understanding Date of Reg

[jackcramerr]

When a car is registered in March os 2014 does that mean it was manufactured in 2014 or is that 2013? How can one know about this? How many times a year is a car manufactured? When is the car first registered i.e. at what point? Can there be an unregistered 2010 car registered in 2014? 

[ahmedali44]

Older system was easy to understand and only had 1 reg a year but new system is hard for some people to understand 

There are 2 reg in 1 yr now March and August or September 

New cars normally sit in dealers until get registered so it's not necessary will b registered in March or August for example my taxi is March but was registered in 8 Dec when someone bought it. L is area g dealer 5 is March when it was manufactured 1 is yr cxy is miscellaneous letters.lg51xcy. 

This information is according to my knowledge but if any1 know any different then do please correct me.

[Malc]

you might never know when the car was manufactured, some older models might have been standing in fields for years before first registration

Malc

[johnatg]

Yep - you have no easy way of knowing date of manufacture - but dealers can find out - most manufacturers show date of manufacture in the dealer version of the workshop manual or other documentation. (Or supply a database linking build date to VIN number.

Er...cars get manufactured - built - once! Most car companies build lots of cars every day!

Cars are first registered on the day the dealer registers them - that might be towards the end of the month if they are trying to meet their 'sales' targets, then they register them to themselves and sell it later as a 'pre-reg'. Or if properly new, it's registered on the day of (planned) delivery to the first owner.

Cars can quite easily sit around for months or years before being registered - fields and parking lots full of them around the country!

[Verbout]

All the details are in the VIN.

Country of manufacture, make, model, trim level, plant of manufacture, date of manufacture blah, blah, blah.

[steve2006]

To establish the year of manufacture you need to locate the VIN plate and look at the 10th digit, this will give you the year the car was made.

Step 5: Find out the year of manufacture. The tenth number indicates the year the car was made, or the year of manufacture.

It begins with A for 1980, the first year a standard 17-digit VIN was used. Subsequent years follow the alphabet of to “Y” in the year 2000. 

In 2001, the year changes to the number “1”, and ascends to “9” In 2009. 

In 2010, the alphabet starts again with the letter “A” for 2010 model years. 

• In the same VIN example “5XXGN4A70CG022862,” the “C” indicates the vehicle was manufactured in 2012.

[johnatg]

Indeed. VIN shows manufacturer, model, some but not all aspects of options and trim - only major things such as engine and type of transmission, plant where it was made, year it was made and a serial number (last 6 digits. It doesn't show the actual build date- that needs a database.

[johnatg]

And BTW - most of the VIN decoding mentioned on the internet refers to USA VIN numbers and they are different from UK/Europe numbers - completely different format and code meanings (except they both have 17 digits). UK VINs are to ISO 3779 (standard) apparently.

[Linas.P]

I guess everything was already explained, just one note: There is such thing as pre-reg. That is as well very relevant to say 2nd gen. IS250 where you can found models with 55 plate, even though they were not yet manufactured at the time. This is done sometimes to save on increased 1st year VEH. One way or another number plates only shows when the car was registered with DVLA and not when manufactured. In other had manufacturing date doesn't make much relevance, because it can take few month or probably up to half year between manufacturing date and first drive.

[jackcramerr]

Thanks everyone.

Makes it difficult doesn't it. For each car one is buying or considering to buy, they will need VIN and beg the seller for it.  Usually they won't give out saying things about clonning. Once you get that beg the dealer to let one know what year it is....which they won't due to privacy crap... 

Argh... been in this situation now... 

[Linas.P]

Yes.... but do you really care about when the care was made or when actually somebody started using it. It is not only for the cars as well... actually for almost anything you buy, you will never find out shelf time. It is very funny for me when Tesco puts "new" (5 years in storage) TV's on sale and people thing they buying bargain, whereas in reality those TV are already obsolete..

[jackcramerr]

It does matter. 

A late 2013 manfacutered car might have 2014 reg. A early 2014 will also have the same reg.

Now the 2013 car with 2014 reg should be sold for a 2013 price. Not 2014 price. Tons of changes take place and price should reflect it.

[Linas.P]

Well car model reflects the price no a registration year e.g. new shape will be more expensive than old shape even if it is same reg. Say 55 plate IS250mk2 is going to be more expensive than 55 plate IS300mk1.

I kind of see your point... some people might try to sell old shape model for a price of new shape (especially when facelift is concerned), but it doesn't matter if you know what you are buying... you will simply leave the car alone and the seller simply going to have hard time selling the car, because not the reg number defines the model, features or the price.

I mean if I am looking for specific model, I am not going to care about the date of manufacturing or VIN... I am going to be more concerned about spec's and options sheet, mileage, overall condition and maintenance record.

[tayaste]

PM me your vin and I will get your build date for you