Here's a snippet, looks like instances/clones refer to the object info of the loaded object instead of the time it's cloned. With clones this isn't really a problem with clones (as they do not share object info) but with instances this can be very important.
sync on
make object box 1,10,10,20
yrotate object 1,90
fix object pivot 1
instance object 2,1
clone object 3,1,1
position object 1,-20,0,0
position object 2,0,0,0
position object 3,20,0,0
position camera 0,20,-50
point camera 0,0,0
do
center text screen width()/4, screen height()/4, "original object with fixed pivot"
center text 2*(screen width()/4),3*(screen height()/4),"instanced object without fixed pivot"
center text 3*(screen width()/4), screen height()/4, "Cloned object without fixed pivot"
sync
loop