Hoopty

Ah, the automotive rebrand—a time-honored tradition where car manufacturers decide their well-established identity just isn’t working and throw millions of dollars at the problem. Sometimes, it works (we’ll get to that), but more often, it’s like watching your grandpa buy skinny jeans to “appeal to the youth.” It just feels… off.

Lately, Jaguar has decided it no longer wants to be associated with, well, Jaguars. Meanwhile, KIA made a logo so incomprehensible that people keep Googling “KN cars.” But these aren’t the first, nor will they be the last, to completely botch a rebrand.

So, let’s take a ride through history’s most misguided automotive identity crises.

1. Jaguar’s Big Identity Crisis: From Big Cat to “JLR”
   Jaguar. A name synonymous with sleek British design, luxurious interiors, and a long history of wealthy people’s mid-life crises. So naturally, the geniuses in charge decided that it needed a refresh. Enter: JLR.

Yes, Jaguar Land Rover (which was already a mouthful) decided to go by three letters that sound like a law firm specializing in maritime accidents. The idea was to create a premium “House of Brands,” meaning Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover, and Defender are now treated as separate entities. In practice, it means nothing except adding confusion.

Jaguar, once an icon, now sounds like a sub-brand of a major appliance manufacturer. And the worst part? They announced this major shift right as the company is desperately trying to reinvent itself with a new electric vehicle lineup.

Pro tip: When you’re already struggling with sales, maybe don’t make your brand name harder to remember.

2. KIA’s Logo: The Case of the Disappearing “I”
   KIA spent years shaking off its bargain-bin reputation, building respectable cars, and proving that the Stinger was cooler than we all expected. Then, in 2021, the brand unveiled a new, modern logo meant to show it had truly evolved.

Instead, people just saw “KN.”

For two years, search queries for “KN car brand” skyrocketed, proving that nobody had any idea what the logo was supposed to say. The font was so aggressively stylized that even existing KIA owners started second-guessing their own cars.

Imagine spending millions of dollars to make your brand unrecognizable. That’s some next-level marketing genius.

3. The History of Rebrands That Drove Off a Cliff
   Car companies have been playing the rebrand game for decades, usually with hilarious results:

Datsun to Nissan (1980s) – Nissan decided it didn’t want to be called Datsun anymore, despite Datsun being well-loved worldwide. The transition took nearly three decades of people saying, “Wait, so are Datsun and Nissan the same thing?” They even tried reviving the Datsun name later, only to quietly kill it again.

GM’s Saturn Experiment (1990s-2000s) – Saturn was GM’s attempt at an entirely new, different car company. It started strong, but then GM slowly made Saturns just rebadged Chevys. By the time Saturn was axed in 2010, nobody cared, because they were just buying Chevys anyway.

Ford’s “Edsel” (1958) – Edsel was supposed to be a premium brand under Ford, but instead, it became synonymous with failure. Mostly because the name sounded like a prescription drug and the front grille looked like an Oldsmobile trying to suck on a lemon.

4. One That Actually Worked: The Dodge Ram Divorce
   Here’s a rare case of a successful rebrand: Dodge splitting RAM into its own truck brand.

In 2009, Dodge decided it wanted to focus more on muscle cars and let RAM trucks stand on their own. At first, it seemed risky—after all, “Dodge Ram” was an iconic name. But the gamble paid off: RAM trucks are now more popular than ever, regularly outselling Chevy in the full-size truck market.

Unlike JLR’s confusing mess or KIA’s logo disaster, this was a rebrand that actually made sense. Dodge got to focus on the Charger, Challenger, and Durango, while RAM became a standalone truck brand with its own identity.

Conclusion: Stop Fixing What Isn’t Broken
Automakers love messing with their own branding in ways that rarely make sense. Whether it’s Jaguar turning into JLR, KIA removing legibility from its logo, or GM’s past identity crises, history has proven that rebrands tend to go horribly wrong more often than they go right.

Maybe, just maybe, car manufacturers should focus on making better cars instead of giving their logos a midlife crisis.