Impreza WRX Club Inc. Forum

^^^ It was & likely still is the case when I worked for Mitsubishi.

Actually My understanding is Subaru like several other manufactures change their Model year late in the year.

IE a car can be manufacted in oct 2006 but be model yr 2007.
(ie it would contain all the little upgrades for that year .. different coloured trim maybe )
.

Now the compliance plate is a legal bit of foolery.
Its "LEGAL" manufacture date is whatever is stamped on the compliance plate.
Howver the date its put on the car might actually be later than that. As the car manufacturers might have a "backlog" of plates they have stockpiled.

I have been told that due the new regs coming in australia and Victoria .. (ie ESC being fitted to all cars by a set compliance plate date) the companies might ship cars that by a miracle were manufactured before that date.

Now the third thing is the unique Ident number .. which should be able to track it.

so we now have the date it was actually manufactured
a defined MY mainly for marketing purposes (unless a major change also .. like the new WRX shape).
The date trackable from the VIN
The date that is on the compliance plate.
the date the compliance plate was really put on the car.
the date it was registered

all of which were probably different.