|
The model year of a product is a number used worldwide, but with a high level of prominence in North America, to describe approximately when a product was produced, and it usually indicates the coinciding base specification (design revision number) of that product. The model year and the actual calendar year of production rarely coincide. For example, a 2009 model year automobile is available during most of the 2009 calendar year, but is usually also available from the third quarter of 2008 because production of the 2009 model began in July and August 2008. When a new model is introduced there may be an additional delay to retool and retrain for production of the new model. The variables of build date and design revision number are semi-independent. There is no natural law that forces one to be strictly correlated to the other, other than that # future design revisions cannot have been built in the past, and # most products, in most contexts, tend to be built to the design revision that was the latest one at the time of building. The idea of strongly correlating build year to design revision number took many years to become a meme in consumer culture. ==Automobiles== Alfred P. Sloan extended the idea of yearly fashion-change from clothing to automobiles in the 1920s. His company, General Motors, was the first to introduce planned obsolescence by means of making the production date, and thus the car's newness or lack of it, visually discernible. European and Japanese automakers can utilise the term "model year" in respect of model availability dates in North American markets: these often receive updated models significantly later than domestic markets, especially in the event of unforeseen slow sales causing an inventory build-up of earlier versions. The practice of identifying revisions of automobiles by their "model year" is strongest in Canada and the United States. Typically, complete vehicle redesigns of long-standing models occur in cycles of at least five years, with one or two "facelifts" during the model cycle, and manufacturers introduce such redesigns at various times throughout a calendar year. Additionally, introductions of new models are often phased in around the world, meaning that a "2004 model" of a particular vehicle may actually refer to two entirely different vehicles in different countries. Therefore, the more common practice for enthusiasts and motoring writers in other countries is to identify major revisions using the manufacturer's identifier for each revision. For instance, aficionados will classify the Holden Commodore (a popular Australian car) according to the following series: VB (introduced in 1978), VC (1980), VH (1981), VK (1984), VL (1986), VN (1988), VP (1991), VR (1993), VS (1995), VT (1997), VX (2000), VY (2002), VZ (2004), VE (2006) and VF (2013). This is done for the simple reason of making the cars more easily distinguished. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Model year」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|