Handbook

[cooperman]

Here's one for the pedants!
According to the VIN my estate was manufactured in '71 but on the log book registered in August '72, would it have come with a'71 or '72 handbook?
Where they put in by the dealer as the car was sold or at manufacture?
Thanks, Marcus

[1972nail]

I would have thought the manufacturer would have added the handbook in the factory at the end of the production line. One reason is that during production minor updates would have been done and the handbook would have reflected those changes. Dealers would not have been so careful or would have known the changes in enough detail to know which car needed the revised books. The books seemed to change at about 6 monthly intervals and sometimes less.

Your 71 car would probably have been an 1159 with square vent dash but the August 72 model would have been a 1256 with round vents and the later book would have reflected that.

It would also make sense that if dealers had a stash of Viva ones and didn't sell enough cars to use them all up then there would have been a lot of new old stock ones on the market over the coming years.

So my thoughts are that your car would have received a 1971 handbook at the factory and not an updated 1972 book at the dealer.