Many private car owners in Shenzhen were buying badges of well-known auto brands to decorate their own cars, the Daily Sunshine reported Monday.

They are usually owners of domestically made cars, who want to make their cars look more expensive and deluxe.

A Miss Liu, who bought a Vitz recently, admitted she bought a Toyota logo to put on her car at a cost of only a few dozen yuan.

"I think the Vitz logo was not good looking," she said. "What's more, it makes me lose face."

Liu said it was quite easy to buy a new logo of any imported car from a local auto parts store.

But some drivers said they just did it for fun.

A car parts store owner, said Mitsubishi, Toyota and Benz badges cost no more than 100 yuan (US$12).

The city's car administrative department said cars with other brand badges would not pass the annual auto check.

Lawyers said it would not violate rules if car owners designed new badges for their own cars, but auto parts stores would infringe on the rights of brand-name automobile producers if they sold their badges.

Insiders were worried that the practice could encourage domestic carmakers to forge well-known brand names in the future.

(Shenzhen Daily February 10, 2004)