It's a bowtie, not really sure what it is supposed to symbolize though.

 

Oh...

 

It's not just a T - it's all of the shapes of the letters in the word TOYOTA combined into a stylized logo.

T - already pointed out.
O - the outer circle
Y - the half circle in the middle combined with the two vertical lines
A - the two vertical lines converge at the top to form the point of the A with the horizontal line crossing them in the middle.

 

Mazda started with a different stylized M logo first:


or


Then they went to what I'd call a "tonsil" logo:



Finally settling on the "flying seagull" logo:

 

the flying seagull is still a stylized M It's an M inside of a circle, basically

The tonsil logo was an (`) looking M

 

To add to what others have said, remember the Previa, their egg-shaped van? Then look back at the logo. You can see that they have a similar "once futuristic" look.

-Chase

 

[quote name='Fast Shadow' date='Feb 21 2005, 05:55 PM'] It's not just a T - it's all of the shapes of the letters in the word TOYOTA combined into a stylized logo.

 

Quick net search yields this...

In 1914, the Chevy "bowtie" logo appears for the first time. Legend maintains that the bowtie shape was inspired by a pattern of wallpaper in a Paris hotel room. In 1908, William Durant reportedly detached a small piece and kept it in his wallet, waiting for the day he

 

"Tonsil" eh?

Most people I know call it something a lot worse than that

 

It all depends on who you ask...

To engineers, it's 3 perfrectly aligned elipses that signifies (engineering) precision.

To business folks, it signifies (taking over) the world... and an obscured $ sign.

To liberal art folks, the circles signifies unity/community.

As for those who think it's a "T", they have elementary-level education. J/K