DeSoto VIN

[hemicap]

My VIN on y Title is 5879508 which every where I look it up says it's a 1947 but my Title says 1948. My question would be is it a 1948 built in the end of 1947 or is the title year wrong? 5885815 is the last 1947 S11c. so it would have been built in the last 6,000 cars that year, which tells me it is a 48 built late 47. Correct or do the numbers actually reflect the model year not a calendar year?

[Taylormade]

Some states title the car the year it was purchased.  My 1932 Dodge Brothers DL was built in January of 1931.

[hemicap]

Well that would make finding parts a little more difficult if you think you have one thing and the manufacturer thinks another. Good thing a lot of interchangeability in the old stuff.

 

[Chrycoman]

 

According to Chrysler Corporation's Model Chart and Serial Number Guide for the DeSoto S11C at the Detroit plant  -

 

1946 - 5,784,001 to 5,825,784

1947 - 5,825,485 to 5,885,815

1948 - 5,885,816 to 5,962,601

 

The 1946 models went into production at the end of the 1945 calendar year, 1947 model year began on January 1, 1947, and the 1948 series began in December, 1947.   Production ended in January, 1949.   

 

The marketing people declared that cars built from December 1, 1948 (serial number 5,948,453)  to the end of production were 1949 models.  The Engineering Department, though, stuck to having the 1948 model year end in January, 1949.

 

Now, the big problem with the 1946 to 1948 Chrysler Corporation cars is that virtually no changes were done year to year to easily tell them apart.  Thus your 1947 DeSoto looks exactly the same as the 1948.  So, the car dealer had a 1947 DeSoto on the lot and someone was looking for a new DeSoto and this car may have been exactly what he was looking for.  To keep the new car owner happy and able to brag that he bought a brand new 1948 DeSoto, that 1947 DeSoto became a 1948 DeSoto.  Or the title was issued in calendar year 1948 in a state that permits the calendar year a car is first sold to be recorded as the model year.  Either scenario, your "1947" DeSoto is a 1948.

 

Model years and calendar years are two different things.   Calendar years always start on January 1 and end on December 31.   Model years begin when a manufacturer says it does and ends when the manufacturer says it does.   Many times a model year is less than twelve months.  And many are more.   

 

[hemicap]

Thank you for the info, that makes sense. I wouldn't want to buy a car that had been sitting there a couple years thinking I was buying a new car but I bet it did happen.I guess in todays way of doing it, with new models coming out as early as September, anything made after that would be the next year.