I think it just boils down to this: Looking at an Italian PRA "Certificato Di Proprieta" of a vehicle recently bought and imported by me, you won't find the build date or model year anywhere. Just "data immatricolazione" which is first registration. A car imported by me from Germany even more recently has the "Datum derErtzulassung" on the 'Breif which , again, is date of first registration and not a build date anywhere. On that particular car just described, the build date was 25 years old but the registration date had a few months yet. When searching for a car online on one of the big European sites, you have to choose "year of first registration" when looking for a specific model year. I am sure Keshav knows that a lot of weight is put on the date of first registration. I believe this is simply a 1973 car that is called a 74 because of the above reasons and it all goes hand in hand with importing a European model car which, in this case, looks nicer the more you look at it.