1924 or 1925 Dodge touring car

[MCELLIOTT1957]

I am in the process of correcting the correct VIN on the passenger side frame rail. I had police over to verify that the number on the title was not correct for the car. He filled out documents to fulfill title number adjustment. I am also wondering if the title year of car should be corrected as well. The VIN on car was dated to Sept 11th to September 30th 1924. But the book of numbers says it is a 1925 series. If it is like new cars and old cars where the distinct year of car should match to following year of car, even though it was put together in 1924. So in your opinion,  anyone can offer advise please, Shall the title be a 1924 or since it falls into 1925 series of numbers, be a 1925 Dodge? Thank you

[Minibago]

The very early cars were designated by year of manufacture but later (not sure when) any car made after July was designated as the following year model.

[22touring]

What Minibago said, but I believe the same practice continues to this day.  All of the production line employees (so-called "line" employees) of all three American car manufacturers, I think, get the last two weeks of July off for vacation, during which time all the production line, parts and logistical specialists ("staff" employees) work 20-hour days to switch the line over to the new models.  As of August 1 or thereabouts the company starts producing next year's models, but most states still title the cars produced before December 31 as this year's model.

 

Incidentally, my friends in the automobile industry tell me that this two-week period, when they switch the production line over to the new models, is extremely stressful.  There have even been cases where they couldn't get the production line for the new models running properly during that two week period, so they had to keep the old production line running under the new one, until they got the new one running properly and could remove the old line.  That doesn't sound like very much fun to me!  The automobile business has always been a really tough one in which to make money.  "Unit cost" has a lot to do with it.  You've got to sell lots of units to get the unit cost down, so you re-style every year or two in order to sell more units.  That's why Dillon, Read & Co. sold DB to Walter Chrysler: manufacturing automobiles was a tougher business to be in than the bankers thought it would be, and profits could be elusive without major periodic styling and mechanical changes. 

[Mark Gregush]

As was pointed out in your posts on FB, depends on what state the was sold in did at the time. Some went by calendar year some went with model year. There is NO correct answer. Flip a coin and make a choice. In the long run it really does not matter because you would get arguments later from both sides saying what they think is right no matter what you do at this point. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Mark Gregush (see edit history)

[MCELLIOTT1957]

Thank you all for your help. I think I will keep it as a '24 Dodge and just get the title updated with the "VIN" to reflect the chassis. The person that had the car before me, took paperwork when he bought the car, to a currency exchange and totally put numbers on the title from out of nowhere and the owner did not bother verifying if numbers were correct. I think that the currency exchange employee put the title number as the vin number. Anyway, I was able to have lhe police over to verify the correct VIN what it should be and filled out the form so I can get the right number where it matters.