In a message dated 98-04-04 02:25:43 EST, Oxroad@AOL.COM writes:

> I just got my Vanagons birth certificate from Volkswagen AG. It lists my
bus's
>  production date as March 2, 1983. Delivery date, in Germany, as March 4,
> 1983
>  Now it's a water-cooled bus. A Westfalia conversion at that. But all this
> time I thought it was an 83.5. Turns out she's a 83.25.
>  My question is when did VW switch to the water-cooled engines stateside? I
> had always figured it was in late 83. But this suggests they were available
in
> the first part of the year. Or, was it just a real slow boat?

NO car maker builds, labels, or sells cars according to the calendar year.

Typically makers build model year 1998 (for example) cars from about June or
July 1997 to about May or June 1998.  Often there's a summer shutdown at the
plant during the switchover from one year to the next depending on the scope
of the changes.  1998 cars show up in force in the dealer showrooms in about
September / October 1997, and must have been built a month or two earlier in
July / August timeframe. This varies wildly though.  You can buy some 1999
model year cars right now in April 1998, that were actually assembled in 1997.

With a typical production year cycle, a car built in March would be at about
3/4 through the production cycle.

Regards,
Jim Davis