Petrol cars had to be EOBD-compliant from 2001 model year, ie Sept 2000 onwards - diesel car compliance wasn't required until 2004 model year, ie Sept 2003.

For commercial vehicles the dates were later, 2002 for petrol and 2007 for diesel.

Cars/vans built just before those dates may well have been unsold until later.

Some brands were compliant several years before required and some brands, eg Vauxhall were electronically compliant well before the date but use a software switch in the ECU to avoid compliance until necessary.

EOBD is the compliance required in Europe, it's very similar to OBD2 but not identical. OBD and OBD2 are North American standards not applicable here.

Good code reader software can cope with both pre-compliant and post-compliant.

Edited by RT on 30/12/2012 at 13:18