I didn't find anything about it in the forum, and I think this "news" will lead to some changes, as some french cars will have to be modified, like the habits of some contributors⁽¹⁾

As written in an article of L'Argus(fr) (a french magazine specialized in secondhand cars, founded in 1927):
"Le décret n° 2000-576, publié au Journal officiel du 29 juin 2000, a supprimé du vocabulaire automobile le terme « millésime de l'année-modèle », autorisant ainsi l'adoption d'une classification des voitures en année calendaire - couvrant donc la période allant du 1er janvier au 31 décembre."
(The decree n° 2000-576, as published in the Journal Officiel of june 29. 2000, made the commercial version of the word « model year » disappear from automotive vocabulary, thus authorizing the identification of cars with the calendar year, from January 1. to December 31.")⁽²⁾

In practice(fr), that means that cars sold made in France:
- before July 2000 stay with the old model year system (from July 1 to June 30);
- between July 1, 2000 and December 31, 2000 are 2001 "new non model year" (transitional period);
- from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001 are "2001 cars" too.
And so on, from January 1 to December 31 of each year.

So we can proudly say that we had a "year and a half model year" in 2001 in France. You know how much we are attached to our French cultural exceptions
________

(1) I was sure that the model year still started in july until a very recent discussion with dsl and atom. So I count myself among these contributors with bad habits

(2)Traduttore, traditore...

We do not make exceptions for one country, except for models that exist mostly only in that country. For example the model-year of the Holdens follow the Australian rules.
But if French cars are usually referenced everywhere with model years different than those for the official registry, that would be a mess to handle both separately.
Now if they are mostly referenced everywhere by their true year, we can use these...

In the article, it is said to be made to unify European practices. So maybe we all use(d) out-of-date habits?


Any way to check that without going to sellers and ask them? A mail to each country sales representative?

I do not mean sellers but rather people interested in cars, those who make the same kind of listings than IMCDb with cars, or those who would make searches on IMCDb.

(The following exchange started here)


The 2000/2001 year range is special, so using it for an example is hazardous

Something is certainly missing in my explanation, as model year and registration are separated things in France too. I should have written "made" rather than "sold" in my first post about the 2000/2001 change:

• During the "pre-2000 era" (and until last year I thought it was still done), a vehicle made after July 1st in year Y was sold as a Y+1 model year. It's the standard model year concept. And a vehicle made in May Y but sold in December Y or January Y+1 was still a Y model year despite its delayed registration number.
  → The registration number could change if the owner or the vehicle moved (or would relocated fit better?) from a department to another: this number can't therefore be used to identify the model year. It gives at most a range of years, with the year of this registration as last possible model year;

• From 2001 onwards, the makes can no longer refer to a Y+1 model year for vehicles made in year Y: a vehicle made in December 2005 is a 2005 model, its sibling made in January 2006 is a 2006 model, even if there is no difference between the 2 models.
  → Until 2009, same idea as before for the registration number;
  → Since mid-2009, the registration number is given to the vehicle à la British way, i.e. it's a vehicle life-long number, whatever the moves.
  → Due to the way the factories handle their production nowadays, the registration date of a vehicle unveiled after mid-2009 is usually close to the date of production.

So if I'm not mistaken, using now the registration number to identify the "model year" of a French vehicle is the same thing as using the 1st registration date given by the DVLA for a British one, despite the fact that in both cases it's not the accurate production date (with a long span of time between the two dates for some vehicles, in UK ).

I think I understand now

My impression is that the difference pre-01 that was harmonised is that France used fixed model years (July-June) which weren't used in other countries. Generally, outwith France marques called the new MY whenever they made changes. (cf the Range Rover: http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover-brochures/range-rover-1970-s where new MYs didn't come at a consistent time).



So the conclusion is that (for IMCDB purposes at least) this rule applies only to French cars? To illustrate, this Jaguar in France: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_669804-Jaguar-XF-X250-2012.html (with what Jaguar describes as the 2012 facelift but available from early on in 2011) is 2012MY but this Peugeot in the UK: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_782643-Peugeot-508-2014.html (with the facelift introduced in September 2014) is listed by calender year? That seems logical enough.

But French car does not imply made in France, many are made in other countries.

Indeed. And "made" is still not the good verb.
"Sold in France and made before/between/after" would certainly be better to explain the idea? It concerns indeed all vehicles sold in France, whatever their origin (any make from Audi to Zastava is affected).