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Anyone debadged their hatch yet?

1750 Views 29 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  blairellis, 
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While I’m proud that I have an elite, and it’s my first new car ever, I also don’t need the world to know. I don’t want to come across as pretentious (like some have said the MDX forum members are). I feel like I would like the clean look of not having elite and awd text on the back hatch. I think for sure I’m going to replace the Honda H emblem with a black one to match the color of the car and the Pilot lettering. Didn’t know if anyone has done it yet and wanted to share a picture.
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Interesting thoughts. Personally I wouldn't worry about it too much...I don't think anyone is gonna accuse you of being pretentious for choosing the Elite trim. I would say 99% of the people walking by or driving around you probably don't even notice, or even worse are texting while driving. Do as you wish of course. It's not like you are adding a bunch of bodywork and sh&t to your new Type-S MDX and painting the brake calipers bright red and whatever else is going on over there :)
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MY_ELITE_2023_PILOT said:
I thought you were looking for a picture of the black emblem. "I think for sure I’m going to replace the Honda H emblem with a black one to match the color of the car and the Pilot lettering". I misunderstood. I don't think anyone is pretentious for buying Elite. I drove an 05 MDX touring for the last 15 years (loved that vehicle) and plan to drive this Pilot as long. Since I plan on keeping long term, I wanted all the available features, including the heated steering wheel, and larger display 😉
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I agree. Really happy I decided to splurge on the Elite. Anyone following my earlier posts would know I was initially going to go EXL, but then I decided what the hay. I'm sure I would like EXL too, but I am loving all the extra bells and whistles on the Elite and for once I will not have to worry about little mental naggings ("could have had X or Y feature, but that's okay, I didn't really NEED that feature, etc") over my long ownership of this car.

I think nearly anyone out there will just look at your car as a Honda, and most people don't really know all the different trims, and even if they did, it is still just a Honda. If you saw some dude getting out of a Kia "Prestige" or whatever trim (I'm making that up, I have no idea what their trims are called) I doubt you would be like "what an arrogant M-fer". If you saw some dude getting out of a bright pink Lambo convertible, you might!

If you just like the "debadged look" then go for it (I know it is sort of a thing they do in Europe or at least it used to be a thing) but don't do it because you are worried someone will think you're flexing!
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keangabriel0830 said:
Mine, I am planning to debadge the Elite emblem and change it to Black Edition.
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Maybe given all my issues with the Acura dudes I should just change out for an Acura emblem in the rear haha
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blairellis said:
Honestly, I hate the term.
It just has this, "I'm better than you are" feel to it or when you talk about the high society "Elites".
I am probably just reading too much into it, but it just rubs me the wrong way. I wish they would have made the "Touring" name the top of the line and done away with Elite.
Probably going to try and remove the Elite and AWD from the hatch in the next couple of days. I'll do the H emblem later on down the road. The chrome just looks so out of place on a black car.
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Funny! Although I guess you are correct, you can't get much more "Elitist" than slapping "Elite" on the back of your car haha. I just think people will know that is just the Honda name and not something that YOU chose to do. Now all the people with that bumper sticker that says "My Child is an Honor Student at Snobsville Prep HS" should definitely feel embarrassed about the choice they made to put that on their car haha!

Funny also that my 15yr old son keeps questioning why "Touring" is an upper trim line (we are looking at Accords right now) - he is like "I know what Elite means and I know that means we got a loaded car, but what the heck does Touring mean???"
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blairellis said:
I knew that was the case with older Honda’s from back in the day. Didn’t know it was still a thing. My guestimate is that it is a “locating nub” (technical term) so it doesn’t get installed crooked. Excuse to do the black version I guess. I will likely leave the Pilot lettering since it’s subdued and blends with my black car color.
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Is the Pilot lettering just stuck on with adhesive?

I will probably leave mine on too as it doesn't clash much with the otherwise black car. But it was one of my styling gripes when the 23 Pilots were first revealed
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Ahh Blair you did it! You can now fit in the world with the common folk and their base model cars haha 😂

I remember many years back when I wanted to get a BMW and my wife was literally embarrassed to drive it around. For the first couple months. Even though I told her it cost less than lots of other Chevy SUVs etc driving around (it was a 325xi). Now she still pines for that car haha
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