mario_zg

I can see some folks here allready have 545i 2005 and your magazines are testing 2006 M5 ?

is Northern America in the future?

I doesnt make sense to me, if the car leaves factory on 2004, how can you drive 2005? and on 2005 you can buy 2006 car that left factory on 2005?

In EU we are in the 2004, nobody drives any kind of car from the future and we can order 2006 M5 but it can not be produced on 2005

mario.

andy545

Hi Mario, Welcome.

The year you refer to is the model year specification. Obviously not he production year.

My car was produced last month, but under new specifications that BMW put
in place in Sep 04. Some changes take place, eg. some options before are now
standard, changes in wood trim etc. things like that. This sets them apart from
the previous line year....hence MY2005 ( model year )...

Hope this answers your query...

Andy.

mario_zg

yeah, it is something like listing of the used car ads, every single each one of them are, I call them, midnight models 2003/2004 or 1996/1997 probably produced on the evening of 31.12 and finished 1.1. ...

If I were to buy your used car, I would look under 2004 not 2005 :-)

kscarrol

Kind of true mario. This is a common practice in the auto industry worldwide. Beginning near the 4th quarter (Sept, though some start even earlier!) the auto makers begin introducing the cars for the ext model year. Don't know how or why it got started, but all the major car makers do it. If you read through this board and note the signature of members, there are some folks who took delivery of their 2004 model year cars in October/November/December of 2003.

andy545

It's like the fashion industry - clothes for autumn/winter come out in shops already
in August!!

and summer clothes are available in shops while you are still freezing your a** off!

Guest

August summer holidays, and factories in Europe close down. September brings a new year.

The downtime over August is also ideal time to retool for the new model production.

kscarrol

Good point, did not put much thought to it obviously.

firewired

I think Mario's point is the EU (I assume from his statement he is not U.S.) has much stricter labeling requirements calling a car for what it is. Kind of interested to know what what they call a Sept 04 build in Europe. Is it like the original Mustang 2004 1/2, or like software updates 2004.2?

Guest

In the US, auto manufacturers basically get to state the "model year" of a vehicle, regardless of the actual calendar year in which the vehicle is built, delivered or sold. For example, Lexus introduced the "2004 RX330" in June 2003. For resale purposes, all 2004 model year automobiles (whether sale and delivery occurred in the prior calendar year) are considered the same and priced accordingly as used vehicles (subject to standard deductions for mileage). Thus, if you bought your 2004 RX330 in June 2003 and resold it in June 2006, it would only have depreciated 2 model years (instead of 3 calendar years) for purposes of the Kelly Blue Book, although if you drove it a lot, you would have a significant mileage deduction for a 2 year old car.

In the end, it's all marketing and perceived value of having the next model year vehicle early in the prior calendar year.

Hormazd

I don't think so. Many manufacturers including BMW close down production in the month August. They retool and prepare the assembly line for the next MY. So production of the 2005 model starts in Spetember. It like the school year, there is no magic about the calendar year.