[svxistentialist]

Originally Posted by ensteele

Joe

Does this car have auto or manual seat belts? I think it is a 93, not a 94 by the production dates. I could be wrong.

Earl

The S40 model spec ran from Nov '93 to July '94 as stated above.

The car is registered in England as being a '94 registered car. As an import both in England or in Ireland the car becomes registered here based on the date of original registration in Japan. This firmly implies the car was first registered in the home market in Japan in 1994. You will appreciate with the Model dates listed above this allows a very narrow window regards the original registration.

Having said that, there is absolutely no reason to assume that the car was both built in 94 and registered in 94. It's totally possibly it was built in '93 and later registered to the first owner in Japan in '94. If you look at the VIN of my '95 car you will see it is almost certain it was built in '93!

Just as a "for instance" I'm sure, if you check, that practically all of the cars registered in the US as '92 model cars were actually built in Gunma in '91, then stockpiled and shipped in anticipation of the demand after launch.

Oh, one last thing. No JDM market car ever got automatic seat belts.
To the best of my knowledge only the USA got that type of seatbelt.

Joe