The front grills are easily damaged and often replaced. Looking at an
easily swapped part to determine anything about the production date of
the whole vehicle makes little sense. The VIN# is right inside of the
windshield. The 10 digit is a letter that tells the true MODEL year of
the vehicle. The Vanagon Bentley explains this in the Foreword.

A = 1980
B = 1981
C = 1982
D = 1983
and so on..........

The manufacturing date is on the DOT label of the driver's side door
frame, at least for North American market vehicles.

Mark

Michel Gaastra wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> The aircooled production was ended in august 1982.
> Does the grill have a large or a small logo? that's how you can see if it is
> an 88 model.
> small means: 95mm this was used untill VIN: 014529 of modelyear 1988
> large means: 125 mm this was used from VIN: 014530 of modelyear 1988
> Don't US vehicles have the round grills very often??
>>>