Interpretation ID: nht69-2.42

DATE: 12/22/69

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Lawrence R. Schneider; NHTSA

TO: Ford Motor Company

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: RE: CONSUMER INFORMATION

This is in response to your telegram of December 15 concerning the submission of consumer information on passenger cars produced by your associated company in England. You stated, "This data will be submitted to the Bureau thirty (30) or more days in advance of any of these cars being offered for sale in the United States as required by section 375.6 as published on October 22, 1969."

The regulation (49 CFR @ 375.6(b)) requires information to be made available to prospective purchasers, on or afer January 1, 1970, on "each of the vehicles offered for sale" at the dealer showroom. The general applicability of the information is to vehicles manufactured on or after January 1, 1970. The intent of the regulation is to provide prospective vehicle buyers with information on all the various types of vehicles currently being manufactured and available for purchase after that date.

You apparently are assuming that, within the meaning of the regulation, no vehicles are "offered for sale" to prospective purchasers except those that are physically present in the dealer showroom. This certainly does not reflect the practice of most manufacturers, whose dealers, while keeping representative stock of vehicles on hand, offer for sale (and enter into contracts for sale of) the manufacturer's complete line of vehicles. This interpretation would, furthermore, tend to defeat the main reaon for providing information to prospective purchasers, since a dealer would never be obligated to provide information on vehicles other than those that happened to be in his possession at a given moment.

We advise you, therefore, that the term "vehicles offered for sale" in the prospective purchaser requirement, 49 CFR @ 375.6(b), refers to all the types of vehicles that a manufacturer represents, or the dealer represents with the permission of the manufacturer, as being available for purchase by the general public at a particular dealer location. The regulation requires that consumer information be provided to prospective purchasers on each of there vehicles on or after January 1, 1970, and to the Administrator 30 days in advance of its availability to prospective purchasers.