Chinese police caught rebadging Mercedes as Honda to avoid taxpayer ire

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.