Data on year of manufacture and first registration of cars

I keep hearing, over and over again, that they are a bit of a nebulous bit of selling and buying a car and I have come into contact with people who don’t know these terms.

We want to discuss a topic that is debated by many people, from the youngest driver to driving veterans: how can a car be registered before it’s even made?

Case in point: we have in stock an Audi A8, which is first registered in October 2016, but the year of manufacture on the ID is 2017. How is that possible? It’s so illogical, it’s a masquerade, you are mocking us and giving false information…. say customers.

Everyone is of this opinion: as a manufacturer, you produced a car in 2016, you registered it in 2016, the year of manufacture is 2016. Short and to the point!

Deemed to be commercial reasons, car manufacturers have decided to change strategy a bit. They have agreed that cars that are manufactured after the second half of the year will be recognized in the paperwork as a model year the following year. A good marketing strategy: it will be newer by a year and, especially on resale, you get a higher price. The other strategy behind this is that the car’s spare parts will also be priced slightly higher. Those who have approached this are the VAG groups (Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Škoda), Volvo, Opel and others. It’s useful to know these things when you’re looking for custom cars.

But not all manufacturers wanted this kind of marketing at the moment. For example, Renault, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and others have stuck to the logical principle. Even if the car was manufactured after the second half of the year, it will not be listed in the paperwork as the year of manufacture the following year. There are exceptions where the vehicle is manufactured, but is registered the following year. (example: 2016 production -> first registration 2017).

How can you know what year your car is or will be, just by checking the chassis serial number?

The chassis number is made up of 17 characters, each character having a specific meaning: from the make and type of the vehicle, to the manufacturer’s country of origin and year of manufacture. The 10th character of the chassis number represents the year of manufacture (valid for the VAG group, Opel, Volvo and others). The Ford group did not choose the 10th letter, but chose the 11th. For the Renault, BMW, Mercedes-Benz groups this criterion does not apply (other criteria are set).

The notation starts at A, which represents the year 2010, and continues. In the chassis series you will not find the letters I and O, so as not to confuse the numbers 1 and 0.

Example: YV1FS73CDF2336383 – Volvo S60. The 10th letter is ‘F’, which means the year of manufacture is 2015.

You can also check some of the information on the official website of the Romanian Car Register.

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