I'm going to jump out on a limb and say finish date. It makes the most sense as only a shell isn't considered built.

 

In the old days, the date code would be hand stamped on a plate or sticker and affixed near the end of the line. When the line was running fast, a worker would stamp a bunch of plates ahead of time and sometimes the cars for those plates wouldn't pass by that location until the next shift or next day.

Nowadays, I assume a printer spits out a label just-in-time to be applied to the correct car as it passes by. I believe that once the car crosses a line on the floor at the end of the assembly line, it is considered shipped and counts in the day's production.

 

The build date is not when it crosses the finish line. I can't remember if it's before or after paint, but definitely before trim and final. SIA defines build date as the date on which the car is assigned a VIN. During the initial stages of production, each car has an RFID tag attached to it; the build date is when the RFID tag is removed and replaced with a plate stamped with the VIN. (Must be immediately after paint, now that I think about it.) At this point, the car is anywhere from 24 to 36 hours from being finished.

 

HawkWagon,

Thanks! The reason I was asking is because my car has a build date of July 2, 2010, which is the Friday before SIA's two-week summer shutdown. So apparently my car sat inside the factory in a partially-assembled state for two weeks. (I had wondered if it had in fact been completed on that day and spent the two next weeks in a parking lot behind the factory - when of course I would have preferred to be driving it! )

 

Hmmm, isn't there an old saying about things being built on a Fri right at "quittin time" ?

 

I know...

 

The old Detroit adage was never buy a car built on a Monday or Friday.

 

Tom Elger, the tour coordinator at SIA, brought this up when I was there last week. Because their procedures are so meticulously spelled out, and because they do many more inspections and quality checks than the Big Three, SIA believe they have eliminated the Friday afternoon/Monday morning phenomenon. Of course you'd expect a manufacturer to say that, but in this case it may be true.

 

I took the tour of SIA this past June, but couldn't quite recall what Tom said about the "build date" of a car (yes he also told our group about the quality inspections). I sent him an email asking to remind me what the "build date" actually means, but got no response. I suppose he gets flooded with emails.

I'm glad you remembered what Tom said. Anyway, I was just curious. My new Outback does not appear to suffer from Friday-itis, or vacation-itis, or even parking lot rash. So it's all good.

 

Can you tell the build date from the sticker? I've got the VIN, sticker (printout) but no car yet - not until Monday. - LongJnSilver -

 

if you call SOA (1-800-SUBARU3) and give them the last 8 of the VIN, they can tell you.