[Healeys] What year?

[Peter Dzwig]

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



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Dr Peter Dzwig