Year model and VIN

[chevy71052]

I'm looking at a 2001 Liberty to purchase. The dealer calls it a 2001, it has the newer body style, but according to the VIN it should be a 2000 model. Can someone explain this to me?

[Ray Davis]

It is very common that the model year is one year (sometimes two) beyond the chassis year. The coaches are sold and registered as the year of the conversion, not the year of the vehicle. As such, there is generally 6-9 months between the time the coach is built, and the time it is converted.

I don't ever think I've seen a coach with the same year for manufacture and conversion. However, I have seen a couple with 2 or more years between.


Ray

[sawdust_128]

I have just experienced the same phenomenon and must admit that I did not escape. I have come to deal with it as if it were an attack by the BORG. These vehicles really aren't manufactured. They are a collective of foreign and alien parts that have ben assimilated into a vehicle unit. They come into existence as a concept and exist perpetually as a work in progress. Look at the title and go with it -- Resistance is Futile!!!

Word of caution, don't look at the serial number components report, else you will inflict yourself beyond hopes of recovery. As an example, I recently saw:

Title 2001
Vin 2000
Engine manufacture 1998
etc.

That is a bottomless rat hole the likes of which you do not wish to descend.

Another observation: It appears that in the Borg scheme,

You are the raw material (refered to as "meat" on this forum),

Your bus is the Assimilated vehicle unit which once acquired, serves as a canvass for creative, and only sometimes but not necessarily useful updates, upgrades, modifications, and alterations all cloaked by and promoted under the concept of the creation of the Universe known as "THE BIG BLING".

POG is the collective hive to which you will always return once you have been assimilated.

Escape, like resistance, is Futile!!! You have been warned.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Aaaah....Chevy 71052, welcome to the asylum. This is the place where we answer every single one of your questions. Occasionally we will even give you the correct answer, which both Ray and Ed have done.

Do not worry about anything other than the model year it says on the title or the registration. That is what your coach is. The year is determined by the converter, Liberty in this case. Because the shell (the bus part) is treated as a having a different model year it just means that it took the converter some time to create the finished product.

That year was a transition year. Prevost went to the new style (XLII) shell in their model year 2000, but converters almost exclusively titled them as 2001 conversions. On occasion the shell and title will have the same year, but for the most part there will be a model year difference.

[Larry W]

My 2000 Royale has rivets. A 99 chassis the last year of rivets.

[garyde]

If you read other sites like RV.Net, you will see that the RV industry makes it a habit to use chasis from previous years to build their Coaches , its not uncommon. When you think about it it makes sense given the timing of building a Coach from beginning to end can take a considerable amount of time.