At least as far back as the 50's Detroit always shut down production of the prior model sometime in the summer for vacation shut down and retooling. You could only buy what had been built before the shutdown until the "new" model was released for sale in late Sept. or Oct., and the new model was always sold as the next calender year's model (built in Sept. 65, sold as a '66). Europe followwed a similar schedule. Nothing new about this. Even very early (spring?)introductions in the "prior" calendar year are not particularly new, although the practice seems to be getting more use recently, for other reasons.
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Mike Sullivan ('95 855T (88k), '98 V70XC (92k), '95 855 NA (135k). Past Volvo's: '85 744 (256k), '86 245 (165k), '86 245 (195k), '88 745 (208k), '91 745 (196k), '93 965 (147k) .