What would you do if you bought a car that you were told was a 2004 and 2 yrs later you take it in for repair and find out it's a 2003. Well thats what happened to me today. it's my wifes car and it's been a pain in the *** since day one. it's a pontiac grand prix GTP. Year unsure of I'm thinking of driving it up the used car dealers ***. I didn't take it to him for the repair. I think I have to look at my options here. What would you do?

 

See if the lot you got it from will do a Carfax on it. If not, then drive it up his ***!!

 

what did all the paperwork that you signed when you bought the car say the year was? if you signed the paper for a 2004 car and it was stated it was a 2004 car then you bought something that was misrepresented for a higher value then what it was worth. i'd go after them..... there has to be a few thousand dollars worth of value between a 2003 and 2004 car.....

 

All paper work states 2004. I was going to have new tires and wheel alignment done and needed new tie rod ends. So they got the ones for a 2004 and told me they were wrong because my car was a 2003.

 

attorney time...

 

run the vin on carfax. don't buy the report but it'll tell you the year etc of the car. i've seen instances where early models had some left over parts put on them from the last year......

 

On the VIN plate/sticker in the door jamb there should be a build date.

It will look something like this...

06/2003
07/2003
04/2003
08/2003

"Build date" and "model year" can be deceptive. Usually starting in about August (08) of the current year the "model year" changes.

It can get even worse...For example, Ford never built a 1998 F250HD/F350. Starting in about 08/1997 the bodystyle changed and all the trucks were 1999 model year.

So, what I'm saying is your car could very well in fact be a 2004 model year but be close enough to the transition date that it still uses the build platform of the 2003 build year.

Also, what shop did you take this to? If it was the OEM dealer all they have to do is run the VIN and all the parts will show up on the parts schematic. It's the private label shops and aftermarket parts houses which have difficulty locating the correct parts---aftermarket parts book aren't nearly as correct as OEM.

Look at your VIN tag and post up here what the month/year build date is...that will instantly solve the issue.

Or, you can contact any GM dealer who will run the VIN and tell you down to the day of the month it was built.

Hope this helps,

Dan

 

Yeah what Dan says.

I would bet that someone is going off of the build date and not the VIN date. With GMs, IIRC, anything built in July or later becomes the next year's vehicle.

This isn't always true as they'll sometimes early release a few vehicles in the spring and give them the next year's dating.

What are all the problems that you are having? Gimme a list and I can tell you how common they are. :upup:

 

Did you find the VIN sticker?

Any updates?

 

Yea, you can drive it up his or through the front window of the dealership.