What’s Your Favorite Car Badge? Autopian Asks

Badge Aa Ts
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As car enthusiasts, we love cars—that’s a given. But it goes so much deeper than that. We love race tracks, we love old gas pumps, heck—some of us have a jonesing for taillights. And yes, some of us go crazy for badges. So what’s your favorite?

I’m not immune to this. I’ve always had a taste for good design, though unlike Adrian, I’m not particularly good at it myself. I like typefaces and logos and nice swooshy lines. More than all that, I like it when they’re used tastefully to perfection. I’m detail-oriented. The little flourishes on a car can make it or break it for me.

My favorite badge is a classic of the Rad era. It’s from the Volvo 740 Turbo, of which I was lucky enough to own one myself. It was a beautiful wagon with exquisite proportions and clean lines. But more than that, the badges were absolutely on point. 

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My favorite of all time. And I owned one!

Just look at these things! A sleek, modern typeface that said this thing was from the near future. A great number paired with the best automotive word of them all – TURBO. When that wasn’t enough, they slapped INTERCOOLER on there as well so you really knew this car had the works.

It wasn’t just limited to the rear end, either. Volvo scattered additional Turbo badges around the body, on the fenders, and on the front grille to boot. Hilariously, the model is joking referred to as the Jurbo, because of the shape of the T used on the script-format badges.

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Awesome badging.
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Still awesome. Still Jurbonic.

If you asked me for my favorite brand badge, though, I certainly wouldn’t say Volvo’s. It always came across a bit old-hat to me. Instead, I’m a fan of the lions. I dig the Holden roundel, but the marching lion of Peugeot really does it for me.

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I’m pretty sure that neither European medieval heralds nor the French artists at Peugeot have ever seen a real lion. Yet still, I rate the badge.

I’ll also give honorable mentions to the griffin of Vauxhall, and the scorpion of Abarth. Carlo Abarth chose the yellow field for the Italian town of Merano, and red as the traditional color of Italian motorsport. The scorpion was because that was his Zodiac sign, and because it fit the brand’s philosophy—”small but mean.” That’s just rad to me.

Abarth Logo

Of course, this isn’t Autopian Tells. It’s Autopian Asks. We want to know what your favorite badges are. Maybe you love Skoda’s little round thing, or the way Nissan puts that special S on the Skylines. Sound off, and lament the fact that you can’t post images in the comments. We’ll use our imaginations. Go!

Image credits: Lewin Day, Peugeot, Abarth

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114 thoughts on “What’s Your Favorite Car Badge? Autopian Asks”

  1. The light-up P O N T I A C on the decklids of certain ’80s and ’90s Pontiacs.

    Always on 2-doors, it was the perfect bookend to pop-ups on the front to signal not-too-distant-future, and I appreciate the ingenuity of having the license plate lamps do double duty. It just encapsulated the silly yet somehow cool feel of Pontiac in those days.

  4. 1960 Impala fender emblem is what immediately popped in to my mind so I will go with that. Something about the flow of it and thought that went in to it appeals to me. The flag rolling in to the jet just seemed so futuristic(relative to the vehicle age) and optimistic.

  5. 1960 Impala fender emblem is what immediately popped in to my mind so I will go with that. Something about the flow of it and thought that went in to it appeals to me. The flag rolling in to the jet just seemed so futuristic(relative to the vehicle age) and optimistic.

    1. People mock the new KIA logo, but literally anything (including “KN”) is better than the previous cheap-ass oval that only existed because they were once a contract manufacturer for Ford, and they wanted their logo to fit into the same space on a grille as Ford’s blue oval.

      And for what it’s worth, I genuinely, unironically like the new KIA logo.

    1. People mock the new KIA logo, but literally anything (including “KN”) is better than the previous cheap-ass oval that only existed because they were once a contract manufacturer for Ford, and they wanted their logo to fit into the same space on a grille as Ford’s blue oval.

      And for what it’s worth, I genuinely, unironically like the new KIA logo.

  8. Authentic: I absolutely love the Maserati trident. It’s the only badge that I think looks better when it’s bigger.
    Fake: A while ago I saw someone who’d made a “Timbo” badge, in the style of the old Porsche Turbo badges. And it did actually say “Timbo”. Hilarious.

  9. Authentic: I absolutely love the Maserati trident. It’s the only badge that I think looks better when it’s bigger.
    Fake: A while ago I saw someone who’d made a “Timbo” badge, in the style of the old Porsche Turbo badges. And it did actually say “Timbo”. Hilarious.

  10. Call me boring, but the Mercedes-Benz 3 pointed star is iconic for a reason.

    It’s a timeless elegant design that is just at place on modern cars as it is on the classics.

    1. Yeah, a R109, R129, C126 with the big star on the front is just….right.

      Equally boring, for a “font”, I’d go with the Porsche cursive Turbo. I think they’ve been tweaking it lately, but the 993/996 cars definitely had the right one.

  11. Call me boring, but the Mercedes-Benz 3 pointed star is iconic for a reason.

    It’s a timeless elegant design that is just at place on modern cars as it is on the classics.

    1. Yeah, a R109, R129, C126 with the big star on the front is just….right.

      Equally boring, for a “font”, I’d go with the Porsche cursive Turbo. I think they’ve been tweaking it lately, but the 993/996 cars definitely had the right one.

  16. Volvo’s Turbo badges in the ’80s with the blocky lettering (not the script as shown in the lead image). I have numerous copies of them turned into magnets for my toolboxes and refrigerator, along with other placements.

    Honorable mention to the individual lettered “TURBO INTERCOOLER” ones from the late-’80s and early ’90s, as mentioned and shown in the article. Even as a young enthusiast I was mesmerized by these new and fascinating words so proudly emblazoned upon the trunks and wagon liftgates of some of the Volvos in my community, and my curiosity made me explore the reasons why some had them and others didn’t. I adore that font.

    My excitement was almost palpable when I finally got to own one (and part of the inspiration for my screen name). Mine was one of less-common 760 Turbo (wagon), though, which was unconventional as the second letter in Volvo’s numbering scheme meant the cylinder count. Since it was positioned as a higher and more-luxurious model to the 740 I guess, but without the wheezy PRV V6 of the non-turbo 760s (shared with Peugeot, Renault, and DeLorean). I guess we can thank the 780 for breaking that trend, since it didn’t have 8 cylinders, but as a Bertone-designed coupe was positioned as the flagship/halo car of the line. They all had Redblocks as the standard engine.

  17. Volvo’s Turbo badges in the ’80s with the blocky lettering (not the script as shown in the lead image). I have numerous copies of them turned into magnets for my toolboxes and refrigerator, along with other placements.

    Honorable mention to the individual lettered “TURBO INTERCOOLER” ones from the late-’80s and early ’90s, as mentioned and shown in the article. Even as a young enthusiast I was mesmerized by these new and fascinating words so proudly emblazoned upon the trunks and wagon liftgates of some of the Volvos in my community, and my curiosity made me explore the reasons why some had them and others didn’t. I adore that font.

    My excitement was almost palpable when I finally got to own one (and part of the inspiration for my screen name). Mine was one of less-common 760 Turbo (wagon), though, which was unconventional as the second letter in Volvo’s numbering scheme meant the cylinder count. Since it was positioned as a higher and more-luxurious model to the 740 I guess, but without the wheezy PRV V6 of the non-turbo 760s (shared with Peugeot, Renault, and DeLorean). I guess we can thank the 780 for breaking that trend, since it didn’t have 8 cylinders, but as a Bertone-designed coupe was positioned as the flagship/halo car of the line. They all had Redblocks as the standard engine.

        1. I mean…how would you stylize the letter T? Feels like that’s an easy comparison and “Tesla” feels like a letter too many to spell out in a logo.
          And either way, they’re supposed to be “minimalist”, aren’t they?

          1. I was always surprised it wasn’t an italic, sans serif minimalist T of some sort, to go along with the design and its iphone-style ethos.

        1. I mean…how would you stylize the letter T? Feels like that’s an easy comparison and “Tesla” feels like a letter too many to spell out in a logo.
          And either way, they’re supposed to be “minimalist”, aren’t they?

          1. I was always surprised it wasn’t an italic, sans serif minimalist T of some sort, to go along with the design and its iphone-style ethos.

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