QUOTE(type47 @ Jan 21 2010, 08:11 AM)
Even though built in 72, it would be a Model Year 73 car although I always had the impression that the factory took the month of August off for vacation and would guess the number is a "9" for when production started again after vacation.
Jim - IIRC July is the European (& Brit?) month for summer "Holiday", & part is usually used to retool as needed for heavy industrial, & auto model year change overs. Gustl, Sir Andy & some of the other Euro types on here can probably confirm that.
Mine is definitely a 1973 MY, as denoted by the 47
3 of the VIN & I'm betting that it was 8/72, & there are many others built in 8/72, as discussed below, but with a twist!?.
I've posted the "8" or "9" build date question at the Originality & History forum & it will be interesting how folks weigh in there:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=103085It seems more likely that there would be an incomplete or partially punched dot in the "8" - rather than some random "extra dot" punched in a "9" .....
.... This sounds like the Florida "Hanging Chad" dilemma!
However, the mystery deepens, as you'll see in the above O&H topic on the build date, in that there appears to be out of order VINs on
at least 3 - 1973 2Ls built in Aug. & Sept. 1972, including mine - which are documented at that link, but summarized as follows:
4732901102 - built 9/72 (lives in Anaheim Hills CA near me, formerly in OR &/or ID)
4732901650 - built 8/72 (lives outside of Atlanta with ME733 on here)
4732901954 - built 8/72 ?? (mine in Orange CA)
So - did VW-Porsche actually build 914's out of VIN order in early 1972 for the 1973 MY (&/or any other time)? 
... or is the 01102 VIN sticker's date wrong? ... or something else? I'd ask PCNA what their records & Kardex on my 914 says, but they're so F'ed-up that it would be totally unreliable, as discussed earlier in this thread & on another regarding my COA problems at the O&H Forum.
When I was initially checking with PCNA's Customer Care Dept. on whether or not my HO (battery/fuel lines) & BO (Fuchs 2L Alloy Wheels) Recalls were ever done on my 914, their gal there said that:
1. It was first sold in Sept. 1973 -
over a year after it was built & highly unlikely with the 2.0s being such a hot seller in 73 & 74!
... BTW - she also said it looked like a 9/72 build date on the Kardex microfilm, but after looking at my sticker, it's easy to see how that could have been misread as a 9 rather than 8, when the Kardex was filled out by hand at the factory.
2. That the sale was in Connecticut -
not California, as my registration indicated!
... BTW - my initial Calif Registration from 12/26/75 indicated 11/9/72 as the first sold date in CA, which PCNA supposedly did change after I emailed a pic of the reg. card.
3. In my ongoing COA battles with them, PCNA insists on 2 separate COA's & my 3rd request to have them correct it -
that "for my 914 only" apparently - that the #31 interior is "Black" - not the actual Beige as on my car & despite the fact that several other COAs which I've found online correctly list #11 as Black & as both #11 & #31 are listed in the period documentation for Porsche+Audi dealers in the 1970-76 MYs.
This is also a side discussion with pix of those documents at the above noted Build Date Question link to the O&H Forum.
Absolutely excellent study Tom, I think I will try to do mine. 
![popcorn[1].gif](http://www.914world.com/bbs2/style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)
then start moving stuff out to the new shed my son & I built this summer!
....... I'll maintain that we ALL are!
is that white rubbery plastic stuff I found between the body skind in the "hole" here???? 
it again before I'm too old & decrepit to do so!!!! 
