F150 VIN Question

What Year is Our F150?

A used car buying question from Marylou C. in Canada...
F150 VIN question - What year is my truck?

We recently bought what we thought was a 2004 F150 super crew about three weeks ago and today, when we were tiding up the back & glove box, we found a battery receipt for a 2003 F150, so we checked the side door and it said it's a 2003 F150 made in October.

Does the dealer have the legal right to sell it too us as a 2004?? Our dealer papers claim its a 2004.

Answer:

I don't want to necessarily get into giving legal advice as I'm not a lawyer, but if your contracts are all showing it as a 2004 F150 when in fact it is not, then I would certainly believe that you'd be entitled to returning the truck.

That I'm aware of they would have no way to legally bind you to the contract as they misrepresented the truck, but again a lawyer would be able to better advise you on that.

One quick check that you can do is take a look at the 10th digit of the vehicle identification number, otherwise known as the VIN, and if it is a 4, then your F150 VIN shows it classified as a 2004. If it is a 3, then the truck is a 2003. You can learn all about VIN's on my VIN Number Decoder page.

In addition, you could use the AutoCheck® VIN decoder which will give you a quick breakdown of the VIN...Year, Make, Model, Country of Assembly and how many public records exist (if you're interested), etc.

It sounds to me like the truck was manufactured in 2003, but in reality was an early model 2004. The VIN will essentially have the final say as to what year it truly is.

Hope this answered your question, but if it didn't feel free to contact me again and I'll see how I can help further.

Take care,
Justin

Marylou

Hi Justin, Your information was very valuable to us. The 10th digit of our F150 VIN was in fact a 4. Thanks for saving us an embarrassing moment at the dealership.

Marylou C.

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