ok. Im a touch confused. the car industry starts their new year productions out about midway throught the year right?

if that is so why is my firebird have the body styling of a 91 when the door jam sticker says 3/1990?

so what do I have? a 90 or a 91

thanks
Marcus

 

If it has a 91 body, then you probably have a 91. As I recall they started 1991 production early which is why there weren't many 1990 models made.

 

they usually start production half way or a little past the year before. My 86 trans am was made in october 85, maybe sept i dont remember exactly offhand, and my 92 bird was made in late 91

and yes, 91 started early, and 90 was a short year.

 

1990 Production ended in December of 89. This was because of Chevrolet's license of the IROC name ended at the end of 89. This brought the 91's out early in 1990.

 

Scared to know what GM would have done with the 3rd gen if they kept the IROC, being they did a scarce 2 year body style, all the engineering couldn't have paid for itself of the new molds, maybe just being bumpers/skirts but still engineering the kits/molds and what have you. All the above is correct, and you have a 91 Firebird.

 

My newly acquired 91 Formula has a build date of 4/90; Its a true 91 model, but built in early 1990.

 

My '91 GTA was built on March 2nd, 1990 and was the 1,230th car built for the Firebirds according to the sequence number. That should shed some light on when they started building the '91's.

 

I have a 91 TA that was running in Sept of 1990 based on an emmissions exemption label in the engine bay but was not officially "produced" until Feb of 1991 and converted to a convertible by ASC until March of 1991.

 

whats your 10th vin digit? thats what year it is. Thanks for TGO, members, and never ending knowledge to know production date info. Also the factory doesn't engineer something be it a mold/part and then when that model/year is done throw it out. They still make money off those molds after the car leaves the factory. Cars are crashed, parts break etc etc. Parts aren't available aftermarket till a couple years after when they release the rights so the only place to get them is the manufacturer. Also i would rather buy a new genuine or real reproduction then some aftermarket part that doesn't fit right especially body parts. just my 2 cents

 

3rdgenfever is right. The 10th digit of the VIN will tell you the model year. L=1990; M=1991.

 

I've never really understood why some 90 Firebirds have the two black rubber pieces on the front of the front bumper and some (like mine) have just a plain painted bumper. Was this an option?

 

All 90s, without the ground effects, will have the bumper with the "bumperettes" (the rubber pieces you are talking about)

 

Yes, it was an option -- base model Firebirds had the black strips, but base model Firebirds with the W68 Appearance Package got the T/A's bumpers and ground effects.

If it weren't for W68, I can say there would be a LOT less used ground effects parts for 91-92 T/A's since they only built like 5,000 of them and probably 40,000 or so base model W68 cars.

 

The same holds true on the Camaros, ALL 91-92 Camaros had gfx. If it weren't for the tens of thousands of RS models, the Z28's wouldn't have near as many used gfx parts.