Celebrity Makeover: Eager to Rebrand, Volkswagen Readies New Logo for September Debut

The blue oval. The three-pointed star. The roundel. The four rings. When it comes to cars, some logos are more identifiable than others, but Volkswagen’s glistening chrome emblem ranks near the top of the easy recognition chart.

It’s classic, simple, and maybe a little dusty. Which is why VW plans to change it.

While reports arose last year of a looming, “colorful” change to the highly visible logo, we now have a better idea of what to expect when the automaker shows its new face in Frankfurt next month.

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The Mid-Engined Corvette Has a Name, and It's Called Stingray

Chevrolet is finally going to show us the all-new, mid-engined Corvette later this week at a live event in California. Yes, the car actually exists. In anticipation of this reveal, and to build more hype for one of the most hyped-about cars in existence, Chevy is releasing C8 teasers throughout the week.

Today’s teaser was the name of the car. It’ll be the Stingray.

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Is That An Illuminated Mercedes Logo, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?
For an extra $550, Mercedes-Benz owners will now be able to enjoy the latest in LED lighting technology, now that a customed LED-illuminated Mercedes logo is…
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What's Wrong With This Picture: Dodging The Ram Issue Edition
The de-Ramification of the Dodge brand took another important step today, as Dodge previewed its new Ram-free logo. Similarly, the new 2011 Durango (on which…
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Imitating Chrysler Is Not The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

The Orlando Sentinel reports that “a couple of years ago,” Seminole County’s Lake Mary High School made the curious decision to ditch its previous mascot (now known as “the old goat”), and adopt the Dodge Ram logo as its own. Chrysler only just found out, thanks to a local tipster, despite the logo’s presence on gym floors, t-shirts and athletic uniforms. Needless to say, a cease-and-desist showed up, and Lake Mary will be having to live with “the old goat” from now on. As Chrysler’s lawyer puts it [via Overlawyered]:

As I am sure you can appreciate from your years of work with the board, control of use of a mark by enthusiastic students and parents is quite simply not practical, and I know the school and board would not want to be in the position of censoring student expression associated with the design,

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Ford Pushes Back $7.2b Of Logo-Backed Debt

Managing debt is a most American exercise, and after finishing the third quarter of this year owing $26.9b in debt, Ford is in management mode. According to Reuters, Ford will repay $1.9b of its $10.7b “ mother of all subprime mortgages” revolving credit line, part of $23.5b in loans Ford backed with all of its assets (up to and including its logo) in 2006. $7.2 billion of revolver debt is being pushed on down the road though, from November 2011 to November 2013, and $724m has been converted to a term loan due in December 2013. More worryingly, lenders refused to roll over $886m of the debt Ford requested, bringing it due in December 2011.

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  • Bd2 Let's Go Brandon!
  • JMII Given the number of minor fender benders I see due to people rear ending others I am all for emergency braking via some kind of foward collision sensor. Speeding, tailgating, or messing with phones / screens the majority of accidents I see I just people plowing into others. If front collision braking was mandatory in all cars such accidents would be reduced. Is the tech perfect? No... but human drivers can't seem to pay attention so I guess the car has to do that job now. Humans had their chance but they are just too easily distracted behind the wheel. Both my mother and my wife have been rear ended thru no fault of their own so I'll admit some basis here. In my mother's case it took her several months to recover.
  • Zipper69 " including numerous examples of the Cybertruck"I could only see four in the lead photo, but they are kinda anonymous from above...
  • FreedMike These were great cars, but I don't think they're particularly novel or collectible. You can get a newer beater for that money that'd be easier to keep fixed.Good to see these soldiering on, though.
  • Funky D The only piece of technology introduced in the last 10 years that is actually useful is the backup camera. Get rid of the rest. All I want is a car with that and phone connectivity and zero driving nannies.