[Healeys] What year?

Peter Dzwig pdzwig at summaventures.com
Thu Jun 5 05:28:24 MDT 2014


Don't know that it ever really worked like that over here (UK). The idea of a
"model year" is primarily a US concept. Unlike many manufacturers in the US it
has rarely been the habit of UK manufacturers (when there were any!) to restrict
a model to a single year and then issue an upgrade or a new model.

In the UK it has always (as long as I can remember, at least) been the practice
to refer to a car by its first registration (ie sale ) date.  It's a bit like a
bonded warehouse - a car gets built and can sit on BMCs books for a long time.
Generally we would have talked about a model introduction date ("For 1953 Austin
has introduced the all new..") and a selling/registration date. MOst people
would colloquially describe a car as being of the year of first registration -
'cos it's newer!.

For example my BN6 was built in early May 57 and sold (and registered) in July
of that year. We wouldn't normally refer to it by it's build date, but rather by
its date of registration. So yes, I agree with what Curt said.

HOWEVER, for export the build date is what is generally used, because in records
such as those quoted on BMH certificates there exists no record of registration.

In the UK from 63 the car's registration date is indicated by a suffix letter
(see: http://www.cvpg.co.uk/REG.pdf) is what matters as the registration is
specific to the car, not for example to the owner as in some countries. This was
established in the 1903 Motor Car Act of 1903. By default, a UK registration
plate will accompany a vehicle throughout the vehicle's lifetime and there is no
requirement to re-register when moving from one part of the country to another.
Re-registrations are permitted however with older plates but not with later ones.

Peter Dzwig





On 02/06/2014 18:34, Curtis Arndt wrote:
> Tom,
> 
> 
> The new model year for cars typically started in September the year prior,
> so a BJ8 built in Nov. '64 would have been for the '65 model year.
> 
> Look at it this way, BN2s were built for one model year only, the 1956
> model year, however BMC started building them in September of 1955.  So
> even though you have a BN2 or 100M built from Sep. through Dec. of 1955,
> it's still a 1956 BN2 or 100M.
> 
> BTW thatbs what your Concours Certificate will read if itbs judged.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 
> 
> Curt
> 
> 
> On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 1:31 PM, Tom Felts <tomfelts at windstream.net> wrote:
> 
>> For a Healey built 16 Nov 1964, would you call it a 64 or 65?
>>
>> Thx
>> tom
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-- 

===========================================================
Dr Peter Dzwig				


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