You are right. A well-maintained TM seems to last forever.
For the most part, changes and upgrades to the TM happened gradually, so there is no cutoff year for a "don't buy" decision. Beyond that, many changes were phased in over a period of more than a year, and were not dropped into place at the beginning of a model year, as is done with automobiles.
Off hand, I can think of only two important milestone changes. One was the change from rectangular wheel-wells to rounded ones. This happened in the late 1990's I think. The other was the change from wood framing in the shell walls to aluminum framing. This happened somewhere around 2002. These were important, and should be considered at purchase time. They are not necessarily apparent from a casual walk-around.
A change that was less critical and more apparent is that the position of the air conditioner changed a couple times, ending up on the rear edge of the front shell.
What others do members remember?
Bill
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