just went and looked at my spare in the garage, it has the notch, so i went to my car, it has a notch, but for no reason, not for clearance or anything, i think it is there to make you wonder why it is there,
This is a good discussion, other forums have similar discussions. Not sure that we will come up with a definitive cutoff date. Different factories and different colors, will probably mean that there will be variations.
I was thinking about checking to see if there was a part number / date code stamped on the dash pads. I will have to re-check the green one now.
I double checked the green dash pad while I was at the shop this morning. There are no legible date codes on the underside. All I found were the handwritten numbers 171 and a circled 4. Probably part of the QC or assembly process, not made by a machine.