I think theres just a difference in terminology on this. The yamaha site, using the vin no it applied to the bike when it was 'made' or 'produced' states for eg the bike im looking at as a 2012 model. The bike was sold to its 1st owner in 2014. It sat around for 2 years. That does'nt make it a 2014 model, imo anyway. This seems to a relatively common occurence.