Interpretation ID: aiam2284
Staff Engineer
Blue Bird Body Company
P.O. Box 937
Fort Valley
GA 31030;
Dear Mr. Milby: This is in response to your April 14, 1976, letter concerning th meaning of the effective dates of Federal motor vehicle safety standards.; You are correct in your understanding that a vehicle's date of sale i irrelevant to a determination of which standards are applicable to it. 49 CFR S 571.7(a), *Applicability*, specifies in relevant part:; >>>...each standard ... applies according to its terms to all moto vehicles or items of motor vehicle equipment the manufacture of which is completed on or after the effective date of the standard.<<<; For vehicles that you complete by mounting a body on a chassis, you ar permitted by 49 CFR S 567.5(a)(7) to treat as the time that manufacture is 'completed' for the purposes of S 571.7(a) any date no earlier than the manufacturing date of the incomplete vehicle and no later than the date of completion of final-stage manufacture, regardless of when the body or chassis was sold. Please note that you must be consistent in your choice of completion date, e.g., you may not choose one date to determine applicability of certain standards while choosing another date for other standards.; Sincerely, Frank A. Berndt, Acting Chief Counsel