on a 1998 DX....whenever I do a search for new or salvage parts, it asks:
(VIN 1 or 3), thru VIN 194742 (9/97)
or
(VIN 1 or 3), from VIN 194743 (10/97)

what happened around 10/97 to require such specification? I could understand the differences between the 95/96 and 97/98 but this happened well after the 97s started.

Any ideas?

 

that may be because the 10/97's may be considered to be on the 98 side of things , and that may be why you are seeing that ,, I have also seen this when searching on www.car-part.com for some things
Bruce

 

So does that really make sense? To initiate changes for the last year of production? We know they made some significant changes for 97, but we're talking just for PART of the 98 models. Why would Mazda do something to the model that is different enought to require parts distinction by VIN? Seems kinda stupid to me.