Buying new car - check what year the car is manufactured before delivery.

[fertilizer]

Getting closer to year end "new car dealers" sometimes come up with good prices giving various reasons for it. I find it happens more often for brands not among the “volume brands”.

However in Thailand many buyers do not know what year their car is registered as or manufactured until the moment they get the blue book. This is likely to be at least 1 month after delivery and quite often much more.

But there is a way to find out much earlier.

Every car has a VIN (vehicle information number) that can be found next to the engine as well as on lower corner of the front windshied. The number showing what year it is manufactured and in which country. The year of manufacturing is always the 10^th letter/number to be seen. For 2016 it is G, 2017 H and 2018 will be J. More detailed information can be found using a decoder like this one

https://vindecoder.eu/check-vin/PLPGP7KC5HA344173

It can also be a good idea to look at the tyres. The month and year of manufacturing is here to be seen. It is at least an indication the car is likely to have been manufactured after this date.

The reason for posting this is I know people who bought what they supposed to be latest year when the car was actually manufactured the year before - in one case 3 years before (model and specification not changed during those years). When it is time to sell the car “a year older” is likely to mean a lower price.

The information about VIN number is good to use for new as well as second hand cars.

Edited September 22, 2017 by fertilizer

[JoeW]

Best way is to check the date of manufacture of the seat belts. You can check this on the label of the seat belt at both driver and passenger sides.

Tires are often switched. Vin Number is a good option too, but for checking the seat belts you don't need a computer.

[sirineou]

Thanks for posting this 

Good to know.

[hml367]

Have you tried putting a VIN from a vehicle manufactured in Thailand in one of these decoders?  It would not give a year for mine.

[JAS21]

13 minutes ago, hml367 said:

Have you tried putting a VIN from a vehicle manufactured in Thailand in one of these decoders?  It would not give a year for mine.

It works for Ford ETIS

[RBOP]

In USA and Canada you can now buy 2018 car models. How can I check they've been made in 2018?

[lemonjelly]

You can inspect actual the car you wish to buy before transferring cash?.... I'm in the sticks here, no chance of that.... you get a test drive in a similar model only.

[Jeffrey346]

11 minutes ago, RBOP said:

In USA and Canada you can now buy 2018 car models. How can I check they've been made in 2018?

In the US you can buy 2018 models today that have been manufactured in 2017.

Car manufactures typically start manufacturing the next model year in May or June of the current year.

[baansgr]

Just now, lemonjelly said:

You can inspect actual the car you wish to buy before transferring cash?.... I'm in the sticks here, no chance of that.... you get a test drive in a similar model only.

Ive bought numerous new cars here and never had the one in the showroom, so yes impossible to check anything.

[jack2964]

57 minutes ago, hml367 said:

Have you tried putting a VIN from a vehicle manufactured in Thailand in one of these decoders?  It would not give a year for mine.

Same here with mine. 10th digit is a zero or "O" which returned as invalid. However at the very bottom of the ID plate it has 'Plant/Built' and it shows date of manufacture.

[oldcarguy]

good advise ,  I am sure there are lots of other date codes to look for ,

but now with "world cars"  some of the parts for Thai built cars could come from Japan or South America .

 

maybe you need to order it with some odd parts combo , so you know its made just for you :)

 

thats how I go it at McDonalds , no pickles , no sauce......made  just for me .......5555

[madmax2]

If you order a current model vehicle and the dealer does not have it stock and there is a waiting list for it at the manufacturer, it has to be a current year model

As previously mentioned the vehicle ID plate has the month and year of manufacture stamped on it

Tyres,batteries, seat belts and similar items are bought in large batches and can be from the previous year of manufacture to the actual vehicle itself

[ujayujay]

What else. A new Car is a new Car. Rarely comes straight from Production.

[petermik]

9 hours ago, RBOP said:

In USA and Canada you can now buy 2018 car models. How can I check they've been made in 2018?

Easy........just wait a few months   

[Sir Swagman]

Small correction. The tyres show the week and year, not month and year of manufacture

[Coota]

Doesn't work for my Nissan March, it comes up with the details of it being a Nissan from Thailand but has "invalid code Z"  

[Sapporillo]

1 hour ago, Coota said:

Doesn't work for my Nissan March, it comes up with the details of it being a Nissan from Thailand but has "invalid code Z"  

For you and those who have tried (unsuccessfully) to decode their VIN, here's why (probably): If you follow the link to your car make on this page (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Book:Vehicle_Identification_Numbers_(VIN_codes) ), you will find  that Nissan uses a different VIN format for North America and the rest of the world. But I think your VIN should return a result if you enter it into Nissan's own decoder, which is also linked from the above page (http://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Nissan).

[cracker1]

"The year of manufacturing is always the 10^th letter/number to be seen. For 2016 it is G, 2017 H and 2018 will be J"

I am not sure I understand this ?

Why has "G"  become the 10th letter of this alphabet ?

I thought it was J ?

[whaleboneman]

He is referring to the VIN not the alphabet.

[meatboy]

23 hours ago, baansgr said:

Ive bought numerous new cars here and never had the one in the showroom, so yes impossible to check anything.

yes baansgr,you lean something every day,this we found out last month.

our car is 5yr.old so I was thinking of getting a new one.

has its only got 4,500klms.on the clock and in perfect condition,the wife went along to Toyota and asked what would you offer for part ex.for a brand new one.

this is the salespersons reply,

we don't take the condition into consideration.

OR THE MILEAGE

but it could be older than the yr.it was registered,not what we thought,and yes it was delivered to our house.

so therefore the wife was offered 100,000bht.less than what we expected.

she told them where to stick it.they did come back with a better offer,but then we found out that the end price on a new one was more than what we were quoted.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, meatboy said:

yes baansgr,you lean something every day,this we found out last month.

our car is 5yr.old so I was thinking of getting a new one.

has its only got 4,500klms.on the clock and in perfect condition,the wife went along to Toyota and asked what would you offer for part ex.for a brand new one.

this is the salespersons reply,

we don't take the condition into consideration.

OR THE MILEAGE

but it could be older than the yr.it was registered,not what we thought,and yes it was delivered to our house.

so therefore the wife was offered 100,000bht.less than what we expected.

she told them where to stick it.they did come back with a better offer,but then we found out that the end price on a new one was more than what we were quoted.

Did you take into account that the dealer sells the car on to a second hand dealer, therefor his offer will always be lower than that of the second hand dealer.

[madmax2]

Get quotes from several different dealers, you will be surprised at how much more you are offered for your trade in and the extra fee bees they will give you, a day well spent money wise

You will probably end up getting what you wanted by doing it, low mileage and condition do effect the trade in value

[johnno2]

I bought a new Mazda CX5 in 2014 in Bangkok, ran the VIN checker and this is what came up, doesn't say if its a mazda or what model

Manufacturer:

Bermaz Motor Sdn. Bhd.

Manufacturer Address:

5 Jalan Pelukis U1/46 
Temasya Industrial Park Section U1 
40150 Shah Alam Selangor

Product Type:

Passenger Car

Check Digit:

2

Model Year:

2014

Plant Country:

Malaysia

[meatboy]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

Did you take into account that the dealer sells the car on to a second hand dealer, therefor his offer will always be lower than that of the second hand dealer.

what we based our price on was what TOYOTA SURE sells their second hand cars for.

[stevenl]

11 minutes ago, meatboy said:

what we based our price on was what TOYOTA SURE sells their second hand cars for.

And your expectation was that price or a 100k lower price?

[meatboy]

11 minutes ago, stevenl said:

And your expectation was that price or a 100k lower price?

have a look at the cars for sale,SEE Toyota veos 2012.iit was in for 1day then I withdrew it.

we had 2quotes from 2different traders,275,000 and 300,000bht.later 25,000more.the last quote was in part ex.

would that be reasonable STEVE.

[stevenl]

36 minutes ago, meatboy said:

have a look at the cars for sale,SEE Toyota veos 2012.iit was in for 1day then I withdrew it.

we had 2quotes from 2different traders,275,000 and 300,000bht.later 25,000more.the last quote was in part ex.

would that be reasonable STEVE.

And how much did Toyota offer you, because that was what you mentioned in your post. And how much were you expecting?

[Techno Viking]

On 9/23/2017 at 8:19 AM, hml367 said:

Have you tried putting a VIN from a vehicle manufactured in Thailand in one of these decoders?  It would not give a year for mine.

yeah mine don't show in any decoder that Ive tried.

[meatboy]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

And how much did Toyota offer you, because that was what you mentioned in your post. And how much were you expecting?

the original offer from Toyota for part ex.if we bought a new yaris was 300,000.

for part ex.400,000.we were looking for near that amount or 400k private sale.

our car was one of a limited edition of 4,000 it included all the sports kit plus extra's cost us 649,000.cash.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, meatboy said:

the original offer from Toyota for part ex.if we bought a new yaris was 300,000.

for part ex.400,000.we were looking for near that amount or 400k private sale.

our car was one of a limited edition of 4,000 it included all the sports kit plus extra's cost us 649,000.cash.

300k trade in if looking at 400k sales is not that bad. They could have been willing to go a bit higher, 25k probably, maximum 50k. The extra you spent on the car has (nearly) no value on resale.