Interpretation ID: nht71-4.34

DATE: 10/29/71

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Lawrence R. Schneider; NHTSA

TO: Rosenstein; Livingston; Fist & Rengold

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of October 12, 1971, concerning the Defect Reports regulations (49 CFR Part 573), published February 17, 1971 (36 F.R. 3054), in which you request an interpretation of "produced" as used in @ 573.5(b) of the regulations. You state you believe that the term refers only to vehicles that have been invoiced and sold, or ready to be sold to a customer, and ask whether this would include vehicles retained by the manufacturer for demonstration or consignment purposes.

As used in the regulation "produced" refers to the date of the vehicle's manufacture. The agency takes the position that a vehicle is manufactured when the final stage of manufacture at its place of main assembly is completed. Thus, neither invoicing for sale nor sale are the points in time at which production is determined under the regulation.

With reference to whether demonstration or consignment vehicles must be included, any vehicle manufactured for use on the public roads must be included, and this includes both demonstration and consignment vehicles as those terms are generally understood. Only vehicles that are not to be used on the public roads, such as, for example, those manufactured or chosen for crash testing, need not be reported.