Interpretation ID: nht73-2.37

DATE: 04/11/73

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Richard B. Dyson; NHTSA

TO: Federal Trade Commission

COPYEE: SUBJ. N40-30; CHRON N40-30; CHRON N40-10; MR. VINSON

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your letter of March 21, 1973, forwarding a complaint from Kenneth D. Peaslee. Mr. Peaslee ordered a 1973 Honda motorcycle, and was delivered one manufactured in December 1971. He asks if the dealer should make him a partial refund. The question is one that should be answered under Massachusetts laws and we are unable to advise him of his rights. There is no violation of any regulation administered by this agency.

I note that the Massachusetts investigator made the statement in his letter of March 15, 1973, which you enclosed that the Federal Government "stopped" a practice of model year misdating "among foreign auto importers." That statement is not really accurate. We require (49 CFR Part 567) that each motor vehicle be equipped with a label disclosing, among other things, the month and year of manufacture. The main purpose of this is to allow a determination of what Federal motor vehicle safety standards were applicable when the vehicle was manufactured. This dating may make it commercially more difficult for a manufacturer or dealer to represent the vehicle as being of a later model year, but such representations are not prohibited or otherwise regulated under our rules.