Interpretation ID: nht79-2.22

DATE: 09/28/79

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; F. Berndt; NHTSA

TO: PACCAR, Inc.

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT:

Mr. Mark K. McDonald PACCAR, Inc. Business Center Building P. O. BOX 1518 Bellevue, Washington 98009

Dear Mr. McDonald:

This is in response to your letter of May 22, 1979, concerning Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 115, and in confirmation of your telephone conversation with Mr. Schwartz of my office.

You have asked whether a manufacturer must designate a vehicle an "incomplete vehicle" if, although it is shipped in an incomplete form, its completed type is known. The "incomplete vehicle" type was established to deal with situations where the manufacturer did not know what the vehicle's final type would be when it assigned the VIN. If the final form the vehicle will take is known to the manufacturer, it may identify that type in the VIN, or it may designate it as an incomplete vehicle. The agency would prefer, however, that the final type be indicated.

There is no requirement that use of a particular vehicle type designation for VIN purposes be consistent with any other documentation regarding shipment or sale of vehicles manufactured in more than one stage, except that the actual VIN must be used where it appears on the documentation. For example, a vehicle may be designated an incomplete vehicle for the purposes of the NHTSA certification requirements and a truck for the purposes of the VIN requirements.

You have also asked the agency to confirm that engine horsepower need not be directly or indirectly decipherable from the VIN. This is essentially correct. "Engine type" is defined in S3 of the standard to mean a power source with defined characteristics such as fuel utilized, number of cylinders, displacement and net brake horsepower. Thus, encoding an engine manufacturer's basic model number would be sufficient. There remains, however, a question as to the point at which two engines with the same characteristics except for horsepower become two different engines. The agency intends to resolve this question in a notice in the Federal Register. Sincerely,

Frank Berndt Chief Counsel

May 22, 1979

Mr. Fred Swartz National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 400 Seventh Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20590

Dear Fred:

To follow up our phone conversation of today, PACCAR will proceed to formulate its VIN code in compliance with FMVSS 115 under these assumptions:

1. Incomplete Vehicle Type:

It is our understanding that this designation is to be used at the manufacturer's discretion when designation of a complete vehicle type would not be practical. There are no circumstances which require that the manufacturer use the incomplete vehicle type designation. Moreover, there is no requirement that use of the incomplete vehicle designation be consistent with any other documentation regarding shipment or sale of vehicles manufactured in more than one stage.

2. Horsepower Rating:

There is no requirement that engine horsepower be either directly or indirectly decipherable from the VIN. Horsepower may be used as one characteristic by which engines are classified. A complete and acceptable method of classification would be to encode as a separate classification each basic model number as specified by the engine manufacturer.

I am requesting that you send written acknowledgement that the above assumptions are proper interpretations of FMVSS 115.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark K. McDonald

MKM:ed