Greg MFn Z

Ok ok. Plz don't flame ASAP. I'm on YOUR SIDE! I live in Chandler, rode by a place in Scottsdale, that's rents A VETTE ;-) and he had a CGY C7 with a "Rent me" sign and also a early C4 Out front with a For Sale by Owner sign. 2 tone gold. I stopped just to inquire bout price. Rick, very nice answered my questioned and was super quick to inform me it was actually an 1983.. I normally try to avoid confrontation but in this instance couldn't help myself and chuckling I reminded him there was no public sold 83's , and that the only one was sitting in BG. He kept going on n on about the interior door handle ( T shaped vs O shaped ). We went back n forth a couple of minutes both standing our ground. So finally I compromised and said " So,,,, what you're sayn is this is a " early 84 vs a later 84 " meaning this had a early (his opinion is an 83) C4 design handle?? He half *** consented to that but not really. So, at this point I'm not bought in AT ALL to what he's sayn, BUT THEN , he says " In Sept of 1983 I had a friend who bought a 1983 and Chevrolet literally took the car back from him because it was actually titled as an 83. His point is,,,, there was actuall 83's sold to the public even tho Chevy tried a coverup. And his point also is that the early 84 he has on consignment in front of his store even tho titled as a 84 is indeed an 83. This is based on the design of the inside door handle. T shaped vs O shaped. I can take pictures tomorrow no problem. Does anyone have real knowledge about this issue. Now , please, don't hate in me, I'm not buying it, but what if I'm wrong???

zr1fred

The 84 vette was first sold in Mar of 83. All cars were designated as 84's. There were no cover ups. To put a finer point on it, all 83's are 84s despite their build date. If there is any mix up, it was an error in the title, all the cars are the same. There were many minor changes as the model year progressed. Not an original way to try to move an 84, people have been trying it for years.

DinoBob

I love two tone bronze 84s. The first handle shape was not just an '83 feature. :-)

Yeah, they came and took someone's car back. Suuuurrrre.

HlhnEast

I have wondered with the brilliant people at any states DMV how many '84s actually got the '83 recording. I never knew that about the handles. Pretty interesting.

Joe C

it's total BS, but I'd like to see those door handles. while you're taking a pic of the door handles, snap a pic of the VIN.

Joe C

I guess there could be typos on (paper copy) titles, but it's the actual number on the VIN tag attached to the car that defines the year. outside the NCM, I doubt you'll ever see a C4 with a "D" as a 10th character in the 17-character ID plate.

-=Jeff=-

IF I remember I will get pictures of them too.. my Father-in-law has an 84 with the early style door handle

found a handle pic

Joe C

damn - ya learn something new everyday!

RollaMo-LT4

Yep, the 10th character of the VIN will tell you exactly what year it is.

Build dates don't mean anything when it comes to model year.
Every model year includes build dates from the previous year.

The '84 is unique in that it started production quite a bit earlier than usual.

But even a 2014 Corvette (C7) is being built in the calender year 2013.
Auto manufacturers have always done this.

Kmcoldcars

Yes, indeed. The 1909 Model T Ford was introduced to the world in October of 1908. It obviously was built before that as they were available for sale in October of 1908.

Greg MFn Z

Just to be fair. He owns a car dealership, he understands how the build dates work and so do I. He , from what I understand, believes that 83's were built to be 83's and got sent out to dealers and then GM changed them to 84's along with the rest that were being built. I may not understand exactly his point as we did only talk for 10 minutes. I guess my interest lys in the mystery that maybe he has knowledge of something that us as a general mass doesn't have. ? I'm gonna try n stop by and get more info and a better understanding.

zr1fred

He's a dealer, he's trying to move cars, that's where his knowledge lays. Spit out the hook.

RollaMo-LT4

The 100% way to be absolutely correct is to post the VIN.
You don't need to post the whole number, just the 10th character.

My guess is you will find that he has a 1984 model.
Everyone wants to think they have found that rare gem tucked away that nobody knew about.
Your dealer friend is feeding you a line of BS.

If there were in fact any legitimate '83 models out there, it would be a well know fact.

The 10th character of the VIN will be the final judge.

blackbear bob

[QUOTE][/But even a 2014 Corvette (C7) is being built in the calender year 2013.
Auto manufacturers have always done this. QUOTE]
Ten years from now people will be saying that they have a very rare 2013 C7

nutz4c4

DinoBob

Every production first year C3 is a 1984. I have plenty of literature from pre introduction that clearly states this. There is no coverup.

shawn 84&92

There are a few early 84 only pieces. Early cars had PRND321 on the auto shift indicator, later cars had PRN (a D with a circle around it) D21

The hood seal around the wheel wells also extend about 3 inches onto the fender, 83 cars in magazines show it going back even further than that.

Also, early 84 cars had hatch struts that put the hatch up really high and made it hard to reach.

These are the things I know of, in 1988 I had and still have my early 84 and my brother had a late 84, these are the things I saw that were different.

Shawn

DinoBob

Wow. Great detail. I looked at the March '83 Car and Driver and the car they tested is clearly a pre-production car. It has the PRND321 on the console, and it has the original design doorsills with "Corvette" embossed on the outer side of the rail. They abandoned this before production because the relief "printed" in the carpet of the door.

FOURSPEEDVETTE

Interesting thread. My brother once owned a "1970 1/2" Camaro Rally Sport.

RollaMo-LT4

That is a good example.
The (at the time) new Camaro had a very late release compared to the industry average.
Normally, a 1970 model would have been released in the fall of 1969.

Since the Camaro was a complete re-design it wasn't released until February of 1970.
Most of the magazines at the time dubbed it the "1970 1/2 Camaro".

I don't think GM ever referred to it that way though.

I really wanted one of those cars when they came out, but my dad said otherwise. LOL
I did end up with a used 1969 Camaro SS by 1974.