Build Model and Compliance Dates for new cars ?

Well finally after buying 3 new RAV4s while Toyota kept making them bigger and slower we gave up on Toyota and just got a new around town car.

Its a Suzuki Vitara-S turbo petrol AWD drive with lockable axle and other cute 4wd feaures including flat torque curve and 0-100kmh time in 8 secs bracket.

Well thats ok - but as we signed the contract my wife reminded me to make sure its this years car, not a last year model thats been sitting in a warehouse for months.

The salesmen heard our concerns and wrote down "MY17" on the contract !

However I quickly got suspicous.

MY17 does not nessaarily mean its a 2017 car, rather it means its has the features of a 2017 model.

Indeed I opened up the current (Sept) Sun/herald car guide and sure enough MY18 cars are already available, so if your looking to get a new car check this out !

After that I began to deal with the car supplier only via email and asked again for confirmation that it was built in 2017.

The reply I got was "I asked my stock controller for a 2017 model" , to highly suspicous me this was spin for not actually saying when it was built.

I was also told it would be 2017 compliance plated.

Well to cut a long story short the new car took longer than expected to arrive but my fears were allayed as it was actually built in march this year.

I can only wonder what the build date might have been if we had not been on top of the issue !




So this might not be quite correct but my definitions of the 3 terms are below - please let us know if I have it wrong !

MY17 - a car which includes features of current model for sale regardless of when it was made.

Build date - Date when car was actualy made as indicated (on my Nissan patrol) with a stamped metal plate on body.

Compliance plate - Date of laws and rules the car conformed to and also attached to car body.