You may completely trust the dealership or the seller you buy your car from. But how do you know they’re not lying to you about the manufacturing date of your car? You could be paying a higher amount because you may want the latest manufacturing and they could try to sell you a car that is manufactured in the previous years.
This is why checking the manufacturing date has become important. You would think you will have to believe what the seller says right? Wrong. You can now find the manufacturing date of your car, on your own.
We tell you exactly how and why you need to do that, below;
1) It is important you know that the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) will not tell you the manufacturing date of the car. There are other methods to do that. But the VIN is a unique code that only belongs to your car. This code helps lead to the manufacturing date.
2) The VIN can be found written close to the engine of the car.
3) The VIN has English alphabets that help decipher the month and year of manufacture.
(a) ‘A’ stand for the year 2010 and it goes up to ‘Y’ which stands for the year 2030.
(b) Alphabets ‘I’, ‘O’ and ‘Q’ are not used as codes.
(c) The years are ascertained in the same way, where ‘A’ stands for January and the codes go on till ‘M’ which stands for December.
4) It is important to mention that different manufactures have the letter codes placed differently in the VIN number to ascertain the month and year. But it is easy to research about the manufacturing brand you have chosen to buy your car from and ascertain the manufacturing date of your car, yourself.
This is a basic guideline on how to find the real manufacturing date which is a part of your PDI checklist. It is easy to get duped into getting a car that has an older manufacturing date and checking it out personally will only help you in the future.