There’s a Honda Civic Badge Hiding on Every GMC Truck Since 1975

Cannot unsee.

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Squeeze too hard, though, and you’ll squirt some lemon into your eye. And that hurts, just like a post we spotted on X (née Twitter). User @TakuroSpirit shared something that is equal parts lighthearted and infuriating.

Now you’ve seen it. Now you can’t unsee it. It’s there forever. “GMC” and “CIVIC” will now exist as one in this timeline and all the others. However, the two brands do indeed share some similarities. 

Bar GM and Honda’s long history of occasional collaboration, both have roots in the Midwest. The current Honda Civic Hatchback calls Greensburg, Indiana, home while GMC trucks and SUVs are assembled in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Texas. The closest plants are just two hours from each other, which is nothing when visiting fam. But do they like each other? Maybe enough to share a logo designer? 

Actually, that’s probably not true. About the designer, I mean. General Motors has been building trucks since the early part of the last century; Honda debuted the U.S.-market Civic hatchback in 1973. At birth, their logos shared little commonality, but there was one eventual overlap. GMC began its look as a stylized cursive signature within a roundlet before evolving into the red block logotype we see today. This happened in the mid-’70s and was a color scheme the Civic logo also patterned during its early years. So, for a decade, both badges were red, silver/white, and black. 

The GMC logo from 1911 to 1947. 1000logos.net
The Civic Logo from 1983 to 1987. 1000logos.net

Then the ’80s happened. GMC left the box but kept the block style with a raised 3D look. Civic dropped the colors and stretched out “V” for a modern sans-serif font. The badge drifted into italics in the 90s before settling into bold, same-sized black lettering with balance kerning.

Which brings us back to “GMC” and “CIVIC” spelling out the same thing. Because do they? They do. Even if the colors don’t match anymore, with a quick enough glance, you’d be hard-pressed to think that wasn’t a Civic badge. Maybe the red “CIVIC” is a new Type R exclusive. And why not? All its other badges are red. As for GMC, perhaps occasionally pretending to be a Civic isn’t a bad thing, especially if your illuminated badge makes the headlights go dark.

That’s a situation where you might as well have lemon juice in your eye with all the squinting.