Automakers worldwide spend millions of dollars perfecting and updating their logos. Study groups offer input to help capture that timeless design and color that precisely represents their product. Once approved, the automakers drop tens of millions of dollars into promoting the new look in product and advertising. What happens when another company arrives with a mildly-modified copy-cat version of the same logo? Apparently, if the country is in Asia, not much.
A reader tipped us off to a site loaded with proprietary logos from some well-know automotive corporations, and their not-so-original Chinese, Philippine, Korean, and German... well, look-alikes. Sure, they aren't exact copies, but some of them are close enough to be kissing cousins.
Thanks for the tip, Alex!
[Source: Cartype]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matt Keller @ Feb 21st 2008 7:27PM
OMG! The Chinese COPY people? I never knew! Thanks AB for letting me in on this industry secret!
Also, the Genesis logo is hardly copying. They have wings. Wheeee.
geo.stewart @ Feb 21st 2008 9:33PM
I think rubberbandman was stretching for an article and he REALLY stretched this time. While Jeep and Geep is pretty obvious, i'm not sure the logos are.
Kumail @ Feb 21st 2008 7:28PM
they're all from china. i cant believe that they tried to copy jeep! oh, and they spelled infiniti wrong.
Big Rocket @ Feb 21st 2008 7:50PM
12 are from China, 3 are from elsewhere: Korea, the Philippines (the Jeep example you cited), and Germany.
Quattroporte @ Feb 21st 2008 7:34PM
The Changan badge looks more like a Star Trek badge than Toyota's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WilRiker.jpg
BowserUSC @ Feb 21st 2008 9:41PM
thats exactly what I was thinking
Zlimness @ Feb 21st 2008 7:42PM
Changan has the friggin' Star Trek symbol. How cool is that?!
BYD is probably my favorite. Both Toyota and Inifinity have fairly generic designs, so the BMW-ripoff is in a whole other league of obviousness.
DesiAuto @ Feb 21st 2008 7:47PM
"Apparently, if the country is in Asia, not much..."
Why is it so difficult for you to understand that Asia does not mean China, Korea and Japan?
siddharth s @ Feb 21st 2008 8:08PM
Second that.
Continental Asia also includes Russia, India, Pakistan along with a bunch of other countries. Geography isn't that difficult ... not all asians are Chinese or Koreans... I mean its not like you have to remember 10 or 20 continents ... there are very few continents, learn at least those?
FYI, political map of asia: http://www.mapsofworld.com/asia-political-map.htm
i just hit your wife @ Feb 21st 2008 7:49PM
the chinese will copy anything. ip is not in their vocabulary.
DesiAuto @ Feb 21st 2008 8:00PM
ip is in their vocabulary. What they lack is ip protection, which is present in most of the Asian countries.
MK @ Feb 21st 2008 8:03PM
Those logos had a vague resemblance at best. Somebody got paid to write that?
Chaz @ Feb 21st 2008 8:22PM
Agreed, maybe 2 are really similar enough to be considered knockoffs IMHO. With some, they only really share an oval frame (with Toyota), which could be said for Kia or Subaru as well.
JMC 3 @ Feb 21st 2008 8:12PM
The chinese manufacturers are like the borg from Star Trek everthing just keeps on getting copied until it's exactly the same.Resistance is futile
jsjs @ Feb 21st 2008 8:31PM
Gee, the Genesis logo has wings so it must be a copy of Aston's logo (sic).
So did Chrysler, Austin-Healy, Bentley, etc. copy Aston as well (or was it the other way around)?
Evander O. @ Feb 21st 2008 9:38PM
little or no respect for intellectual property, little or no respect for consumers as demonstrated by unreliable knockoffs..
too many coincidences, how can anyone argue defend the obvious imposter
i'm inclined to accuse china as well cuz the government allows (defends) that sort of stuff
chungdaniels @ Feb 21st 2008 9:57PM
hyundai est 1947.
Honda est 1948.
hyundai came into the car building scene late. why is it so hard for people to understand this concept.
Carl @ Feb 21st 2008 10:54PM
Anyone ever seen this one before?
www.sulmw.com
Craig @ Feb 21st 2008 10:56PM
It seems that the big car companies supposedly being ripped off don't really care because most of them have joint ventures with the chinese carmakers.
For example, BYD sells licensed copies of Daewoo vehicles. GM gets income from that deal. Changan motors (the Star Trek logo) has joint ventures with Suzuki, Ford and Mazda. Xiali is currently in a joint venture with Toyota (the company whose logo the supposedly ripped off). GM dropped its court case against Chery as long as Chery don't export them. First Auto Works has joint ventures with Toyota and VW.
If the big car manufacturers were so concerned about the Chinese companies ripping them off, why do they sell them licenses or go into joint ventures with them? You can't complain about it, yet at the same time support and get profits from the industry in China.
Plus, most of the logo rip offs aren't even close enough to worry about. Get over it.
James @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:21AM
China requires all foreign car companies wishing to do business in their country to partner up with a domestic car company. So, this way, the copycats get to learn all the hard stuff about building cars without doing much heavy lifting.