Report: Chinese police caught rebadging Mercedes as Honda to avoid taxpayer ire

[cawimmer430]

Report: Chinese police caught rebadging Mercedes as Honda to avoid taxpayer ire



Perhaps there was once a time when the Chinese citizenry couldn't tell the difference between a Mercedes-Benz and a Honda. In today's car-crazy China, however, this is clearly no longer the case. That didn't stop police in Fangchenggang (part of Guangxi Province) from performing a low-tech badge swap on a Mercedes-Benz ML350 in a bid to make it look like a run-of-the-mill Honda, right down to CR-V emblem on the rear liftgate.

Car News China reports that the police did it to fool taxpayers into thinking that the department didn't spend big bucks on a Benz. An ML350 reportedly costs around 900,000 yuan ($139,000 USD), which is a lot more than Honda CR-V, which runs around 200,000 yuan ($30,000 or so). As you may have guessed, the ridiculous (and failed) cover-up attempt by the cops angered residents whole lot more than if they'd simply rolled out, baller style, in the Mercedes from the beginning.



Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/09/chinese-police-caught-rebadging-mercedes-as-a-honda-to-avoid-tax/

[2o6]

Funny, a Honda badge doesn't look so foreign on that ML. It almost looks like a big CR-V.

[Soup DeVille]

A colleague of mine once tried to explain the complex etiquette involved in car choice in China: It is apparently considered bad form to have a car either above one considered appropriate for your station, and to have one equally as good or better than your boss.

Japanese cars though are widely considered inferior to both Chinese and American cars, and they really like full size Buicks.

So, it could be awkward if an underling owned a Park Avenue, and his boss drove an Acura RL.

[hounddog]

It is China, why dowe care?

With that in mind, it does in fact fit perfectly on the vehicle, which in turn, lends credence to my much much earlier argument e vehicle is fugly, in a nice way.   

[giant_mtb]

Funny, a Honda badge doesn't look so foreign on that ML. It almost looks like a big CR-V.

+1

[SVT32V]

A colleague of mine once tried to explain the complex etiquette involved in car choice in China: It is apparently considered bad form to have a car either above one considered appropriate for your station, and to have one equally as good or better than your boss.

Japanese cars though are widely considered inferior to both Chinese and American cars, and they really like full size Buicks.

So, it could be awkward if an underling owned a Park Avenue, and his boss drove an Acura RL.

I find that hard to believe most of my Chinese colleagues wouldn't be caught dead in anything but a Japanese car.

From what I have seen they come here of mind that US cars are unreliable.

I once knew a graduate student that would not eat sushi because of lingering anger over JP imperialism and all that it entails (to put it politely, and despite the fact that any sushi restaurant she would go to would likely be Chinese). However, she bought a corolla, and in an ironic twist it was an unreliable POS, always breaking.

[AutobahnSHO]

Buick sells BIG in China now.