|
|
|
|
Model year
|
| |
|
| |
The model year of a product is a number used in North America to describe approximately when a product was produced.
The model year and the actual calendar year of production do not always coincide. For example, an automobile may be available as a 2009 model year automobile, but is actually in production as soon as the factory restarts after the July/August vacation, and available for purchase in late 2008.
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1748858",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1748858")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Alfred_P._Sloan">Alfred P. Sloan extended the idea of yearly fashion change from clothing to automobiles in the 1920s.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Model year' Start a new discussion about 'Model year' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The model year of a product is a number used in North America to describe approximately when a product was produced.
The model year and the actual calendar year of production do not always coincide. For example, an automobile may be available as a 2009 model year automobile, but is actually in production as soon as the factory restarts after the July/August vacation, and available for purchase in late 2008.
Automobiles
Alfred P. Sloan extended the idea of yearly fashion change from clothing to automobiles in the 1920s. His firm General Motors was the first to systematize the process of slightly altering cars every year to grab the buyers' attention.
The term may also be used by European and Japanese automakers in respect of model availability dates in North American markets: these often receive updated models significantly later than domestic markets, especially in the event of unforeseen slow sales causing an inventory build up of earlier versions.
Europe
In the automotive industry the "model year" is absolutely defined only by the manufacturer, and NOT any local vehicle registration practices, or media marketing opinions.
Industry practice varies between markets according both to the level of exports to North America and the extent to which US owned subsidiaries dominate the domestic automarket. In the 1960s and 1970s many new models were traditionally introduced at the London or Paris motor shows during October, and manufacturers owned by US corporations as well as domestically controlled UK auto makers tended to follow US auto-industry conventions in respect of model years. The concept was never so universally applied in Europe as in North America, however, and since the 1980s the more commercially critical European Motor Shows have been the Late winter / spring time shows held at Frankfurt and Geneva: new models have increasingly been launched at the start of the summer season even in the UK where the two remaining US owned subsidiaries no longer design and build distinctively British Ford and Vauxhall models. All this has left the US style model year concept increasingly absent from the European domestic automarkets.
An automotive model year is categorically defined by the 10th digit of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), and simply indicates any manufacturer-specified evolution in mid-cycle of a model range - such as revised paint options, trim options or any other minor specification change. The 10th VIN digit does NOT relate to the calendar year which the car is built, although the two may coincide. To quote an example, on the Volkswagen Golf Mk5 (introduced late 2003), cars which were manufactured from July 2006 had a 7 as the 10th VIN digit, coinciding with minor trim revisions. The 7 continued until July 2007, when it was replaced with an 8.
UK
In the United Kingdom, Road Traffic legislation gives reference the year of first registration (and NOT model year) in the typographical form, on the vehicle registration plate (license plate). For example 'FX02 XXX'. 'FX' is the code of the location the car was registered, in this instance it is Grimsby. '02' being the first half of 2002. If the vehicle was registered in the second half of the year, '02' would be replaced by '52' the first of this type being '51'. Between 1982 and 2000 (ie pre-'51'), a prefix letter represented each year, (eg 'K 328 KWX' which would mean that the car was a 'K reg', so a 1993 model). Between 1963 and 1982 the identifying letter on the license plate was a suffix rather than a prefix (as is 'GVW 342 B', wherein the letter 'B' identified the first registration year as 1964).
The UK situation is further complicated because the registration year code changes NOT in January and July but, currently, in April and October. This appears to arise not from the UK authorities' continuing enthusiasm for the Gregorian Calendar (apparent also in the UK tax office's personal taxation calendar) but from an auto-industry inspired attempt to level out the underlying seasonality of the new car market. Cut-off months have changed from time to time, but the last time a UK registration code letter changed on 01 January was on 01 January 1967 when the suffix letter 'F' replaced 'E', to be itself replaced by the suffix 'G' on 01 September 1967.
In the UK, vehicles normally retain the same license plate even when the car itself changes owners or the owner and vehicle relocate to a region. The increasing availability in the UK of personalised license plates that can be switched from older to newer cars is one of several sources of officially sanctioned exceptions to these 'rules'.
USA
In the United States, automobile model years traditionally start in the third quarter of the preceding year. So model year refers to the "sales" model year; for example, vehicles sold during the period from October 1 to the next September 30 is considered one model year. In addition, the launch of the new model year has long been coordinated to the launch of the traditional new television season (as defined by A.C. Nielsen) in late September, because of the heavy dependence between television to offer products from automakers to advertise, and the car companies to launch their new models at a high-profile time of year .
In other cases, products of a previous model year can continue production, especially if a newer model hasn't yet been released. In that case, the model year remains the same until a new model is introduced. This is to ensure that the model will be seen by the public, and will actually sell an amount of vehicles before a new vehicle model is produced, and people will look at the newer model rather than the previous one.
In the United States, for regulation purposes, government authorities allow cars of a given model year to be sold starting on January 2 of the previous calendar year. This has resulted in a few cars in the next model year being introduced in advertisements during the NFL's Super Bowl.
The practice of identifying revisions of automobiles by their "model year" is strongest in the United States. Typically, complete vehicle redesigns of longstanding models occur in cycles of at least five years, with one or two "facelifts" during the model cycle, and are introduced at various times throughout the year. Additionally, introductions of new models are often phased in around the world, meaning that a "2004 model" of a particular vehicle may actually refer to two entirely different vehicles in different countries. Therefore, the more common practice for enthusiasts and motoring writers in other countries is to identify major revisions using the manufacturer's identifier for each revision. For instance, the Holden Commodore, a popular Australian car, are grouped into the following series: VB (introduced 1978) VC (1980), VH (1981), VK (1984), VL (1986), VN (1988), VP (1991), VR (1993), VS (1995), VT (1997), VX (2000), VY (2002), VZ (2004) and VE (2006). This is done for the simple reason of making the cars more easily distinguished.
See also
|
| |
|
|
