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Interpretation ID: 22559.drn


    William Kurtz, Department Manager
    Environmental & Safety Engineering
    Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC
    One Mercedes Drive, P.O. Box 350
    Montvale, NJ 07645-0350


    Dear Mr. Kurtz:

    This responds to your request for an interpretation of Standard No. 102, Transmission shift lever sequence, starter interlock, and transmission braking effect. You wish to know whether your proposed vehicle design, in which the park position control is not included in the shift lever sequence, but is activated by a separate push-button control mounted on the end of the transmission shift lever, must meet the park position requirement in S3.1.1 of Standard No.102. As explained below, the answer is no.

    Before addressing the substantive question that you raised, I note that you have asked for confidential treatment of certain bracketed information in your request for an interpretation, and have provided copies of the letter with the confidential information redacted. In order to save time, I agree to keep confidential the bracketed information, with the exception of a quotation from a letter of September 25, 1998, from Frank Seales, Jr., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Chief Counsel, to BMW of North America, Inc., which is a publicly available letter.

    Paragraph S3.1.1 of Standard No 102, Location of transmission shift lever positions on passenger cars, states, in part, " . . . If the transmission shift lever sequence includes a park position, it shall be located at the end, adjacent to the reverse drive position." [emphasis added.]

    This provision was interpreted by this office in a letter of September 25, 1998, to BMW of North America, Inc., (BMW). In that letter, we stated in part:

      Paragraph S3.1.1 explicitly limits the requirement to those park positions included within the "shift lever sequence." It is our interpretation that if park is not selected by the movement of the shift lever, then the park control is not part of the shift lever sequence. In this case, the sentence quoted above does not apply, and the park control does not have to be located at the end, adjacent to reverse.

    The park position described in your letter is not included in the shift lever sequence. It is selected not by the movement of the shift, lever but by pushing on a push-button control mounted on the end of the transmission shift lever. Therefore, as was the case for the vehicle with the park position control described in our September 25, 1998, letter to BMW, Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC's vehicle with the park position control described in your letter need not meet the park position requirement in S3.1.1 of Standard No. 102.

    I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions, please contact Dorothy Nakama of my staff at (202) 366-2992.

    Sincerely,

    John Womack
    Acting Chief Counsel

    ref:102
    d.2/2/01