Interpretation ID: nht79-3.26

DATE: 07/25/79

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Frank Berndt; NHTSA

TO: International Harvester

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This responds to your June 4, 1979, letter asking several questions relating to manufacturer's responsibilities to maintain first purchaser lists and to certify vehicles in compliance with the safety standards.

Your first question asks whether a manufacturer is permitted to replace its first purchaser lists with lists of most recent purchasers when that information comes to a manufacturer's attention. You point out that Part 577, Defect and Noncompliance Notification, requires manufacturers to notify vehicle owners or the most recent purchaser known to the manufacturer.

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (as amended) (15 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.) requires in section 158 (15 U.S.C. 1418) that manufacturers maintain lists of first purchasers of their vehicles. The purpose of this requirement is to facilitate the issuance of defect and noncompliance notifications to vehicle owners. Lists of the most recent purchasers of a manufacturer's vehicles would be even more efficient for recall purposes than would first purchaser lists. Accordingly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has determined that maintaining lists of most recent purchasers of a manufacturer's vehicles satisfies the statutory requirement to maintain first purchaser lists.

In your second question, you ask about the labeling requirements of individuals that modify incomplete vehicles. In the fact situation you present, International Harvester (IH) certifies a chassis-cab in accordance with the agency's certification regulations and transfers it to an IH dealer who performs some minor modifications on the chassis-cab prior to its delivery to a final-stage manufacturer. The IH dealership is either owned or controlled by IH. You ask what type of certification label the IH dealer should attach.

You suggest that an alterer's label might be the appropriate label to use. The other possibilities that you recommend are the use of an intermediate manufacturer's label or merely removing and amending the chassis-cab label attached to the incomplete vehicle. You suggest that the latter is more appropriate since the dealer modifying the chassis-cab is owned by IH, and therefore, it constitutes the same manufacturer that constructed the chassis-cab. You state further that to require an intermediate manufacturer's label appears to be inappropriate since that label would show that the chassis-cab and the intermediate manufacturer are both the same corporation.

Alterer's labels are only used by individuals or businesses modifying vehicles that have been certified by a final-stage manufacturer. Therefore, an alterer's label would be inappropriate in this instance since the chassis-cab has not been certified as a completed vehicle.

The agency concludes that in the case where a manufacturer's wholly owned dealership is modifying a certified chassis, the label on the chassis-cab should be removed and a correct label should be added. In these instances, the chassis-cab is still within the control of the original manufacturer. Therefore, it is appropriate for that manufacturer to assume the responsibility for the modifications made by its dealers. The dealer is not an independent business of the type that must attach an intermediate manufacturer's label. Accordingly, your dealer may amend the incomplete vehicle label as a result of its modifications.