How is one supposed to tell if the car is an early 2003 or late 2003?

 

the production month and year are stamped on the door-sill VIN plate
example 04/03 and the 17 digit VIN number

you can call acura with the VIN at 1-800-382-2238 x5
thats customer care and can tell you the date the car was first sold- thats when all warranty time limit starts

you can run the VIN thru the internet and see what it shoots back for info, but the door plate is the fastest to know when made
The vin decodes down to the day of the week and what factory assembled the car

If you are trying to see if its covered on the extended trans warranty call the 800 number

 

Nothing is wrong with the tranny, but the car has 104,xxx miles on it.

 

Watch, now that you said this your tranny will crap out on you tomorrow.

 

c'mon- I never heard of next day failure-
the azine tranny curse normally takes 7 days~

 

03-- so your concern is what? That its covered till 109?
You can find the settlement online or at acura.com has the VIN number it stopped at
If yours is lower = covered
Over? you need to read up on `GoodWill` warranty coverage for late 03s