We recently purchased a car which we believed to be a 2008 Chevy Cobalt. However, our insurance man had a problem with the VIN and suggested that it may be a 2007. The dealership maintains that it is a 2008. Is there any way to know for sure?
The vehicle identification number will tell you what year your Cobalt is, and it’s not a number available only to insurance agents. It’s actually plastered in many easily readable locations on the car itself. The VIN consists of 17 characters that will divulge information of your specific car, such as its year, make, model, engine and transmission options.
You can find the VIN on the vehicle’s registration, on the driver’s side dashboard near the base of the windshield, or on the driver’s side door jam.
The tenth character in the VIN will tell you the year. If it’s “8” then the car is a 2008. If it’s “7,” then the Cobalt is a 2007. Or you can simply enter the VIN into a vehicle history site like CarFax.com and it will give you a brief summary of the car’s year, make and model.
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The vin refers to the model year, not the calendar.
Sometimes an auto manufacturer will sell the previous year's models as the current if there has been no model upgrade (ie. no changes between model years) and the vehicle is still listed as new. GM would have been required to have a new VIN assigned to the vehicle when this was done denoting it's the new model year vehicle. With a few upgrades to the 2008 Cobalt, I'm sure this isn't the case here. This generally isn't done in low numbers either (applies to an entire fleet) so my guess is the dealership is trying to pass this one off as a 2008 when it's really a 2007 that didn't sell. Bad on the dealer.
Apparently the dealer is ripping the customer off.
hello, what about the year on the seat belt, Does that mean the model year, thanks
i got a toyota corolla le supposed to be 1999, the VIN telling me it is 1999,but the label on driver's door is 11/98. on seat belt tag it's 1998.
please anyone can tell me what is the acual model year? and why is this difference in the year bet the VIN & the labels????
Your Toyota is a 1999 built in November of 98, which is very common as most model lines begin production in july/august. Thats why you see 2010 models on a dealers lot in September of 2009
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Here is the site on how to read your VIN
http://www.vinguard.org/vin.htm
also, there is label somewhere around the driver's door where is said when car was made and where.
Also, car can be 2008 but made in 2007.