How would one find out when Jeep started making a particular model year?

I have an '08, which I bought on August 25th, 2007. So I always new it was a very early '08. Just last night I finally got around to checking to door seal sticker, and sure enough my build date is August 1st, 2007.

So, I got to thinking, when did they first start rolling the 2008s off the assembly line? How would you even go about finding that out?

Just curious.

 

Someone recently posted a link to the very info you're looking for. Unfortunately, I don't recall which forum. I'd think checking out the various 2012 threads would be a good place to start.

 

I might not have an exact answer, but new model years debut usually in Sept. of the previous year. Example: I will be able to buy a 2012 vehicle around Sept of 2011. So in order for the manufactures to fulfill those demands sometimes vehicles can be made towards the beginning of the year prior and still be the next year. Now this is how I've heard it through my years of wrenching and may not be 100% correct but sounds good.

 

Yeah, generally they start in one of the summer months.

In the case of the '08 JKs it was clearly at least August (not September) of 2007 when they started making them.

Considering I bought my '08 on August 25th, I just assumed I got in pretty early. So you can imagine my surprise when I actually paid attention to my door sticker and saw that my Jeep was manufactured on the 1st of August.

I got to thinking... Was August 1st the first manufacture date for 2008 MY JKs? Or were some manufactured in late July? As more of an overarching curiosity, I was curious how would someone even know the exact date Chrysler flipped the switch from one MY to the next.

 

2007 model year production ended on Friday July 6th, 2007. The plant shut down for the summer break and model year changeover and started building 2008 models on Monday July 23rd.

 

That is exactly what I was looking for, thank you

Just curious, how did you come about this information?

 

I have an extensive archive of Jeep documents I've accumulated over the years, mainly for the Grand Cherokee but I also grab other model info when I can.