I think what was meant was that he was given a 1980 Trans-Am, which was like, but not identical to the three year older one used in the film. (Not “like” in the sense of “just like”.)

I’m sorry, but if that’s what they meant, that’s what they should have said. The sentence, as written, does not say what you’re suggesting. (not to me, anyway)

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Probably. But the MSM jump all over bloggers as being the non-professional, not-real-journalists, and claim that they’re so much better because they’re professionals and have all those layers of review and fact-checking and all, and then screw up something that a quick check of IMDB.com would have caught. Or even just a conversation with someone old enough to remember the late 70s.

They changed to the third generation in 1981, according to Wikipedia (Pontiacs, I don’t know well enough to just know these things), so a ’80 model would have been very much like a ’77 or ’76.

I suspect that the report is thus accurate, but slightly poorly worded.