Reply to "Date of manufacture"

@Nick DiSandro posted:

I know that a majority of cars have the date stamped on the shell as to when it was built. ... Correct me if I am wrong.

Lionel, especially in the postwar period, did have markings on their cars such as these:

However, these do not accurately reflect the "date of manufacture" as you put it. There is a strong, but inexact and inconsistent correlation between these dates and the introduction of a mold or design. This carried into the MPC era, but most correlation has weaned since then.