I’m driving a 2025 Honda Prologue this week, and one of the first things that stuck out to me was not the extra 12 miles of range gained this year or even the GM-ness of it all, but the emblem stuck on the steering wheel.
It’s definitely a Honda badge, but one that, if I’m not mistaken, the company has not used in any other car since the mid-2000s. I immediately clocked it because it is the same one that’s found in my personal vehicle: a 2004 S2000. Seemingly coincidentally, this same component popped up again just this week inside the newly revealed, production-spec 2026 Prelude.
For reference, here’s a picture of the Prologue’s steering wheel:
And here’s the airbag cover in my S2K:
Now, here’s the inside of the new Prelude:
Finally, here’s the emblem that’s used in every other modern Honda:
A quick check on Google Images says all U.S.-market Hondas switched to the chrome, three-dimensional emblem above sometime around 2004 to 2006, depending on model. Honda nerds, however, will point out that the smooth-faced emblem is still being used in the Civic Type R, albeit red instead of black.
My initial theory was that because the Prologue is essentially a rebodied, rebadged, reskinned Chevrolet Blazer EV, it could have something to do with Honda not having the budget for, say, tooling for a steering wheel mold that would fit both General Motors’ airbag cover parameters and accommodate the modern H badge.
When I emailed Honda about this, however, the company said that the use of the new-old airbag emblem is simply all part of the plan, and the Prelude and Prologue won’t be the last new Hondas to use it. “The new logo, which currently appears on Prologue and Prelude, begins our transition to our new logo design strategy that will appear on future models. The strategy was most recently announced in May,” a Honda rep told me, followed by a link to this press release from May outlining how Honda will use a new “H mark” logo not just on its EVs but hybrids as well. Like, for example, the new Prelude. Read: Future model years of the Prologue and Prelude will see the H change shapes, so it’s dusting off this old badge now because it’ll play nicer with the new one later.
So, there you have it. One surprising and very visible part is shared by Honda’s future-facing electrified cars and the early-’00s machines that arguably solidified the status it enjoys today.
Congratulations, you now have one more fun Honda fact to impress your next date with.
Am I the only one that thinks the first and last pics look exactly the same? And the middle two match. But the story says the first 3 should match and the last is different…
Also, maybe I’m having poor reading comprehension today.
All the “chrome” wore off the old chromed logo on my old Odyssey, so count me a fan of the new sticker logo.
There’s really not a great fix for the chrome wearing off besides buying a new airbag… Some owners used metal paint to make it look a little less bad.
Autopian must pay by the word and the author must have needed new tires for their S2000 because they were part of a street takeover last week and the cops arrested them, so they blew their tire budget on bail.
That’s a better explanation than writing a story about a logo on a steering wheel.
Minutia coverage is the best part of the Autopian. You can’t just get this anywhere.
Amen!
If they pay by the word, S2000 tires must be cheap as hell, because it took about 45 seconds to read this very short article.
You know what this means?
Takata is back baby!
I like the older one better, they should roll it back out on more cars.
First we get the taillights guy now an Emblem guy, what is next? Lol
Door mirrors!
Torch shows a low-volume car, we have to say what production car those door mirrors were taken from.
We need a left door mirror person and a right door mirror person.
Exhaust tips.
Next up on Autopian: 12 Different Types of Tire Valve Stem Caps, and an Exhaustively Detailed History of Each
Our story begins long ago, when Thaddeus Q. Valvestem attempted to shod his velocipede’s wheels with inflated goat bladders…
You joke, but a YouTube video about that has a million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL1gXXba0Kk
Oh yeah, the discussions about the relative merits of different valve stems in cycling are feisty. Presta has had a stranglehold in the performance market for a long time, but things might be changing!
Cool emblem.
Now, give the new Prelude pop-up headlamps and four wheel steering. 🙂
Whilst we’re dreaming, let’s add third pedal, manual transmission, manual-roll-up windows…
And a cheaper, non-hybrid version too. While we’re fantasizing.
I was with you until crank windows. Nothing wrong with them in a basic car, but the Prelude was always a personal-luxury offering.
“Things that won’t happen for $100, Alex”
After 68 trips around the sun and a couple of pretty messed-up shoulders, I don’t miss manual crank windows. I DO wish I could have gotten my ’17 Accord V6 4-door with a stick. I can still manage that. I miss that from its predecessor, an ’01 Jetta TDI stick.
Why manual windows?
I think my disappointment with the new Prelude is simply the name. Like if Chevy comes out with an electric crossover that they call it a Camaro, I’ll know that there is no good left in this world.
If they had simply called it what it is, a Civic coupe, itd be fine. The styling is nice, but that power train? Did they learn nothing from the CRZ? Like, theyre touting the gas mileage on their “sporty” new coupe. Do you care? I dont. Noone asked for an efficient hybrid sporty coupe, still, 15 year later, noone. 200 ish horsepower? Seriously? Let this sink in, thats a similar number to the Prelude VTEC from THIRTY years ago. For example, the Mustang GT, in that time, has more than doubled its power. If you want a sporty coupe, you wouldn’t just buy a Toyota 86, for less money?
And look, im aware that if you adjust a 2001 Prelude for inflation this new one is significantly cheaper, but again, just call it a Civic.
I have some hope that what we’re seeing is merely a base model beginning and that maybe in the future they’ll put the CTR drive train in it. Just like we hoped Honda would put a B series in the CRZ. But that didn’t happen and knowing Honda, I doubt we’ll get a hot Prelude either. OK, rant over.
Just comparing peak horsepower doesn’t tell you very much. How about peak torque and torque curve. I don’t even need to look up either cars specs to know that the new one probably makes 50-100lb-ft more, that comes on thousands of rpms earlier, and is a pretty flat torque curve. I like my Hondas to scream so I would prefer the old one.
And it seems to me at least modern cars are getting more out of an engine with similar HP versus the old days. That’s why a new covic van smoke an old IRoc Camaro
What they are shooting for here actually appeals to me. I think efficiency is a compelling part of a sporty car. Brute power is just boring to me. In fact, some of the things to make this a ‘sports’ car or whatever, actually diminish it’s appeal, like the oversized wheels and the goofy transmission gimmick. I’m never going to waste gas and tires on a track, but something that gives me smiles on a routine journey will get my money.
The name, well, I wouldn’t care either way. The only thing wrong with the late Civic coupe was the childish overwrought styling. A fact that remains with the existing Civic and Integra offerings too.
Tell me more about this S2000.
They are so valuable right now in the used car market.
If I had a same year Boxster and pulled up beside an S2000 and asked the person “What’s the retail on one of those” they would tell me.
“More than you can afford Pall… Honda”
+1! I have an ’04 S2k as well, and though it has a lot of miles and needs a respray, it never fails to put a smile on my face. Definitely curious to hear more about the author’s.
Are they valuable? I was just thinking the other day that I used to notice them, but now I see so many on the road that I don’t even really pay attention anymore. I figured they must have gotten cheap or something.
Well were I live in Canada a 2005 S2000 are twice the price as a 2005 Boxster
I’ve never looked at prices here, but I see S2000s every day. It’s probably my imagination, but I swear I see more of them than Miatas, the last few years.
I am okay with this actually- i liked that logo more in my old accord (the 03-07s also used the flat logo) compared to the one in my 2017.
I’m almost certain it’s more of a cost thing, to have some printing on flat plastic rather than a chromed moulded one. That and the stupid trend of making all logos vector flat.
I can’t tell, is the new/old one IVD and black paint, a more involved 2-step process with 2-pieces of different colors, of IVD over a single piece? Either way, I think the 3D outline part would probably be cheaper. They would both require a mold and IVD for the metal effect, but there would be no paint/masking/insert parts process on the 3D part as the background is the component it is attached to instead of an additional stage in production.
It might also be that a driver is less likely to have a Honda logo imprinted in their face after a frontal collision.