Interpretation ID: nht73-4.40

DATE: 07/30/73

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Richard B. Dyson; NHTSA

TO: Pacific Gas and Electric Company

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of June 21, 1973, inquiring as to your responsibilities regarding the conformity and certification of motor vehicles on which Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG & E) performs certain manufacturing operations. You indicate that the operations involve "body transfers," in which used bodies are first removed from used trucks chassis, repaired, and then transferred to new cabs and chassis. The two questions you raise are:

1) Must the vehicle comply with Federal motor vehicle safety standards at the time of the body transfer, and

2) If not, need it comply at the time of sale to the public.

You indicate that your position is that you believe the answer to both questions to be negative; that with respect to the first question, the vehicle need not conform nor be certified as conforming because no "sale" of the vehicle has occurred; and with respect to the second question, you argue that the provisions of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act regarding used vehicles (Sec. 108(b)(1); 15 U.S.C. @ 1397(b)(1); appear to exempt these vehicles from conforming to the standards when they are sold.

We must disagree with both of your conclusions. We agree that the operations performed by PG & E, adding used bodies to new chassis, make PG & E a "final-stage manufacturer" as defined in the Certification and Vehicle Manufactured in Two or More Stages regulations (49 CFR Parts 567, 568). The Certification

regulations require that final-stage manufacturers who complete vehicles for their own use ascertain and certify conformity to all applicable standards as of the time the final-stage manufacturing operations are performed. We do not agree that section 108(a)(1) of the Safety Act (15 U.S.C. @ 1397(a)(1)) applies only in connection with the sale of vehicles. That section also requires conformity with respect to the introduction and delivery for introduction of vehicles in interstate commerce. We have construed this language to include the use of any vehicle by its manufacturer on the public highways, even if the vehicle has not been sold. The responsibility for certification under the regulations is concomitant with the responsibility for conformity, and, similarly, is not dependent upon a vehicle sale.

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, in our view, also requires a vehicle used by its manufacturer to conform to all applicable standards at the time of its eventual sale by that manufacturer. Our conclusion is based upon section 108(b)(1), which requires conformity until the first purchase of the vehicle for a purpose other than resale. Where a manufacturer uses his own vehicles, that purchase would not take place until the manufacturer ultimately sells the vehicle. However, the NHTSA is aware that conformity of vehicle systems which deteriorate under normal use may be impossible to maintain, and as a matter of administrative practice does not consider it necessary for such a manufacturer to renew conformity when his use of the vehicle has been bona fide.