Where’s you find that pic? This is from the Subaru website:
That is more reasonable.
Mine might be a concept, or an AI draft.
In either case, a 2006-07 Forester would satisfy my needs.
There are always ‘artist’s renderings’ of what a new model might look like before they’re announced, just guesses on the new design. That’s probably one of them.
It must depend on where you live. My niece and her husband just bought a new 2024 Highlander XLE 2 days ago in Fayetteville, NC.
I only saw that 2025 Forester from the back, so I can’t comment on which pic is accurate.
That is considered a SUV where I live, Camry and Corolla are cars.
That definitely matches-up with the Forester that I was following yesterday. It had the temporary paper license plate, and it was apparently bought from a dealer in Morgantown, WV.
If that is the case, dealers should have had nearly all 2025 model year cars available in July.
Manufactures could have begun selling 2025 model year vehicles in January 2024.
The “early” model year arrivals are those with new certifications (designs, powertrain calibrations).
Typical shut down for model year change over in the U.S. is the last week of August, a month earlier in Japan.
Perhaps I should clarify:
The beginning of a new model year does not (always) mean the immediate availability of that M.Y’s new product.
And you are right, there might be a ‘wind-down’ period of the outgoing model year. I’ve seen prior model year clearance ads running as late as February - as late as 8 months past the end of the outgoing model year.
The rule as I understood it was no December’s in the same model year, so you could bring out a redesign in January and call it the 2026 model as long as you switched to production of the 2027 by the end of November 2026.
Clear as mud, thanks.
For over half a century, it was, in the States at least, the new M.Y. began in July. Plain and simple.
Notice I said model YEAR. Not the exact moment that model year’s cars started appearing. There were exceptions of course - some times a car two model years ahead would launch. EG as if a 2026 model were to appear in dealers this summer or fall.
1995 Neon, 1st year out, I have seen the pro-date as early as 1/1994, but they never made a 1994 Neon… lol 
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Totally possible!
The point I’m driving across to some participants is that the automotive year is ahead of the astronomical/calendar year. Which makes sense if some would think about it.
Oh it happened, cause I called the dealer saying I was working on a 1994 Neon and he said they didn’t come out until 1995 and said yes they had pro-dates as early as January 1994 for the 1995 MY Neon’s… 
The Neon is a compact car that was built from in January 1994 until 2005 by the American Chrysler Corporation over two generations. It has a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and came in two-door and four-door sedan body styles. In the United States and Canada it was sold as either a Dodge or a Plymouth, while in Europe, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Australia, South Africa, and South America it was branded as a Chrysler, the Neon was offered in multiple versions and configurations over its production life, which lasted from the 1995 model year until 2005.
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Your preaching is inconsistent with my observations.
Manufacture dates for the vehicle I work on are shown on my computer and in the door jamb. In general, a vehicle manufactured in July or August of 2023 is a 2023 model year vehicle as per the manufacture. New designs or new certifications are the exception.
Production of the 2023 Dodge Charger continued until the end of December 2023. Those cars fall under 2023 model year fuel economy and emissions requirements.
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The last car I owned, a MODEL YEAR 2015 Hyundai Elantra, had a build date of 11/14 (November 2014). So you would refute the dealer selling it to me as a 2015 Hyundai?
Well you’re WRONG, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise.
In Europe, most mfgs do go by the calendar year as model year. So whatever month of, eg. 2024 a car is built in, it is a 2024 model. In the States, the next model year typically commences in August or Sept, though it can commence as early as February of the preceding calendar year.
Good point
The US has used the same basic system for determining model years since the 1930’s, Traditionally in the fall but they can switch to the next model year as late as the end of December, A 2025 model year vehicle could be on dealer lots as soon as Jan 2nd 2024. An excerpt from a Car & Driver article on the subject.
Blame Franklin D. Roosevelt. Originally, automobile model years tracked calendar years. However, that practice changed in the mid-1930s, after FDR signed an executive order that dictated automakers release their new vehicles in the fall of the preceding calendar year “as a means of facilitating regularization of employment in the [automotive] industry.” Auto assembly-line workers are typically idled during a new-model changeover, and the president reasoned that if their idle period were to happen earlier in the fall, autoworkers would be able to maintain employment through the holiday season and would thus be able to spend more money.
Some 90 years later, the tradition of releasing new vehicles in the final months of the preceding calendar year remains common. This custom, however, is by no means set in stone. Under Environmental Protection Agency rules, manufacturers can introduce a next-model-year vehicle for public sale as early as January 2 of the preceding calendar year—for example, a 2024-model-year vehicle can be sold starting on January 2, 2023. Conversely, manufacturers can introduce and release a new vehicle for sale as late as December 31 of the corresponding calendar year, so a 2024-model-year vehicle can be introduced up to and including December 31, 2024. Due to this wide latitude, manufacturers often bring out vehicles well before—and after—the traditional pre-holiday period.
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I pass a Corolla dedicated plant near me that appears to be operating around the clock. And I understand there are several other Corolla plants scattered across the map.