Every badge you pass on the road has a story, and many of the stories you hear about them are only half right. Here are five car logos still in use today, with what their makers and reliable sources actually say about where they came from.
Alfa Romeo: two symbols of Milan
The company that became Alfa Romeo was founded in Milan in 1910, and its badge was designed the same year. Alfa Romeo credits the idea to Romano Cattaneo, a young illustrator who, looking up at the Castello Sforzesco, noticed the great serpent of the Visconti family on the castle’s main tower. The badge pairs that serpent with the red cross of Milan. In December 1915 the businessman Nicola Romeo acquired the Portello plant, and his name later joined the company’s name and the badge.
Peugeot: a lion made for steel
The Peugeot lion is older than the Peugeot car by several decades. The family business turned a grain mill into a steel works in 1810, and the lion was created to mark the quality of its steel products, starting with saw blades from around 1850. Peugeot says the design was drawn by Justin Blazer, a goldsmith from Montbéliard, and the lion was registered as a trademark in November 1858. Later versions placed the lion in a coat of arms that Peugeot describes as similar to the emblem of Franche-Comté, the brand’s home region. The current lion’s head inside a shield was unveiled on 25 February 2021.
Buick: a Scottish family crest
Buick was founded in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick, a Scottish-born inventor, and it became the foundation on which William C. Durant built General Motors in 1908. Buick says its shield was inspired by the founder’s family coat of arms, from the time when the name was spelled Buik. The three shields arrived in 1959, at the same time as the new LeSabre, Invicta and Electra models, and many people read them as one shield per model. In 1975 a hawk emblem launched with the Skyhawk and was used alongside the tri-shield for a time.
Volkswagen: a designer nobody can name for sure
The Volkswagen badge, a V above a W inside a circle, is one of the simplest car logos ever drawn, and one of the most disputed. Many books and websites credit Franz Xaver Reimspiess, a Porsche engine designer, often adding that he was paid a small one-off fee. That story is popular but not confirmed: when another man claimed in 2005 that he had designed it, Volkswagen said the designer was unknown. In September 2019 Volkswagen showed a new flat version of the badge alongside its first ID. electric models.
Cadillac: a coat of arms with a twist
Cadillac is named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the French officer who founded Detroit in 1701, and its crest is based on the coat of arms he used. The twist is that historians say he invented that noble pedigree and coat of arms for himself. Over more than a century the crest has been redrawn many times and paired with a crown, a chevron or a laurel wreath. It was last revised in 1999 before Cadillac dropped the wreath in 2014.
Read the full stories
Each brand above has its own page with the complete history of its logo, its colours and the cars that carried it. For more, see ten famous car logos, classic car logos and how car logos are designed.