jpg

  5. Man, the Mercedes one looks like crap even in that press image. They always look like they have LEDs out when I see them on the road, but I think it’s just the 3-D shape of the badge you don’t see all the light at once.

  6. I just ordered black GMC badges for a yukon and there is an option for the front to light up. I was going to purchase it, but then read about it frying the front headlight it taps and decided it was not worth it. It’s also 200+ more than the non-lighting version.

    I don’t know if I would feel comfortable with it either honestly. It makes a statement that I am unsure I want to make!

  7. I worked at a Ford Lincoln Mercury dealer and I’ve seen probably hundreds of those oval-shaped Mercury Sables there and just in the wild and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with an illuminated badge. Madness

  8. IIRC Tracer lightbar didn’t light up, only Sable and Villager did. Tracer and Topaz was decorative, a feckblende.

    For seeing the Mercury logo lit up, I think it would take a certain alignment of planets (pun intended) to be able to notice it. The lightbar you could tell is on even in daylight, but the logo seems like it would only really be noticeable in dim light, and it was a 1 in 123,000 chance of seeing a 1996 Sable (according to my Standard Catalog of American Cars), let alone in the dark, and assuming it’s working at all. We just have to make accept that we may never see a working 1996 Mercury Sable light up logo.

    The Pontiac Sunfire Daytime Running Logo was mentioned below, Pontiac also flirted with the front lightbar on the first W-body Grand Prix sedan, although some years those lights were foglights on upper trims.

    I think most illuminated front badges as seen today look kinda cheap. I could see Hyundai adding the “H” Morse code dots somewhere and illuminating those but that will look more like an accent light and not really replace the H logo.

    With make/model names being spelled across the back again, and more heckblende type panels, seems like we’re due for someone illuminating the lettering.

      1. Nice! I remember hearing of how people did similar with gen-2 SHOs that had Sable headlights but the little fake light fillers between the “grille” and the headlight. Also now wondering how a Grand Marquis would have looked with a light bar (which would’ve flopped given how its more conservative style kept it successful against the Crown Vic when they went aero).

      1. While not a dealer option, there are also ones for the Ford logo. In fact, there are ones for the F150/250/350/450 fender badges as well.

            1. Sadly, there are laws against having a red light displayed forward. Some people in the 94-96 Impala community played with a red light-up bow tie in the grill. Kinda got its start when Moss adorned the prototype w/ a red bow tie. Lots of people put red reflective tape to outline the bow tie.

  9. So we had an event at work a couple of years ago that involved Circus Peanuts being purchased to give away. After the event, they ended up in the break room, obviously for anyone to take. Normally, you could put damn near anything in that break room – ten day old chicken salad, the crappy leftover Halloween candy no kid would eat, butter popcorn flavor Jelly Bellys, and it would be gone in an hour. The Circus Peanuts just sat on the counter. Week after week after week.

    And yeah, those newer illuminated badges are just a bit too much.

  10. Even as a kid I thought the Firebird side marker BADGES were way cool.
    I also remember seeing a few of the older Pontiac hood ornaments that lit up as well.
    Such a shame that GM fucked Pontiac like that and shut them down. Killing Olds or GMC would have been a better call to me. Pontiac actually built some really cool cars back before the days of The Carter administration.

    1. Hey, as a kid I remember the family ’50 Pontiac. Ours, being the base level, didn’t have the illuminated hood ornament. But some others did. I don’t think that I thought it was particulary cool, but did notice the difference. I’d like to remember that I thought “poseurs” but probably didn’t.

      It got replaced with a used ’55 Chrysler Windsor, which was a piece of crap, although nice interior.

    2. IMO, they should have killed Buick but the apparently the Chinese market kept it alive. Buick is about as worthless as Chrysler in the US market these days.

      Of course, I’m not sure what “fun” Pontiac would be coming out of the current GM lineup either. A Trax with a double kidney grill? Driving excitement baby!

  11. “…does an un-illuminated badge set upon an illuminated bar constitute an illuminated badge?“

    No. That would be like calling a housefly on a lightbulb a firefly. That’s just an insult to fireflies everywhere.

  12. I’m gonna go ahead and count the Thunderbird logo on it’s tail lights because, screw your made up rules.
    The ‘66 had it dead center on the (unilamp?) tail lights. They even made it more distinguished by surrounding it with a rectangle of clear lens and dedicated a bulb to it.
    It’s been a long while since I’ve staggered into my nearest lamplighter bar, drunk on exhaust from caring too much about tail lights and getting too close to them too often , so I don’t know if they are still arguing about this in those seedy places these days.

    ‘66 Thunderbirds had an illuminated badge. I’ll die on this hill, and I’ve got the bar brawl scars to prove it.

  13. Mercury was all that for a bit when they combined with the glass that appeared to wrap around in the back with the entire lighted front end on Sable.

    Funny on the 300 L, I drove one about ten years ago (best described as a very roomy, civilized kick in the pants) and didn’t realize it had that.

    1. So many shitboxes basically have red and blue headlights these days I’m pretty sure you could get away with comparatively quite subtle red H, and it would look amazing.

  14. This article reminded me how I’ve never actually seen an 80s Sable with the light bar up front lit. It always looked like it *should* light up, but I never knew if it was supposed to light up. Neat! That’s not a bad detail, and really kind of ahead of its time.

    1. If I remember correctly, there was an issue with the light bar part with how it was wired or the bulb contacts that would cause it to fail. And the replacements became scarce and expensive.

      The thing was an issue in New Hampshire, where apparently it caused a conundrum in the inspections department which demanded that all lights must work for a car to pass inspections, which technically included decorative lights if the factory put them there. But the parts became, for all practical purposes, unobtainable as a normal repair. So they had to give 80s Sables a special pass.

      As for the illuminated 90s Sable badges, I don’t recall ever seeing one really working, and I suspect the inspectors in NH didn’t notice them either; I never heard about any issues over them. But it technically could have caused Sables to fail inspections. But then again, one of the bigger proponents of the inspection system there is the ownership of a Ford/Mercury dealership franchise, so it probably wasn’t gonna happen… (Of course, there’s probably somebody out there with a story of just that happening to their Sable; nothing would surprise me coming from that inspection system.)

  15. Does it have to be badges?

    As a Gen-Xer, I’m immediately reminded of Pontiac’s ’80s-tastic illuminated PONTIAC on the rear decklids of its sportiest cars. Lasted into the 2000s IIRC, on the Sunfires.

    And that the effect was accomplished by using the light from the license plate lamps makes them doubly cool. And prone to half burning out, which makes them Pontiac.

    1. I remember those Pontiac logo lights half burning out as well. You were left with either “PONT” or “IAC”. It would have been a great marketing tool, like Kia’s KN logo, but with the internet in its mainstream infancy, there were probably few that were able to search “PONT car” or “IAC car”

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