that is more identifiable from a distance than Volvo? That diagonal slash across the grille shows up from a long way off- even further on heavy trucks.
Vertical Jeep grille, maybe, 4 Audi rings, blue ovals...but on my drive this afternoon Volvo is king of distance.
Crown Vic. During the day and the headlights at night. Gotta know those :)
Or at least used to. Now need to know Tauruses, lol.
BMW?
Ferrari
Maserati. The clouds of blue smoke are a dead giveaway. :)
I'll have to second crown vic. Getting harder now though, explorers, escapes, taureses, ford 500s in some cases. too many.
Back in my teen years we used to bet on the headlights behind us or tail lights in the distance. Don't see nearly as many Jbody's and K cars these days.
Volvo and Saab are pretty distinctive as far as mainstream auto makers in the US.
Alfa Romeo is pretty distinctive on the world stage.
Vw, expecially at night you can see the amber glow on the drivers face of the check engine light.
i used to be able to tell Saabs from a distance due to the low belt line and high greenhouse... VW bugs are also easy to spot from a mile away.. square body Caprices and Crown Vics used to really stand out, since most of them had light bars on the roof and spotlights in the A pillars. with very few exceptions, new cars all look the same to me.
Don't see nearly as many Jbody's and K cars these days.
Come to my house. I tried to buy a Cimarron at auction in 2014, havent seen another one since. Plenty of K's though. 
Adrian_Thompson wrote: Ferrari
I couldn't begin to recognize one at a distance vs. any other supercar, if it was built with the last ~10 years. Yes, they're awesome cars, I just feel they've lost some identity in their design - but I suppose the wind tunnel had a part in that too.
saab
On the world stage, Lancia is pretty distinctive too due to their corporate grill.. just like Saab, Volvo, and BMW all do
In reply to Streetwiseguy:
People at junkyards would often confuse my VW for a Volvo. As in, I'd be picking up a transmission or whatever, and the guy comes out the building with the trans on a cart and asks where it's going. "That white wagon over there." "Oh, the Volvo?"
Er, yeah we'll just go with it. It's the only white wagon out of the three vehicles in the parking lot...
bastomatic wrote: BMW?
I believe BMW tried to take legal action against Pontiac for some sort of brand identification similarity thing.
No word if Honda sued Mercedes over the C-class coupes that looked just like 5/4 scale Civics.
In reply to Knurled:
Well, they didn't sue Kia for the forte looking like the civic.
Knurled wrote:bastomatic wrote: BMW?
i know that every time i have ever seen a first gen Grand Am, i think to myself "hey, look, a weird looking BMW. that guy has got his life figured out"...
NOT
Yea, like "that car on the back of the tow truck is definitely a volvo". Lol.
Volvo, rivaled only perhaps by BMW. That double kidney bean is very distinctive. Most other cars you're looking for a badge so you know what it is. Unless it's really ugly, then you know it's a Nissan/Infiniti.
Mini? 
Turboed EJ subarus, as rubbish as they are, I can identify them by sound before even seeing one
Knurled wrote:bastomatic wrote: BMW?
Other way around.. GM tried to sue BMW over their grill.. and LOST big time.. not surprising considering BMW has been using the double grill since the 30s
You'll need to log in to post.
