Car year model confusion

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Mr K

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HI Guys,
May be somebody can clear my confusion.

I have bought my new car in 2012 December. The car was only registered in 2013 January. But the the insurance on the car started from 2012 December.

When I want sell my car which year should I list the car as? Is it 2012 or 2013?
I thought it will be 2013, that is why I have registered in 2013 January. But now I am confused because the insurance started 2012 December.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Phone the dealership and give them the VIN, they will tell you.
 
From the dealership side, the vehicle was sold in 2012 December.
Will that mean it is 2012 model?

Also from dealership point of view the vehicle warranty expires in December 2017.
Rickster said:
Phone the dealership and give them the VIN, they will tell you.
Click to expand...
 
I've just bought a preowned Audi.

A date in the service book was late 2009 and it was sold to me as a 2010. When I queried with the dealer/VIN, they said it goes by date of first registration, in this case Jan 2010 - so a 2010 model
 
Mr K said:
HI Guys,
May be somebody can clear my confusion.

I have bought my new car in 2012 December. The car was only registered in 2013 January. But the the insurance on the car started from 2012 December.

When I want sell my car which year should I list the car as? Is it 2012 or 2013?
I thought it will be 2013, that is why I have registered in 2013 January. But now I am confused because the insurance started 2012 December.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Year model is the year it was manufactured. Couldn't have been made in 2013 if you bought it in 2012.

Oh and the temporary permit in December and registering in January gets covered every year :p
 
Mr K said:
From the dealership side, the vehicle was sold in 2012 December.
Will that mean it is 2012 model?

Also from dealership point of view the vehicle warranty expires in December 2017.
Click to expand...


Forget about the word sold, if you have a toyota phone toyota and say `hello, could you please tell me what year model my car is please, here is the VIN`

The next set of numbers will he gives you will be what year the car is.
 
If it was delivered off the floor in December 2012, then it was captured as a 2012 car by the dealer, whether you had paper plates or not - the car is a 2012, unless someone made a monumental mistake on the capturing side.
 
I still put my money on 2013 ;)

That's why people order cars in Dec and only register them in January to get the following year. Call them with Vin - it'll go by date of first registration
 
Dolby said:
I still put my money on 2013 ;)

That's why people order cars in Dec and only register them in January to get the following year. Call them with Vin - it'll go by date of first registration
Click to expand...

I make it very clear to customers wanting to do that, that they will end up with December registered cars. :)
 
... but then come January you're sitting with 4 WRX models in stock - 3 x 2014 but a single 1 x 2013 that just happen to arrive in December, you'll never sell it? You've paid the same for each - but when trade in time comes they'll get less ... it all becomes very difficult

Unless you give a discount on the single model. Alternatively I'll just go to another dealer.

But let's see when OP phones with a VIN. I've done it and I know they go on date of first registration

And lastly - is it 2009 or 2010? In the owner book I see inspection was carried out 2009 but first date of delivery was 2010 - so just wondering.

My reply from Audi.

The car is a 2010 model since the date of first registration was February 26 2010

Date the warranty/maintenance plan starts was 26 Feb 2010 as well
 
That's interesting Fazda. So are you saying that this car may be a 2013 on paper, but the manufacturer warranty end date will be based on 2012?
 
Check the car's papers - it will state a 'date of liability for first licensing'. Notwithstanding the specific note that it is not the model year, that's what the industry goes by.

EDIT

Just to add to what Fazda's said above: new cars' warranties and service/maintenance plans are incepted when they are reported to the manufacturer as sold. It can, thus, happen that a car pre-reported in December but only delivered and registered in January the following year might lose a month of its warranty and plan.
 
I think people confuse the Model Year and Registration Year distinction.

Registration year is simple, that's the year of the first registration.

But the model year itself could be quite different.


Case in point I bought a MY2007 Buell XB9SX (as per the specification for bikes to be sold in 2007 with the relevant changes) however it was built in August 2006 and delivered to me in November as I recall therefore the registration year is 2006.


This only becomes of relevance if there were any particular changes to a car/bike and the registration date doesn't really matter all that much.

For instance the new Golf 6 GTI came out in 2009, but in the same year you still had some old Golf 5 GTI's floating around. Now of course in this case it's easy because there's a 5 vs 6 model distinction but if it was the case of a Polo with a simple facelift you would refer to the car as registered in 2009 but a 2008 model, while you would refer to the Golf 6 as registered in 2009 and a 2009 model.

A car could have been manufactured in 2013 but only getting sold now. That would still be a 2013 model year even though it's registered in 2014.
 
So you're saying you could buy a brand new car that's a 'year' old with '5 months' lower maintenance?

I'm glad Audi or Volvo don't work that way. They both take from date of first registration - and that's the date maintenance starts

http://www.justice.gov.za/sca/judgments/sca_2010/sca10-121.pdf

This guy had a similar - albeit more complex - situation.

a dealership trading as SMG Auto Durban (Pty)
Ltd (‘SMG’) in
December 2005. He agreed with a sales
-
representative at SMG that the vehicle
would be ‘first regist
ered’ in 2006, and was led to believe that the process of
registering the vehicle would happen in January 2006.
W
hen the vehicle was
delivered to Mr Singh, it transpired that it had previously be
en registered
–
more
than once
–
in 2005
.
Thus began the
quar
rel between the parties.
 
When advertising on Auto Trader I noticed they ask for year of registration and not year model. I had this confirmed by a used car dealership that they use the date liable for first registration as per the registration certificate issued once the car has been registered. So your year model for example will be a December 2012 and year of registration will be Jan 2013.
 
Dolby said:
... but then come January you're sitting with 4 WRX models in stock - 3 x 2014 but a single 1 x 2013 that just happen to arrive in December, you'll never sell it? You've paid the same for each - but when trade in time comes they'll get less ... it all becomes very difficult

Unless you give a discount on the single model. Alternatively I'll just go to another dealer.

But let's see when OP phones with a VIN. I've done it and I know they go on date of first registration

And lastly - is it 2009 or 2010? In the owner book I see inspection was carried out 2009 but first date of delivery was 2010 - so just wondering.

My reply from Audi.

The car is a 2010 model since the date of first registration was February 26 2010

Date the warranty/maintenance plan starts was 26 Feb 2010 as well
Click to expand...

No, if we have 3 WRX's on the floor in December, they will not be reported until we sell them. Build date can vary quite substantially with various cars on the floor. In our case, warranty, etc, only kicks in when the car is delivered.

bromster said:
That's interesting Fazda. So are you saying that this car may be a 2013 on paper, but the manufacturer warranty end date will be based on 2012?
Click to expand...

No, see above - if I have a car on the floor from say November to February, its warranty kicks in when I sell it in February.
 
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