Car Logos
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50 free Car Logos trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A car's emblem is the smallest part of the design and often the one with the longest story. Some began as family coats of arms, some as the marks of cities, and a few as private jokes or lucky charms that nobody expected to last. This quiz covers the logos and names of the best-known marques from Europe, America and Japan. Some questions describe an emblem and ask you to name the car that wears it. Others name the car and ask what the symbol shows, where it came from, or which popular story about it is a myth. Bonnet mascots and a few vanished brands are in here too. It is written for anyone who can tell one grille from another at a glance, and for anyone who has wondered what those shapes on the bonnet mean. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01BMW's blue-and-white roundel is wrongly said to show which aircraft part, a myth fuelled by a 1929 advert?
A propeller
A propeller spinning against a blue sky appeared in a 1929 BMW advert, and the story stuck. The colours really come from the flag of the company's home state.
Q 02Which German carmaker's four interlocking rings stand for the four firms that banded together as Auto Union?
Audi
Audi shared the badge with Horch, DKW and Wanderer, one ring for each. August Horch founded two of the four, starting the second after he fell out with the board of the first.
Q 03Which horned animal leapt from the bonnet of Dodge cars from 1932 and later gave its name to a truck brand?
A ram
A ram leapt from Dodge bonnets until 1954, shrinking over the years to just a head with curling horns. It came back in the 1980s, and the trucks were later spun off as a brand of their own.
Q 04The original Corvette emblem lost which national banner before production, as putting it on a product was illegal?
The Stars and Stripes
The Stars and Stripes had to go because the US Flag Code bars the national flag from commercial products. When a V8 engine arrived, the letter V in the emblem was enlarged and coloured gold to show it.
Q 05Subaru's badge of six stars shows which star cluster, whose Japanese name the company took as its own?
The Pleiades
The Pleiades are called Subaru in Japan and the Seven Sisters in the West. The badge shows only six because, by tradition, one of the sisters is invisible.
Q 06Ferrari's prancing horse was first painted on the aeroplane of Francesco Baracca, an Italian flying ace of which war?
World War I
World War I made Baracca a national hero, and his family later let Enzo Ferrari use the emblem. Baracca took the horse from his old cavalry regiment and repainted it so it would stand out on his plane.
Q 07Ferruccio Lamborghini chose his company's badge after visiting Don Eduardo Miura's ranch in Seville, which bred what?
Fighting bulls
Fighting bulls from the Miura ranch so impressed him in 1962 that he took a raging bull as his emblem. He later named a car after the family, and others after individual animals from the ring.
Q 08The three points of the Mercedes-Benz star stand for the use of Daimler engines in which three settings?
Land, sea and air
Land, sea and air were the three places Gottlieb Daimler wanted his engines to work. Years earlier he had marked his house on a postcard with a star and told his wife it would one day shine over his factories.
Q 09What name does Rolls-Royce give the figure of a woman in billowing robes that leans forward on its cars' bonnets?
Spirit of Ecstasy
Spirit of Ecstasy was sculpted by Charles Sykes, who used Eleanor Thornton as his model. It grew out of a private mascot he made for the car of her employer and lover, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
Q 10Which American brand's 'bowtie' badge may have been copied from wallpaper co-founder William Durant saw in France?
Chevrolet
Chevrolet first wore the bowtie in 1914, and the wallpaper tale is only one version. Durant's wife remembered him spotting the shape in a newspaper while they were on holiday.
Q 11Which Japanese carmaker's badge is made of three overlapping ovals that combine to form the first letter of its name?
Toyota
Toyota says the two inner ovals stand for the trust between customer and company, and the outer one for the global spread of its technology. The badge has been in use since 1989.
Q 12Volvo's badge, a circle with an arrow pointing up and to the right, is the old alchemical symbol for which metal?
Iron
Iron was picked to suggest strength, since Sweden was famous for the quality of its ore. The same sign stands for the planet Mars and for the male sex, so the badge is often misread.
Q 13Which French carmaker's lion emblem first stood for the strength and flexibility of the family firm's saw blades?
Peugeot
Q 21Tesla's 'T' badge was inspired by which component of its cars, a design Nikola Tesla himself pioneered?
The electric motor
The electric motor in early Teslas was an induction design with a copper rotor, and the badge echoes its shape. Nikola Tesla, the company's namesake, developed that kind of machine in the 1880s.
Q 22Nissan says the Infiniti badge shows a road stretching to the horizon and which Japanese landmark?
Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji is the second reading of the two lines that meet in a point, a nod to the brand's Japanese origins. Nissan launched Infiniti in 1989, at first only in North America.
Q 23Citroën's double-chevron badge is said to echo the V pattern of which machine parts, André Citroën's first product?
Peugeot applied for the lion trademark in 1858, decades before it built a car. The family firm had begun with a steel foundry, turning out saws, coffee grinders and corset stays.
Q 14The rearing horse at the centre of the Porsche crest comes from the coat of arms of which German city?
Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Porsche's home, carries a horse on its arms because the city began in the tenth century as a stud farm for a duke's warhorses. Porsche added the arms to its crest in 1952.
Q 15Mitsubishi's badge illustrates its own Japanese name, which is usually translated into English as what?
Three diamonds
Three diamonds is the usual English reading, but 'hishi' is literally the water caltrop, a pond plant whose name also came to mean a rhombus. The 'mitsu' part simply means three.
Q 16Maserati's trident badge copies the one held by a statue of Neptune in which Italian city, where Maserati began?
Bologna
Bologna's Fountain of Neptune stands in Piazza Maggiore, and Mario Maserati drew the badge from it. He was the only brother who had chosen an artistic career over a racing one.
Q 17Cadillac's crest is based on the coat of arms of the French explorer who founded which American city in 1701?
Detroit
Detroit was founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, and the carmaker took both his name and his arms. The company was formed in 1902 from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company.
Q 18Jaguar's springing-cat bonnet mascot, banned from cars sold in Europe on safety grounds, is known by which nickname?
The Leaper
The Leaper was barred from European cars for safety reasons, yet went on being fitted to cars bound for the United States, the Middle East and the Far East.
Q 19BMW's badge is quartered in the blue and white of which German state, where the company began?
Bavaria
Bavaria's flag gives the badge its colours, and the outer ring carrying the name was kept from Rapp, the engine maker that BMW grew out of. The state's blue and white go back to its old ruling house, the Wittelsbachs.
Q 20Alfa Romeo's badge pairs a giant serpent with a red cross on white, the emblem of which Italian city?
Milan
Milan is where the company was founded in 1910, and both halves of the badge are local heraldry. The serpent, the biscione, was the device of the Visconti family, who ruled the city in the 14th century.
Helical gears
Helical gears with a fishbone pattern ran more quietly, and Citroën bought the patent cheaply after seeing a carpenter working on a set during a trip to Poland. He built a business on them before he made cars.
Q 24Which Japanese luxury brand's badge is a stylised pair of calipers, a measuring tool, that doubles as a letter?
Acura
Acura introduced the caliper badge with the NSX sports car, to imply cars built to precise and demanding standards. It can also be read as a skewed H for Honda, the parent company.
Q 25Which Czech carmaker's badge is a winged arrow with three feathers set inside a ring?
Škoda
Škoda once used two versions of the arrow, one with five feathers and one with three, and the three-feather design won out. The firm began as Laurin & Klement, a bicycle maker.
Q 26McLaren's original badge featured which flightless bird, a nod to founder Bruce McLaren's home country?
A kiwi
A kiwi, the icon of New Zealand, sat on the first badge, which was designed by the artist Michael Turner. Bruce McLaren founded his racing team in 1963.
Q 27Saab cars and Scania trucks shared a badge showing which mythical creature, also the emblem of Vauxhall?
A griffin
A griffin comes from the arms of the Swedish province of Scania. Vauxhall's is from the arms of Falkes de Breauté, a 13th-century mercenary whose house, Fulk's Hall, gave Vauxhall its name.
Q 28Which Ford model, launched in 1964, wears a galloping horse badge credited to designer Philip Clark?
Mustang
Mustang's pony began as Clark's sketch of a wild, running horse for the experimental Mustang I of 1962. Sculptor Charles Keresztes then turned the drawing into a three-dimensional badge.
Q 29The Plymouth car brand, launched in 1928, long wore a badge showing the bow of which famous sailing ship?
The Mayflower
The Mayflower was shown from the front, tying the cars to the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock. The brand was created to compete in what was then called the low-priced field.
Q 30Which carmaker's angular 2021 logo was misread so often that web searches for a mystery 'KN car' surged?
Kia
Kia swapped its old circular logo for a new wordmark, and searches for the phantom brand jumped around March 2021, as cars wearing it reached the road. One estimate put them at 30,000 a month in the US.