Bill
=
= The latest sidescreen TR register will be out shortly.
= There are several things about this exercise that make me wonder....
= 1. How come around 1959/1960/1961 we owners get mixed up with what
year
=goes with what build number? Was this the start of that automotive
=depression and cars sat for a year or two before being registered and they
=were registered in the year sold?
Yes, import cars back then were registered in the year they were
sold. There weren't a lot of changes from year to year so the cars all
looked pretty much the same. My early '59 is actually registered and titled
as a '60. I can't remember exaclty but there is at least a year between the
build date on my BMHT certificate and purchase and first registration of my
car in the spring of 1960. If you look at the production numbers I believe
1959 - 1960 were the years of the highest production of the TR-3 and if a
car was a slow mover for some reason, bad color, over optioned, etc. it
could take a while to sell it even after it got shipped half-way around the
world to So. Cal. etc. (I have my Father-in-laws shipping papers for his
Morris Minor that was bought on personal export, I'll have to look and see
what the shipping time was from England to Seattle, that would give a close
approx. of the time to Cal. too.) AFAIK, this applies only to imports I've
never seen it on a American car of the era, you see it a lot on VW's,
Amphicars, Morris Minors, Fiats, Saabs, etc. Interestingly, my 1953 Minor
is actually registered as a '53, guess Minors were faster sellers than TRs!!
At some point in time (late '60s or early 70's) U.S. laws changed to require
a 'model year', there is still some leway in this but there can only be one
Jan. 1 in a cars model year. Now a '2001' model can be produced from Jan. 2
2000 to Dec. 31 2001.
Scott Augustine
'59 TR-3A, registered as a '60
'53 Morris Minor, registered as a '53
'66 Amphicar, registered as a '67
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