How to find the dates of manufacture.

I'm not sure how you date a Honda, that is a good question. I would think that the serial number might be coded in such a way that you could if you knew how to read it.

I would call lawnmower shop who carries the Honda brand and ask them, they should know.

Hi Austen, I read somewhere else that flowers and dinner was a good way to date a Honda. Others say they have emailed Honda customer service. I did talk to my local Honda guy, and as I recall, he didn't know of a way to date them by serial numbers. Places like boats.net and Plano Parts shows them within a range, but not specific years or dates. (Like I'm going to buy a birthday card for my HR214)

I think I'll give a shout to Honda customer service one of these days.

I do some more research over the next the week and if I find anything, I'll let you know.

You would think there should be some way to tell, one way or the other.

I checked with our Queen of Serial Numbers, and she tells me Honda only has access to records of units built in the last 10 years or so. That is when they moved to an SAP-type inventory control system. Even then, not every single unit is fully documented with a "birthday" value in its record. Now they do have what's known as a Model Chronology, which lists out when models were first released and in some cases, when they were discontinued. The closest this data get is by year. So, in the case of the HR214, it was first built in 1984, and discontinued in 1989, when the HR215 was introduced.

Hope this helps.

Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding was my opinion alone.

Yep, sure does, thanks Robert, and thank the Queen of Serial Numbers for me too.