Re: Vehicle Production Year

[Sam Kass <samkass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm a newbie, but I do recall reading about this.  There was apparently 
some weirdness about 1970 in the Alfa lineup.  There are some details in 
the Alfa Spider FAQ:
http://spiderfaq.home.att.net/dev_his.htm#Series_2
http://spiderfaq.home.att.net/maintain.htm
(on the 2nd link, 5-6 paragraphs in, they start talking about the 1970 
spiders.)

Summary: Apparently in 1970 emissions laws and related paperwork 
changed.  There are apparently many importers that tried to get around 
the rules by taking a car produced in 1970 and labelling it as a 1969.  
And many times the new cars would sit on the dock going through the new 
paperwork and not get sold and titled until the next year, in 1971.  
Thus, there are apparently almost no Alfa Spiders with 1970 titles-- 
even the ones built in 1970 are titled either 1969 or 1971.  I saw 
another web site list the number of 1970-titled Alfa Spiders at two, but 
I don't know how accurate that count is.  Anyway, the FAQ also lists 
another interesting tidbit-- that spiders produced in 1971 had the 2.0L 
engine, but almost all US-titled "1971" cars use the 1750 engine, since 
they're generally actually 1970 cars backlogged into the next year.
   --Sam
   1988 Spider Graduate
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