[GTO]

Originally Posted by mayanksabharwal

Here is the real story according to Rushlane

Originally Posted by OSH

Another explanation of the complete story

Thanks for sharing, but I find both stories a bit hard to believe. How is it possible that so many buyers of the car didn't do a basic check of the paperwork?

Sure is a weird car with an even weirder background.

[The Rationalist]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for sharing, but I find both stories a bit hard to believe. How is it possible that so many buyers of the car didn't do a basic check of the paperwork?

Sure is a weird car with an even weirder background.

GTO, the place where this whole fiasco happened is the biggest used car market deal place in Kerala. It's the Meccah of used cars and used car dealers! These guys procure cars from Delhi and Mumbai on a regular basis. I'm sure the buyers are also not vigilant like bhpians.

My first used car which was bought within 6 months didn't have original tax invoice, only a photostat. Due to the red tapes of getting a duplicate copy I used the car for 14 years with that!

In my 2 decades of driving and owning cars I have only once been asked for an RC, but quite a number of times for driving licence. The checks are mostly on two wheelers and for driving licence and petty stuff. Police hardly have the manpower to do a thorough check up.

[SILVERWOOD]

There is a reason why all the details of the car (Model,Manufacturer,Colour, Seating capacity) is mentioned on the RC.

Department of Transport (RTO/RTA/MVD) are empowered to seize your vehicle if you make any changes without prior permission.One needs permission even to change the colour of the vehicle and it has to be endorsed on the RC.

[audioholic]

I wonder what they did to the interiors to make it look like a Mercedes A Class. How could they replace the instrument cluster and dashboard as well, since the TFT display on the cluster displays Suzuki. Or even if its the low end version, there would still be the steering wheel which is the same across many Maruti Suzuki models. Hence I am not sure if one can sell it claiming it to be an A class. Maybe they stated that its a look-alike while selling.

Regarding paperwork, it is quite possible since some prospective buyers get blinded by the car and the status factor and hardly care about the paperwork as long as they get to drive the car around.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I wonder what they did to the interiors to make it look like a Mercedes A Class. How could they replace the instrument cluster and dashboard as well, since the TFT display on the cluster displays Suzuki. Or even if its the low end version, there would still be the steering wheel which is the same across many Maruti Suzuki models. Hence I am not sure if one can sell it claiming it to be an A class. Maybe they stated that its a look-alike while selling.

As per news report, the interiors were also modified and overall modifications costed 3 lakhs

Report in Malayalam

[v12]

Some more details :

http://zeenews.india.com/automobile/...64533.html/amp

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by GTO

How is it possible that so many buyers of the car didn't do a basic check of the paperwork?

Sure is a weird car with an even weirder background.

Originally Posted by v12

Some more details :

Couldn't possible agree more with you GTO.

And what simply blew me away was this piece of information from the article that v12 has shared:

a used Baleno was modified to look like a Mercedes Benz A-Class and reportedly sold off in Kerala......many on Twitter are admiring the design work even if it was all for fraud.

IMO that may be a good try at modifying a Baleno, but it is the most hideous attempt at looking like a Mercedes A Class.

The engineers at Mercedes must have surely got offended by this!!

[ashwinprakas]

Going through this thread raised a few doubts and I decided to go through the details of my pre-owned G10B Zen and guess what!

[ACM]

While the ABCD story from Buyer A to Buyer D is more logical than Mercedes pursuing this, it still does not explain why the last buyer had to revert to the original look and remove the Mercedes look components, why was that enforced by the RTO?

Either there are two parallel story tracks with the first about the change being pursued by the RTO and the second about the illegal sale being pursued by the previous owners or there is something more to the story.

[freak1201]

Came across this interesting article today -
Wonder what and how the RTO passed the RC and if Mercedez India / Maruti can take any legal action!

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/aut...n-2460407.html

Buyer Beware!