what is it called when real manufacturer of car is hidden?

Relabeling, rebranding, or rebadging are terms I have heard. Happens all the time.

I've heard it referred to as a sister car. I got this quote from

"The 2007 Saturn Aura midsize sedan, a sister of the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6..." I don't know of a site that lists all sister cars but if you Google: "sister cars" Grand Am you get hits that talk about the Oldsmobile Achieva and the Buick Skylark. I hope this helps.

The Chevy Nova circa 1985 was not built by Toyota, it was built by "New United Motors Manufacturing Incorporated" (NUMMI) a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Cars that are wholly built by an offshore company and re-badged under a domestic name are called "captive imports." Examples would be the Daewoo built Pontiac Lemans, the Kia built Ford Festiva and Aspire and the Mitsubishi built Eagle Summit.

aarcuda69062 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com:

And with the phrase "captive import" to help us (thanks, aarcuda), a quick Googling reveals:

Absent from the Wiki list above are a couple of obscure Canada-only models. GM briefly had a brand called "Asüna" (the U inexplicably had an umlaut over it). Its three models were eventually sold under the Geo banner.

Thanks everybody.

That's what I was looking for. I'm trying to find better cars for a better price. Thanks.