How to Spot a Re-badged or Mis-listed Car

Badges can be bought online and adverts are often written from memory. The factory record is the part nobody can edit.

Badges are the easy part to change

A trim badge costs very little and takes minutes to fit. The factory record lists the package codes the car was actually built with, so a car wearing an S line, M Sport or AMG Line badge either has the matching code or it does not.

Most mistakes are not fraud

Usually the seller simply lists the equipment they believe the car has, or copies it from a brochure for the same model. Air suspension, adaptive damping, matrix headlights and camera packages are the easiest to claim and the hardest to check by eye.

What to check before you pay

• Badge against code — the trim or package badge should match a package code in the record
• Headlights — matrix and laser lights have their own codes; a basic LED car does not carry them
• Suspension — air suspension and adaptive damping are separate codes, not something a trim name implies
• Sound system — a premium sound system has a code of its own; a badge on a speaker grille proves nothing
• Build date and model year — the record shows both, so a car sold as a newer model year is easy to check

Check a car by VIN before you buy

Ask the seller for the 17-character VIN and check it before you go to see the car. For the model-year trap, see model year vs production date.