8 of Our Favorite Auto-Adjacent Brands
In keeping with the theme that started with our favorite automotive slogans, this week the Hagerty Media team chatted about which auto-adjacent brands have had the most memorable visuals. Some of these stuck with us over the years because of what they meant to us as kids, others for their staying power in the marketplace, and still others for more practical applications. Let us know which ones resonate with you.
Bibendum!
I love Bibendum, aka the Michelin Man. He’s one of the world’s oldest brand mascots, automotive or otherwise (he’s over 30 years older than Mickey Mouse!). Cars, tires, and of course the wider world have changed so much since the late nineteenth century, so it’s fun to see how the Michelin Man has changed with them.—Andrew Newton
Hess Trucks
Hess trucks!—Eric Weiner
We didn’t have Hess stations where I grew up, but just about every kid I knew back then had at least one vehicle with the familiar green-and-white Hess branding. Eric answered this question in our thread quickly and enthusiastically, so clearly those little toys had an impact.—Eddy Eckart
O’Reilly’s
It’s gotta be the O’Reilly Auto Parts logo, with the three leaf clover. Whenever I am in need, I know I can go there and get what I want. The fan clutch went out on my 1983 Ford Sierra after a 24 Hours of Lemons race and the part seemingly had no match in the USA. But the manager at O’Reilly’s pulled out the paper catalog for Hayden, a cooling fan company, and we found a match (for an E30 BMW).
Granted, I have other parts stores closer to me, and other such stores have more appealing coupons/customer loyalty programs, but the folks at O’Reilly’s just seem to work harder to help people with sketchy cars needing bizarre parts.—Sajeev Mehta
Used car lots
When I was a kid, we used to take State Route 20 on our summer pilgrimage from Euclid, Ohio to Eddie’s Grill in Geneva-on-the-Lake for hot dogs, fries, and Richardson’s root beer. (Eddie, by the way, is still around, and has employed generations of locals since he opened shop in 1950.) Especially out in Madison, the roadside teemed with used-car lots, and I always got excited when I spotted their flags and often hand-painted signage through the windshield. “Buy here, pay here” and their other scrawled slogans meant nothing to eight-year-old me—I was busy scanning the lots of shiny chrome and colors as we drove by, hoping to spot a GTO or something else special that I could beg my dad to purchase. I suppose my answer isn’t any one brand, but instead the kitsch and pomp of good-ol’ fashioned used car lots.
Honorable mention, though, to Mobil’s Pegasus. Its roots aren’t quite as old as Michelin’s Bibendum, but any brand iconography that’s recognizable for more than 100 years without changing is doing something right.—Eddy Eckart
Blue and Orange
Branding-wise, my favorite of long standing has been the Gulf oil logo, likely because I equate it to the Zenith blue and Tangerine orange race cars that were sponsored by the company. That color and the Gulf livery looks good whether it’s on a Ford GT, a Porsche 917K or a Lemons race car.—Steven Cole Smith
Buc-ee’s
I’ll put my hand-up for Buc-ees, the gas-station chain whose mascot is a cartoon beaver with the red hat on a yellow background. Unless you live in Texas, where there are some normal-sized locations, you probably know know a Buc-ees as a gigantic roadside oasis with 100 (or more) gas pumps and a convenience store the size of a grocery. It’s the perfect dose of practical and comic relief on a boring stretch of interstate: Immaculate restrooms, an abundance of hot food and road-trip snacks, plus an eye-popping array of items with the beaver logo engraved, stamped, embossed, stitched, or screen-printed. No, there aren’t any picnic tables where you can eat your brisket sandwich—another subtle hint to keep it movin’, folks! An efficient and memorable stop, for so many reasons.—Grace Houghton
In-N-Out
It’s always a good omen on a road trip to spot one of those In-N-Out signs and its arrow.—Brandan Gillogly
Sunoco
I’m a sucker for just about any bright and contrasting branding that also put advertising dollars into racing. If I had to pick a favorite it would be the Sunoco blue and yellow branding. Maybe it’s because it just looks so good on a Camaro, or maybe it’s just because I never saw Sunoco branding in the real world growing up in Kansas. Either way, the Sunoco colors and signage always catch my eye.—Kyle Smith
Hear, hear, Steven. The Gulf+Porsche 917K on the Mulsanne Straight is the pinnacle of racing imagery. The movie and the Aurora AFX Le Mans slot car set with working headlights I had as a kid in the ‘70s (I can still smell the ozone) both contributed to me imprinting on it like a duckling to its mothet.
Goodwrench today still stirs the image of a black car and a driver that never quit.
Better than Mr Bib. The Goodyear Blimp. It has been an icon and image that has become a part of marketing world wide. It has made small towns gather, floated over the greatest races and games. Even over the Olympics and other events.
They operate 3 in America and one in Europe.
Even most American could not name the fat Mr Bib by name.
BFG TA’s – who hasn’t wanted a fancy new set of raised white letters radial sneakers, at least once – and now i finally got some. ps – rumur has it Goodrich is really owned + made by Michelin now.
Goodrich sold out 35 plus years ago to Michelin. They also got Uniroyal too.
The Goodrich employees calked it Unrich.
You can tell this was written by writers and by either professional mechanics or average car enthusiast tinkerers, because everyone missed the one and only greatest “car-adjacent” brand: Snap-On Tools.
They make the greatest hand tools in the world. They’re still largely made in the USA by an American company. Every single one of their logos has been iconic. Their support system and warranties are phenomenal. Even their merchandise is absolutely beloved. Their reputation among both professionals and hobbyists is unmatched. Everyone either uses Snap-On tools or wants Snap-On tools: their cachet and prestige is out of this world.
Snap-On is the only correct response to this question.
As far as parts stores go, it usually depends on the employees. Some O’Reilly stores are good, some are awful. I tend to prefer NAPA, because some of the parts seem to be better quality and the stores are often locally owned franchises and I’d rather buy from local small businesses.
You can tell this was written by writers and *not* by either professional mechanics or average car enthusiast tinkerers, because everyone missed the one and only greatest “car-adjacent” brand: Snap-On Tools.
Fixed my typo lol
+1 for Hess Trucks!
We are a second-generation Hess Truck family. Growing up in New England, my Dad started getting them for me in the mid-1970s, and we just added number twelve to my own son’s collection.
Love those trucks. Still so cool, and quite pleased we can keep the tradition going.
I decided to go out into my shop area and look at decals and signs that I have on toolboxes and hanging on walls for inspiration in answering the question. And as in all of the staff’s and commentor’s responses so far, I found WAY too many to narrow down to just one, but here are 8 of my own favorites (in no particular order):
– Pennzoil (that yellow oval with the bell image seems to be pervasive when it comes to racing)
– Goodyear (similarly, the blimp is imprinted in any long-time race fan’s mental images)
– STP (maybe the most-used decal in the history of racing)
– Craftsman (not trying to get a ‘best-toolmaker’ argument started, but willing to bet that 50% of older car people have one of those toolboxes in their garage)
– Hurst (maybe not anymore, but the gold standard of shifters in my day)
– Hilborn (in my drag racing days, this name was on 75% of whatever sat on top of intake manifolds)
– Champion (yes, I also have an A/C Delco decal, but Champion decals were on darned near everything except Fords way back when)
– Moon (if you weren’t wealthy enough for Crager mags, you ran chrome-reversed steelies with Baby Moons on your street car or you got laughed outta town)
Yes, I realize that many of these reflect mostly MY racing era (’60s and ’70s), but hey, this is supposed to be a personal opinion question, right? Your mileage may vary. Looking forward to some others and please explain ‘why’ they are your faves!
Folks, that’s a shamrock in the O ‘Reillys logo…Ireland, doncha know.
And if you favor cars from across the pond, there’s Lucas (for all those reliability jokes) and Bosch, for just the opposite.
More because I’m pleased my feeble memory recalled them than because of any favoritism but how about Oilzum motor oil with the jaunty driver’s face on the cans; and the green Sinclair dinosaur?
I’ve got a Sunoco branded basketball that I’ve always thought to be an odd pairing.