A fine cover-up? Maruti Suzuki Baleno modified and fraudulently sold as Mercedes A-Class, police takes action

In a bizarre incident that has left many car enthusiasts shocked and amused at the same time, a bright red used Maruti Baleno car was modified to look like a Mercedes A-Class and was fraudulently sold to a person in Kerala.

The car made headlines as the second owner had “modified” it to match the standards of a Mercedes A-Class, but it definitely failed to do so.

While the price at which the modified Baleno was sold for is unknown, the owner of the car had modified by replacing it with a bumper, Mercedes Diamond grille lookalike, alloyed wheels, head and tail lamps and a forged Mercedes logo, as per a report by auto blog Rushlane.

A Twitter user posted several pictures of the car:

Quite funny @kerala @Maruti_Corp #baleno without permission re-modified as @MercedesBenz whom ever who has done this going to be a great mechanical engineer pic.twitter.com/N9Mx4eHipp

— Sainath P (@sainathparayath) December 8, 2017

The Rushlane report lists the ownership trail which started when the Maruti Suzuki Baleno was bought by the first party. The first owner sold the car, reportedly a friend of the first owner but the name on the Registration Certificate of the vehicle wasn't changed at this point. The second owner then modified the undocumented Baleno and went on to sell it to the third party.

The original owner/first party informed the RTO after becoming aware of the situation.

The Regional Transport Officer (RTO) of Tirur in Malappuram District then confiscated the car in question. The investigation was started after the state transport commissioner received the complaint.

Just to give an idea of the comparison: A Mercedes A-Class goes for a price of Rs 27.53 lakh whereas the Baleno, which is still in the waiting period if you book now, can be bought in the price range of Rs 5.24 lakh - Rs 8.55 lakh.

It took nearly two weeks to nab the modified 'Merc'. The RTO ultimately seized it with the help of the police from the showroom of a second-hand car dealer.

Even though the car didn’t exactly look quite convincing, the fraudster had made sure on his part that the modified vehicle had the new bumper design that Mercedes is using on all their current generation models with the Diamond grille and it even sported 8-shaped air vents.

A show cause notice was issued to the second owner who is said to have spent up to Rs 3 lakh to make the alterations which were done in a workshop.