The Time The Simpsons Missed An Opportunity To Show Off Honda’s Only Hood Ornament: Cold Start

As far as I’m aware, there has been only one Honda with what we would consider a true hood ornament: the first-generation Accord. By hood ornament, I don’t just mean a badge with the Honda logo, however large; a hood ornament is an object that is attached to a car’s hood, bearing the logo or mascot of the maker, and is elevated in some way. It has height, and structure, doesn’t just lay flat against the hood, which is what those lazy badges to. Long-running animated show The Simpsons once featured a quite accurate Honda Accord, and yet, despite it being integral to the plot, replaced the expected hood ornament with a badge, a dirty, common badge!

Well, the imprint of a badge, at least. Still, let’s look into this, and try and answer why.

First, here’s a 1979 Honda Accord – the car featured in the episode (Season 8, episode 7, Lisa’s Date with Density)– with the expected hood ornament:

…and here’s what that hood ornament looks like up close:

It’s a simple ornament, yes, a sleek little chrome wedge with the stylized Honda “H” at the front face, but it’s definitely a hood ornament. You can compare it to Honda’s predecessor to the Accord (at least when it comes to larger cars and not little things like the N600), the Honda 1300, which has a prominent yet flat badge:

Interestingly, in most of the markets Honda served, the four-door Accord sedan had the hood ornament as well as the hatch:

…but not in the American market! For whatever arcane reason, US-spec Accord sedans lacked the hood ornament of the hatch:

This, of course, brings us back to our Simpsons conundrum. In the scene we need to discuss, Superintendent Chalmers is showing off his recent purchase of a used 1979 Honda Accord to Principal Skinner, explaining that the salary of a superintendent allows for the purchase of both food and a car:

Of course, the punctum of the scene is that his Honda’s branding – that chrome “H” –  has been stolen. And what’s the point of driving a Honda if you can’t show it off, laments the Superintendent. But the issue here is that instead of the expected hood ornament. there appears to have just been an H badge on Chalmers’ car!

And it’s not like the Simpsons animators were sloppy here: that’s a very well-rendered ’79 Accord there, and aside from some issues with the coloring, it’s pretty damn accurate. Except for the hood ornament.

I suspect why they chose this is so that the imprint left by the badge would be an obvious “H,” where the trapezoidal footprint of the actual ornament wouldn’t have conveyed this as well. I understand why they chose to do this, but, as a car dork, I’m legally required to point out the discrepancy.

It’s not an easy job, but it must be done.

That’s also why I need to point out this:

In an effort to replace the Honda badge, Skinner and Chalmers attempt to steal the “H” badge from a Hyundai, one owned by the confusingly-aged Kearney Zzyzwicz. Kearney’s Hyundai is confusing, because it appears to be a Hyundai Pony (above, in greige), when the first Hyundai imported into America was the Excel, in 1986, and seen above, in red.

These Hyundais lacked an “H” badge, but we can forgive that for the sake of the plot; but why is it a Hyundai that was never imported into America? Did Kearney, say, import a Canadian-market Pony? If so, why? What other secrets is Kearney hiding?