New and latest.

Some people buy pre-owned (a recent jargon, we always used to say second-hand) cars, some others buy new cars, whereas a few want only the latest.

In India the value of second hand cars is based on the year in which it was registered. So the sales in December will be sluggish. You see there is a difference in buying a new car in the third week of December and buying the same in the second week of January. The registration year will change.

Durables like automobiles, air-conditioners etc. do not have a sell-by date. A car lying in the dealer's garage for three months is a new car, till it is sold and registered. So also an air-conditioner. In a packed condition, if it were to be stored for three or four months, there is no issue. Any way the guarantee/warranty is reckoned from the date of sale.

But with mass production and computerised robots manufacturing, the models are changed very often these days.

Air-conditioners are sourced from China and elsewhere and the models are changed once or twice in a year. When the new models arrive, dealers advertise them as the latest models.

Are the earlier models which arrived a few weeks earlier, old?? Are they to be shunned?