Interpretation ID: nht72-6.19

DATE: 09/06/72

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Lawrence R. Schneider; NHTSA

TO: University of Puerto Rico

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your letter of July 20, 1972, requesting that we obtain for you vehicle identification numbers for vehicles involved in certain defect notification campaigns.

At present, manufacturers are not required to furnish vehicle identification numbers to the NHTSA. While they are required to compile them for their own purposes as part of their Owner Lists, as we indicated in our letter to you of July 5, 1972, we do not consider your request to be a justifiable reason for requesting this information from manufacturers. We appreciate your efforts with regard to the survey you have to conduct, but we do not believe it appropriate to require manufacturers to prepare and submit information to us purely on the basis of private individual requests.

Your letters, and others we have received, however, have demonstrated that a legitimate safety purpose can be served if identification numbers of vehicles involved in campaigns are made available to public and other groups. As a result, the NHTSA has determined to process to amend the Defect Reports regulations to require all manufacturers to supply vehicle identification numbers as part of the information they must submit pursuant to those regulations. Vehicle identification numbers would then be available to the public as a matter of course.

We have enclosed copies of quarterly reports which refer to three of the four campaigns you listed (General Motors, campaign number 71-G230: Toyota, campaign number (Illegible Word); and Volkswagen, campaign number 71-0005). Information on the fourth, Ford campaign number 71-0045, was not required to be submitted, and the manufacturer has not voluntarily submitted any to us.