Color

We went shopping for a 2017 R-Pod 177 and noticed the color change.  More importantly, we noticed the difference in sink and cooktop as well as the window in the door in the later 2017 models.

We specifically wanted those options available in the "blue/grey" 2017 R-Pod 177.

One of the stickers on the left front has the date of manufacture.

Originally posted by Richand Cindy I do not think there are any laws governing what model year you name a car/RV.  Cars are all very close to one another and the next years version usually comes out in August.  But once I bought a mid year new model and it was in April and yet they gave it next years model year, nine months early! When we heard about the new blue color in June 2016 I called Forest River to ask if the new 2017 model was going to be at the Sept 2016 Hershey PA auto show.  He refused to say yes or name the year.  His reply was they would be showing the latest models.  While a dealer can call it anything on a title, I think it is unethical (but not illegal) to put 2017 on a title for a RPOD manufactured in 2016 for the main reason Forest River is not calling it a 2017 so why should the dealer.  The fact is RPODS are made Jan/Feb, May/June and Sep/Oct.  They can change them any of those times and usually do but the changes do not reflect a new model year,  just the latest version.  It is difficult concept and took me a while to understand since cars are done by model years and RPOD dealers continue to call them by model year (especially Couch Nation that uses the 201X.5 designation) BUT Forest River does not acknowledge RPOD model years.  The best thing to do if you are buying a new RPOD is to read on these posts what the latest versions are and tell your dealer you want that model or else demand a bigger discount for not selling the most recent production version.

Richand Cindy
It sounds like, when we bought ours, we did indeed receive the most recent version. What is debatable is whether it was justifiably labeled as a 2017 (or for that matter, whether any of the many r pods and other RVs produced/sold in 2016 and labeled as 2017s were justifiably labeled as 2017s). Perhaps, for the "public good", this is something that should be less confusing (and I wonder whether there is currently consistency between manufacturers, dealers, and from state to state in the way the RVs are being labeled). This is not a problem that can be solved here on this forum. But, awareness of this problem is key.

I do not think there are any laws governing what model year you name a car/RV.  Cars are all very close to one another and the next years version usually comes out in August.  But once I bought a mid year new model and it was in April and yet they gave it next years model year, nine months early! When we heard about the new blue color in June 2016 I called Forest River to ask if the new 2017 model was going to be at the Sept 2016 Hershey PA auto show.  He refused to say yes or name the year.  His reply was they would be showing the latest models.  While a dealer can call it anything on a title, I think it is unethical (but not illegal) to put 2017 on a title for a RPOD manufactured in 2016 for the main reason Forest River is not calling it a 2017 so why should the dealer.  The fact is RPODS are made Jan/Feb, May/June and Sep/Oct.  They can change them any of those times and usually do but the changes do not reflect a new model year,  just the latest version.  It is difficult concept and took me a while to understand since cars are done by model years and RPOD dealers continue to call them by model year (especially Couch Nation that uses the 201X.5 designation) BUT Forest River does not acknowledge RPOD model years.  The best thing to do if you are buying a new RPOD is to read on these posts what the latest versions are and tell your dealer you want that model or else demand a bigger discount for not selling the most recent production version.

Unlike cars there is NO such thing as a 2017 RPOD.  Especially not a 2017.5.  As proof look at a car brochure.  It boldly displays the year.  Look at the RPOD brochure.  Nope there is no year mentioned.  Now look at the invoice.  Nope there is no model year.  Since most states require a year for Title, the model year is the year in which it was built.  RPODS are built every few months alternating with Surveyors at the same plant.  The change from green to blue/blue to blue/grey occurred during the year so that there can be two 2016s or 2017s that are different.  I believe it was Couch Nation that started using 2016.5 and 2017.5 to indicate there were changes but this is not officially used by Forest River.  So if you plan on buying a new RPOD, if you order one to be manufactured and not buy off the lot, it can be different (probably a good thing).  As soon as we saw the change to blue/grey we called the dealer and made sure that was what we were going to get.  While we ordered ours last September (before the change to grey) it was not built until February after the change.