Re: Mini Petrol Powered Corvette 'Go-Kart' For Sale (7ft Long) On

SteveH wrote:
> Dean Dark <ddrake@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 

> That's an extreme example, though - most models only have a 4 year life
> cycle before a major facelift.
> 
Yes. Maybe you'd refer to the changes that they WILL make, for the stated 
reasons, at every new model year is "minor facelift". They *do* tend to
make a 
few changes to each model year to give the marketers and salespeople
something 
new to sell. I know this leads to a stockpile of the old MY version to
sell at 
discount prices. I never said it made complete sense, but then I'm not in
tha 
planning department of GM.

Of course I am referring to GM/Vauxhall. I know full well that Lotus can't

afford to make changes every year, but that is irrelevant in this case.

> More questionable would be the difference between a car made in 1998 and
> one made in 2000. Because there's no specification difference between
> the two, both could be registered on the same day and have the same
> value. Happens all the time, even with the silly American 'model year'
> crap.
>
There will be differences if it's a big manufacturer's core product.

>> Well, what you're getting at is what was originally called "planned
>> obsolescence" when the car makers first started doing it back in the
>> 1930s, I believe, as a way to make people want to replace the
>> perfectly serviceable car they already owned.  In general, the Brits
>> have always been just as much victims of it as the merkins have been.
>> It just manifests itself in a slightly different form there

Well it does. Our *old* registration number scheme fitted nicely into the 
manufacturers' model years, so that if one goes and buys a new car in
August 
1992 to get a K plate you would also have the option of buying the 1993
model 
year version at list price (more or less), which may only have different
seat 
cloth options, or the "old" 1992 MY version at a discount.

Unless it is a safety issue requiring a recall, manufacturers like GM
really 
DO save all their changes for a new model year, which is totally
artificial. 
Of course in 1998 we changed to a 6 month system, so that the autumn plate

change happens a month later in September. This strangely means that there
are 
a twelfth more R plate cars than previous letters, and three different
cars 
sold in 1999 could have S, T or V plates and be any of 1998, 1999 or 2000
MY 
cars.

Have a look at Haynes manuals: they refer to a car my its model year. So
do 
the manufacturers.