Toyota emblems...

G Luxel

I have noticed these down through the years on various Japanese imports. I am unable to find any information on why they are in place of the Toyota emblem and if it is only confined to Toyotas or other Makes in general.

alias no.9

Looks a bit like the scion (toyotas youth brand in the us) badge, but backwards and lacking the cross piece with the scion name on it.

zilog_jones

Japanese Toyotas have different front badges for each model. The above is the badge for the 2nd gen Vitz (Yaris over here). Some older models ('80s/'90s) just have the model name on the grille instead. Daihatsus and some Nissans are like this too (look at any Skylines for example), and maybe some others.

I dunno why exactly they do this either, or why they're only confined to the Japanese market (with some exceptions).

E92

The proper toyota badge is found at the back and on the steering wheel in JDM Toyotas.

Max_Damage

I remember Toyota had an emblem on alot of European-spec. cars here in the 80's that had a capital 'C' with 'xxx' written underneath it. I think some JDM Toyota's still have it.

That emblem shown above looks somewhat similar to the Scion car brand (also owned by Toyota).

zilog_jones

Max_Damage wrote: »

I remember Toyota had an emblem on alot of European-spec. cars here in the 80's that had a capital 'C' with 'xxx' written underneath it.

That was the Corolla badge... well upside down - originally a C with three stars over it (see pics here), which got turned into x's when everything went boxy in the late '70s. Euro-spec E70s and E80s didn't have this - they just had a Toyota badge on the grille. Dunno about before that. There were a lot of JDM E80 Corollas ('83-'87) around back in the day (my uncle had one, complete with annoying bell whenever you went over 120km/h or whatever it was), maybe you were just seeing them?

Older Mazdas had different badges too - and they were even worse as they had Mazda, Autozam, Efini and Eunos brands in Japan in the '90s.

Max_Damage

zilog_jones wrote: »

Euro-spec E70s and E80s didn't have this - they just had a Toyota badge on the grille.

The Euro-spec. E70's & E80's did have this emblem on the steering wheel I remember, just not on the grill.

Their was also the emblem on the early to mid-80's Hiace vans which was just a capital 'T' if I remember correctly.

We had a JDM '86 Starlet many years back that had no emblem on it at all. Just 'STARLET' written all over the place. I assume Toyota had a period in its history, like Mazda, that it had no emblem for the entire company at all.

Zonda999

What ive just noticed is that toyota, lexus, daihatsu and scion all have the same shape of badge-eliptical.Spose its for different markets....By the way does lexus even exist in japan or was its only purpose to ship americans around?????

colm_mcm

Lexus was launched in Japan in 2005, but all the previous Lexus models were available to buy under different names in Japan.

bazz26

Zonda999 wrote: »

What ive just noticed is that toyota, lexus, daihatsu and scion all have the same shape of badge-eliptical.Spose its for different markets....By the way does lexus even exist in japan or was its only purpose to ship americans around?????

Lexus has been selling their brand in Japan only since about 2004. Up to about 10 years ago the Japs were not really interested in premium badges in their domestic market. Suddenly there was demand for the likes of BMW, Merc, etc because they were rare and exclusive so the people at Toyota decided to join in. These days Lexus cars are built in their own factories and sold in different showrooms to Toyotas, etc in Japan, all very posh indeed.

Toyota are doing with Lexus what VW have been doing with the Audi brand for a couple of decades now. Brand image and perception are powerful weapons in marketing a product.

G Luxel

I think that the Mustang also has its own emblem, a horse. Ive seen a few Nissan March's with an oval emblem inscribed Q'S.
The Present Corolla emblem is, according to the Corolla Video, the full bloom of the Corolla Flower as blowing in the wind...:) Picture is of the Corolla Verso (known as the Spacio) which has just been replaced over there by the Corolla Rumion, a blown-up Bb...