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Actually it depends on the country. From my limited understanding a car's year is classified by date sold in some countries. I believe Australia was this way? Mine has the plate in the door stating the date of manufacture as 12/78. In the States they are classified by the manufacturers stated model year as you outlined. Yours sounds as if it would be classified as a 1980 model here. Your door sticker should tell you date of manufacture if it's still there. There's really little to no difference between the two though.
Actually it depends on the country. From my limited understanding a car's year is classified by date sold in some countries. I believe Australia was this way? Mine has the plate in the door stating the date of manufacture as 12/78. In the States they are classified by the manufacturers stated model year as you outlined. Yours sounds as if it would be classified as a 1980 model here. Your door sticker should tell you date of manufacture if it's still there. There's really little to no difference between the two though.
Thanks. I'm pretty sure I will be able to locate the actual date of the build, but what I'm curious to know is if it would be a referred to as a 79 model or an 80 model. If there were no differences at all between both 79 and 80 models then based on chassis number I would class it as a 1980 (even though it may have been built in 79). Would that sound correct ?
I am adding a personalized rego plate to the car with its model year on it, so I don't want to look like a **** driving about displaying the wrong model
The door jam labels were only required on US cars for bumper and safety standard compliance. If this was sold new in Europe, it won't have the label. The OP needs to double check the S/N, as all export cars began with SA22C-50000 numbers. He lists it above at SA22C-005, which makes no sense.
The parts fiche lists the S/N ranges, produced by month. You can view / download the manual from the fox site as mentioned many times on these forums. As GySgtFrank says, some countries class the year as when the vehicle is first registered. Basically, 79's and 80's are almost identical.
The factory changed over to 80 production in July of 79. 80's had a host of small changes, they used a one year only, electronic ignition (with the ignitors mounted in a box on the drivers inner fender) the door handles have a chrome trim band on them along with a chrome cap cover on the upper attachment point. The shift surround also had a chrome trim around the boot. The rear bumper had 2 small rubber pads on the bottom edge that were never there before or after 1980. The gauge faces were also re designed with more hash marks on the tach, speedo and clock. Post up some pictures of these areas to confirm the year.
The door jam labels were only required on US cars for bumper and safety standard compliance. If this was sold new in Europe, it won't have the label. The OP needs to double check the S/N, as all export cars began with SA22C-50000 numbers. He lists it above at SA22C-005, which makes no sense.
The parts fiche lists the S/N ranges, produced by month. You can view / download the manual from the fox site as mentioned many times on these forums. As GySgtFrank says, some countries class the year as when the vehicle is first registered. Basically, 79's and 80's are almost identical.
The factory changed over to 80 production in July of 79. 80's had a host of small changes, they used a one year only, electronic ignition (with the ignitors mounted in a box on the drivers inner fender) the door handles have a chrome trim band on them along with a chrome cap cover on the upper attachment point. The shift surround also had a chrome trim around the boot. The rear bumper had 2 small rubber pads on the bottom edge that were never there before or after 1980. The gauge faces were also re designed with more hash marks on the tach, speedo and clock. Post up some pictures of these areas to confirm the year.
I think that it was built July 79 Chrome around shift boot Chrome strip and door bins
I'll be dipped...... I'm guessing the extra 2 zero placeholders in the S/N are a European or Deutschland requirement? For arguments sake, your car appears to be SA22C 583475 in Sunbeam Silver. The first 1980 car is something like 568501 or 03. According to the chart in the parts fiche, your car was assembled right at the end of Sept 79, making it a 1980. Beginning S/N for Sept is 578961, while beginning # for Oct. is 583527. Yours is 52 cars before that.
You car has the 80 chrome on the shift surround, but 79 style arm rests and window cranks. (80 window cranks had silver **** centers while 79's were solid interior color). Don't forget, sometimes, previous owners will switch out random parts. Your cluster is metric (as it should be) but looks like the 1980 style. Here are a couple pics of the 80 rear bumper pads and Ignition box. I'd say you have a 1980 version. You have "map pocket" door panels, that tells me its a GS model. At that time, S models still came w/o the pockets.
I'll be dipped...... I'm guessing the extra 2 zero placeholders in the S/N are a European or Deutschland requirement? For arguments sake, your car appears to be SA22C 583475 in Sunbeam Silver. The first 1980 car is something like 568501 or 03. According to the chart in the parts fiche, your car was assembled right at the end of Sept 79, making it a 1980. Beginning S/N for Sept is 578961, while beginning # for Oct. is 583527. Yours is 52 cars before that.
You car has the 80 chrome on the shift surround, but 79 style arm rests and window cranks. (80 window cranks had silver **** centers while 79's were solid interior color). Don't forget, sometimes, previous owners will switch out random parts. Your cluster is metric (as it should be) but looks like the 1980 style. Here are a couple pics of the 80 rear bumper pads and Ignition box. I'd say you have a 1980 version. You have "map pocket" door panels, that tells me its a GS model. At that time, S models still came w/o the pockets.
Does your car have the 5 MPH bumpers (with the small shocks attaching it to the body) or are they attached solid with brackets like the JDM cars? That could explain the lack of the rear bumper cushions. European bumpers might be the same as the JDM cars, not really sure.
Remember, the door jam label on the US cars, is to confirm the vehicles compliance to US federal safety and bumper standards in effect at the date of manufacture. People now just associate the tag as the the place to find the month the car was built.
FYI my bumpers are fixed solid with brackets and black plastic shock absorber looking end mouldings.
Confused as to why the German rego doc says 31.07.79 if the build number refers to late September 1979. Anyone understand old German registration docs ?
Could it be that it was parts manufactured in Japan and then shipped to Mazda, Flensberg, Germany 31.07.79. Assembled in late September 79 by Mazda Germany and put on the road as a 1980 model ?
Do they VIN stamp a car only once it is fully assembled ? It would sound logical.
Just applied for a "collectors car certificate" due to how original this car is. Next step is a vintage personalised plate. Maybe i should get a plate saying [ 79 or 80 ] :}
Do they VIN stamp a car only once it is fully assembled ? It would sound logical.
its good question, i'm not sure when the vin gets stamped on, for sure its before it leaves the factory in Japan though.
also for sure the vin exists on paper way before the car is built, its how they keep track of the parts for the car.
i'm not sure about the SA22, but with later cars the different markets (Japan, North America, Australasia, Europe, etc) the different markets have different stop and start dates for the model years.
for example, the FD starts in Japan in October 1991, North America starts in December and i'm not sure about Europe, but its different again.
again i don't know about the SA22's, i feel like the change point would be closer to the same for everyone
I've dug through the archives and still haven't found the answer..
I have just picked up a one owner from new German SA22C
First registered in Jan 1980 so I assume it was built in 1979. Here is the chassis number SA22C00583475 1
Model Year Production Date Serial Number
1979 3/78-6/79 500001-566640
1980 6/79-9/80 566641-631000
From my research: Model year 1980 were produced between 06/79 - 09/80
Would mine be 'classed' as a 79 model or 80 model?
My guess is that it's a 1980 model. Could someone please clarify this ?
Thanks
Hey guys,
I think I can shed some light on this as I am German and have been restoring first gen RX-7 for a while. So some quick remarks:
- On German cars in general and RX-7 in specific you won't find any stickers that state the production date. Not in the door jamb and not elsewhere. Also non of the registration documents will state this date. The only date you will find in the registration documents is the date of the first registration of the car. This can mean that the car was sold on or around this date but first registration can also be on the selling dealer for different reasons.
- In Germany we don't go by model-years when saying "this is a 79 or this is a 80 RX-7". Everything that was first registered in 79 would be called a 79 and later sold as a 79 on the used car market. The reason for this can be seen in the first remark as we would not know the production date but only the registration date.
- The date stated in the document in the picture (31st July 1979) is NOT the production nor registration date, but the date of the so-called "Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis" which means "Official operating permit". This permit has to be issued by the German traffic inspecition office for every type of vehicle and even every third party car-part etc. So every new car will get this permit and even when small parts on the car were changed or updated it would have to be renewed. This date is not specific for the car but for all RX-7 in Germany first registered after the 31st of July 1979.
- Please don't use American (interior) specs as a hint for production date when talking about 79/80 RX-7 sold in Germany. For example we never had cars with the center-speaker in the dash and all cars had the chrome interior trim from the beginning. Also for example we never had 2+0 but only cars with rear seats. To my understanding there are only two versions of 79/80 cars that were sold here. The visible changes, that happened somewhere in mid 79 were as follows:
1. Rear seats fitted with seat-belts (older cars had the mounting holes but no belts)
2. Electric wiring of the rear hatch changed to the style without contacts on the struts (so to the coil-type wires)
3. Trunk-finisher plastic-piece changed from the small square piece to the one with the two long extensions.
There might have been additional changes in the engine management that I don't know in detail. One could come to the assumption that these changes were made around the same time as the change of the 79/80 model year in the US. This would also explain why the official operation permit was renewed on the 31st of July 1979.
- Also for example the differences shown on the orange car above are not valid for German vehicles. We never had these small extensions on the rear bumper which were used in the US due to safety regulations. Also the engine electrics look different on German cars.
- To sum up, I would agree with the opinion stated here by others that the car was most likely produced in September 1979. I don't have any reason to believe that the VIN production table is not correct for European cars. They were just changed to the different markets. For example Belgian and Dutch RX-7s had different rear-view mirrors than Germans and so on.
- Please also keep in mind that the number of cars sold in Germany was rather low and there are very few original cars left today. I have never seen a 79 car with lets say under 40k miles in Germany. Lots of cars are modified (radios, interior panels etc.).
I found this thread very interesting with some good information about the 1980 model year. However, it did remind me of a question I’ve had for a while pertaining to my car’s manufacture date and the serial number. Based on the sticker in the door jamb of my car it clearly states the car was manufactured 04/80 (April) but it shows the serial number should actually fall in March’s production sequence based on the Parts Catalog list of monthly starting VIN for USA and Canada. Attached is a picture of the sticker. Anyone have any thoughts on why the discrepancy?
Just my two cents was because it is only 35 vehicles before the specified 04/80 starting VIN of 611383 it may have started manufacture at the very end of March and actually finished in MAY. Or alternately the car was assembled at the end of March but the sticker was printed and attached in May. I have nothing to support either of these scenarios, they are just arbitrary ideas. I’d be interested if anyone has any knowledge of when these stickers were actually applied in the manufacturing process that may help clarify the discrepancy.
Just my two cents was because it is only 35 vehicles before the specified 04/80 starting VIN of 611383 it may have started manufacture at the very end of March and actually finished in MAY. Or alternately the car was assembled at the end of March but the sticker was printed and attached in May. I have nothing to support either of these scenarios, they are just arbitrary ideas. I’d be interested if anyone has any knowledge of when these stickers were actually applied in the manufacturing process that may help clarify the discrepancy.
either of those could be the case. the order of cars out of the factory is pretty close to number order, but there are exceptions so its actually totally possible that is the case.
for example the last 1995 Rx7 built was 400526, built 12/25/1995, but the highest vin is 400530 which was built 12/22/1995
oh and i should mention that the 1986+ cars have a date in the parts catalog, and we've come to learn that this is the date it was SCHEDULED to be built, but then the warranty report shows the ACTUAL date it was built.
so there is that too. usually Mazda runs on time, we only figured this out because 2023 was so bad, they were like 6 weeks off! sticker is probably the scheduled date, although we don't know
so between the cars not quite being in order, and the scheduled date vs actual date, you probably have your answer.
It's a good question, one I've never saw before. That door jam label was applied to North American, export cars only. Maybe it wasn't part of the actual assembly line build process, but something applied after the vehicles were sorted for their destination? I'm sure there are retired factory workers that could shed some light, but I bet they never would have imagined that a certain group of enthusiasts would be pondering it, some 45 years later. How's the car running after the rebuild? The carburetor issues all sorted?
The other scenario that is common with manufacturers is when something is deemed unsatisfactory, paint run, trim, et al. The vehicle will be pulled from the line and sent back to be fixed. The sticker would likely not be affixed until it was completely up to snuff. This would be especially true with Mazda. Just a guess.
[QUOTE=I'm sure there are retired factory workers that could shed some light[/QUOTE]
This leads to another question. Is there a website similar to this one within Japan? I would think so, and if so, do they have contacts or information for Mazda production for the late 70’s to early 80’s. But then again if it does exist, I would think we’d have heard of it by now.
To answer your question the car is running great and the carburetor is all sorted out. I’m thinking of taking it on a 300-mile round trip to visit a friend who also has a 1980 LS.
To answer your question the car is running great and the carburetor is all sorted out. I’m thinking of taking it on a 300-mile round trip to visit a friend who also has a 1980 LS.
Glad its back up and humming along. Is Dave going to have another get-to-gether? I would consider trying to make one. I'm aware of the RX7fb forum, based in the UK and the AusRotary forum from Australia, but none in JP.
Just one thing to add from my side concerning production dates. In Germany and in the UK (and probably elsewhere) it is possible to write to the respective countries Mazda representation and ask them about the exact production date stating your cars VIN. What you get in return is a letter from them stating the "date of manufacture". I am not sure if the US Mazda representation does this, but it is worth a try. They can check with Mazda in Hiroshima and clarify the exact date. I have done this in Germany before and have seen such letters provided by Mazda in the UK and one of the was for a US-import car actually.
05-15-24, 04:55 PM
