Is a cars registration year its production year?

[Dippo]

Does the model year thing roll on each year? Mine was registered Oct 04 and the VIN decoder which produce a data card show an option code of 805, the 5 meaning it's model year 2005 - it's a facelift model, which were built from July 04. Maybe it would stay as model year 05 until they made a change and perhaps in 2002 those changes weren't frequent.

When I worked for Saab, their model year always changed during the factory shut down, which was in July - so model year 2004 would run from August 2003 till June 2004, and model year 2005 from August 2004 to June 2005.

 

[Tightarse]

Hi, new on here so bear with me, my car was registered in November 2003, last year both rear air suspensions blew! I sourced a pair of new ones from Germany, OME, and when I took the old ones off I cut into the outer covers to see where they had blown and found a hand written date on them 17/10/03 which I am assuming was when they were assembled.

 

[219]

As above. As my E320 CDI is coming up with a production year of 2002.

Even though my log book is stating car first registered May 2004?

This would confirm the car is in the glycol contamination era.

Very confusing!!!

My Indian Assembled W124 ( exported as a knock down kit ) was registered as new in 1999 ( have seen others as late as 51 plates ) but the build date was 1997 .

 

[219]

There are three dates here
1. When it was actually built.
2. The model year
3. When it was registered for the road.

A car could be built in say August 2008, but its actually a 2009 year specification. However, due to it being a bad stock spec or goes into a private collection it might not be registered for the road.

I know of a case where that happened.

When I previously worked for VAG , one of the salesmen took me round to his house , and in his garage was one of the numbered last edition Beetles , in Silver , with the plate on the dash indicating it to be no 97 out of the final 100 German built ones to be sold in the UK ; the car was up on axle stands and with sheets over it ; the odometer showed a single digit mileage ( 6 or 7 from memory ) and the car was unregistered.

I recalled looking at that very car on sale in a showroom circa 1977 , which was a good few years earlier , given that I must have seen it in the mid/late 90s .

I wonder what that would be worth now .

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Going back to the original exam question.....

It's a mistake to think that cars are produced evenly through the product life, especially for the rarer / more expensive models.

More likely, for example, that MB will run a whole back of facelift cars through the factory, and then store them for anything up to 2-3 years, at some point along the supply chain: factory, storage, dealerships, wherever. (Including pre-registers, demonstrators, "staff cars" etc. etc.)

 

[tonysmb]

OP, I presume that you're concerned about the issue of transmission cooler / valeo radiators? If so, this issue was well-reported many years ago, maybe twelve or so, and numerous cars had radiators replaced around that time or in the couple of years afterwards - a friend of mine was one, had it done by the local dealer as a precaution. I can't recall whether the replacement radiator was a Valeo or another make, possibly a Behr?

Is there any chance your car's already been 'fixed'?

 

[350cls]

All sorted now. Reached 207k before symptoms showed up.

All sorted secondhand gearbox/torque converter. New Radiator. New cooler pipes. Drives lovely once again.

I made the school boy error of thinking a 2004 registered car was glyco free. It's the build/production date that an owner must go by regarding glyco contamination.

I believe the cut off date is around 9/10 month 2003. Any build dated after that should have no glyco trouble.

As said the car really is driving wonderful. I'm glad we opted to have the work done and hold on to the car.

 

[tali]

Not showing production year only delivery which is 5/2004.

On a different vin decoder site it come up with production 2002.

What does it say on DVLA website ? as they usually show more consistent dating

 

[350cls]

What does it say on DVLA website ? as they usually show more consistent dating

All sorted now. I found out the relevant information I was after

 

[Deleted member 11979]

I had it on my 211 about 7 years ago.

As previous mentioned, the only way to check if you are in the danger zone is to verify the manufacturer of the radiator fitted to your car. Trust me, when it’s gone it’s too late, but I wouldn’t expect it to have lasted this long to be honest if it was the wrongun

 

[350cls]

The Gearbox/Transmission specialist showed me the rad on collecting the car. He told me to lift the rad it was really gunked up and heavy. Was indeed a Valeo rad. I have all service history of the car and no evidence of having a rad change. We bought it just 200k. Put just under 7K before we got the gylco symptoms. I would recommend any owners with E Class and C class cars built before 2003 September/October to have a good look in your cars history to see if you have had a radiator replacement. As this Glyco contamination can pop up at higher mileage than first thought.