Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Determination of Vehicle Age
9. For the purposes of tariff item No. 9897.00.00, the age of a motor vehicle is determined by the month and year during which work was completed on the vehicle at the place of main assembly. For example, a vehicle manufactured in May 1983 would be considered to be 15 years old on May 1, 1998. Information concerning the date of manufacture is provided on the manufacturer's compliance label which, under the Motor Vehicle Safety Actand Regulations, must be affixed to all buses manufactured subsequent to January 1, 1971, and to all vehicles less than 15 years old.

10. The "model year" of vehicles is not a sufficient factor in determining the age of imported used or second-hand vehicles. For example, a "1983" vehicle manufactured in June 1983 would not be admissible until June 1, 1998, and a "1984" vehicle manufactured in September 1983 would not be admissible until September 1, 1998.





Here you go.
Right out of the customs act !!! So .....i hope this arms you for a good fight !!
I don't want to hear of anybody getting screwed because customs was trying to use the date when the vehicle was first registered !! That date means nothing. Make them look at the data plate on the vehicle.
It is your right to do so.

cheers

This is widely known but hard to prove. The registration date is the only document that has a date for customs to go by. I did squeek my Toyota through the system a couple a years ago, it arrived 2 weeks shy of the registration date being mature. I used a Japanese Toyota parts program to print out the build date of mine based on the chassis number. It looked to be an official document from Toyota, the final say is up to the Customs agent, they have a lot of range to decide what to do with your vehicle and not even have to answer for it.

39Ronin wrote:This is widely known but hard to prove. The registration date is the only document that has a date for customs to go by. I did squeek my Toyota through the system a couple a years ago, it arrived 2 weeks shy of the registration date being mature. I used a Japanese Toyota parts program to print out the build date of mine based on the chassis number. It looked to be an official document from Toyota, the final say is up to the Customs agent, they have a lot of range to decide what to do with your vehicle and not even have to answer for it.

x2

fishslapper wrote:I don't want to hear of anybody getting screwed because customs was trying to use the date when the vehicle was first registered !! That date means nothing. Make them look at the data plate on the vehicle.
It is your right to do so.

cheers

You can't pull the month/year manufacture date from the VIN on the Delica's.

The only document left for the customs agent is the de-registration document that everyone receives when importing a vehicle from Japan.

Like Ronin said. It's up to the customs agent. I've never seen/heard of anyone getting through customs without the de-reg document but I'm sure there have been exceptions that have sneaked through.

I do not think that you can't find the manufacturing date knowing the VIN or the chassis number to be correct. I raised this question before and I can repeat it again and this time I am providing the evidence. As you can see Glen managed to find the manufacturing date based on the chassis #. Also I want to repeat that the vehicle was sold to me by Silk Road as '92 model but insured on site as '91.

Profister wrote:I do not think that you can't find the manufacturing date knowing the VIN or the chassis number to be correct. I raised this question before and I can repeat it again and this time I am providing the evidence. As you can see Glen managed to find the manufacturing date based on the chassis #. Also I want to repeat that the vehicle was sold to me by Silk Road as '92 model but insured on site as '91.

You can find the manufacture YEAR from the VIN, but that will not help with the month that is required by CBSA to import a JDM into Canada. Once it's here and you buy it from a dealer/private, you can check the VIN/year but there is no month indicator.

When it comes down to it, you have one document (de-reg) to show customs.

On that document is the month/year when that vehicle was first registered in Japan.

That is the month/year used by Canada customs.

With regards to finding out the year via VIN #. That can be done. See below.

This doesn't help people importing by MONTH.

The chassis numbers below relate to the manufacturing year:

Date Frame
August 1989 P03W, P15W, P05W, P25W, P24W, P04W, P35W
October 1990 P35W, P05W, P04W, P25W, P24W, P03W, P15W
August 1991 P35W, P05W, P04W, P25W, P24W, P03W, P15W
May 1994 P05W, P35W, P25W, PB5W, PF6W, PF8W, PD8W, PD4W, PE8W, PA4W, PA5W, PB6W, PD6W, PC5W
August 1995 P05W, P25W, P35W
June 1996 PC5W, PA4W, PA5W, PD4W, PD8W, PE8W, PB5W, PF8W, PB6W, PD6W, PF6W
July 1997 PC5W, PA4W, PA5W, PD6W, PD8W, PE8W, PB5W, PF8W, PF6W
October 1997 P25W, P35W
June 1998 PC5W, PA4W, PA5W, PB5W, PD6W, PD8W, PE8W, PF6W, PF8W
June 1999 PC4W, PA4W, PD6W, PD8W, PB4W, PE8W, PF6W, PF8W
June 2000 PC4W, PA4W, PD6W, PD8W, PB4W, PE8W, PF6W, PF8W
August 2002 PD6W, PD8W, PE8W, PF6W, PF8W

Maybe I am missing something but isn't the manufacturing date of October 1990 good enough for customs?

You would think so but I just pulled that info from the delica UK site. It's not an 'official' Mitsubishi manufacturer date list.

The only thing I can think of and CBSA agents that I've spoken to will not go for it, is to show the customs agent your front seatbelts. They should have the mo/year xx/xxxx date stamped on them.

Other than that, it's the translated de-registration document. About as clear cut as it gets.

OK, in other words the ONLY data CBSA agents trust is a de-registration paper. Thanks for the explanation.

I could have sworn it was stamped somewhere. NO i went out there again and i see it is nowhere to be found. Except the seat belt was made in aug of 1991..... But even i would not consider that anywhere near good enough.. Sorry i thought it was stamped on the dataplate. I guess not....