Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
The model year has nothing to do with design cycle. What IS confusing is buying a 2020 on January 1st 2019.
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Of course it does.
Let's take that RAV4 that went on sale in January 2019. Now I haven't worked for Toyota but if they are on a similar cycle as my employer; to get cars to the dealer in January they would need to start serial production in November. If model year was tied to the build date those RAV4s that went on sale in January 2019 would be 2018 cars (sitting next to the old model 2018 RAV4s. Then about March suddenly 2019 cars would be on the lot sitting next to the new 2018 RAV4s and some left-over old 2018 RAV4s. So the dealer would have 3 different versions of the RAV4 for sale on his lot that were made a couple months apart. That not only is this confusing but customer would want a discount to buy the new 2018 RAV4 made in December vs the 2019 RAV4 made in January.
This doesn't even take into account the cars built before serial production to test production equipment and processes. My company does 2-3 rounds of preserial plant builds that are spaced 6 weeks apart. So the first production cars would come off the line in July.
Of course no auto manufacturer is going to have their redesigned vehicle change model years 1-2 months after it is released to the public. Instead they would have to target start of production for January. This is where the design cycle comes into play. If every new model has to start production in January then every vehicle would be on an identical design schedule. Each step of the process would be massively overloaded for part of the year and then basically idle the rest. Of course that can't work.
This is why model launches are scattered throughout the year - to keep the workload level in each step of the design cycle.
I agree selling a 2020 model year car in January 2019 doesn't make much sense. Legally build year and model year can differ by 2 years.