Confused with reg and manufacture dates are wrong

[CharlieTatter]

Hi all I’m really confused
Looking at upgrading my 64plate to a facelift and seen one for sale on market place as 2017 but when I look at the pictures it was clearly as preface lift with a facelift bumper…
At 1st I thought he was maybe trying to pull a fast one so I stuck the 17 plate reg into gocompare and it’s showing as being manufactured between 2011-2015 which would make sense for the body style and interior being a preface lift but how’s this happening? How can a 2017 plate be registered to a 2015 vehicle?
I know sometimes there’s maybe a years difference in reg and manufacture but for a prefacelift to be legitimately running on a 17 plate which obviously should be a facelift is very misleading!

[Doc]

The year of manufacture and the year of first registration can very easily be different. If a vehicle was used only on private land, say an airport or industrial complex, there would be no need to register it for road use until it was time to sell.
There are a few other scenarios where the years might not match.

[Nicklouse]

How can a 2017 plate be registered to a 2015 vehicle?

easily. As Doc says both are unrelated. The Reg plate year is only the date of registration.

[CharlieTatter]

Ahh ok I see cheers for the reply!
Was just confused as all other 16 onward vans were facelifts then I seen this which was the same as my own but 3 years younger…. But yeah it’s facelift I’m after

[NZDubNurd]

The "plate" thing is completely useless (should never be used). VIN determines the model year.