Interpretation ID: nht90-3.11

TYPE: Interpretation-NHTSA

DATE: July 11, 1990

FROM: Paul Jackson Rice -- Chief Counsel, NHTSA

TO: Lawrence A. Beyer, Esq.

TITLE: None

ATTACHMT: Letter dated 4-10-90 to Z. Taylor Vinson and Stephen P. Wood from Lawrence A. Beyer TEXT:

This responds to your letter of April 10, 1990, on behalf of your client, Cantab Motors, requesting "official notification" by DOT that Cantab "is considered to be a manufacturer by your agency", and stating that counsel for Isis Imports received such a letter from us on July 10, 1986.

A review of our letter to Isis discloses that that company sought to import Morgans as "incomplete motor vehicles", and we informed it that it could not do so. However, we stated that a Morgan lacking major components of the fuel system such as fuel tan k, fuel lines, and carburetor could be imported as an "assemblage of motor vehicle equipment, with the package or container labelled as equipment items", and that individual items of equipment covered by the safety standards would have to bear the certif ication of their manufacturer. The result of this interpretation, that is to say, subsequent events occurring outside the letter, is that Isis has imported the assemblage pursuant to 19 CFR 12.80(b)(1)(ii), as equipment, rather than as a vehicle under 1 2.80(b)(1)(iii), and has added the propane fuel system components in the United States. The completed motor vehicle has then been certified by Isis as conforming to all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards.

It appears from the petition for temporary exemption that you submitted on behalf of Cantab, that the facts are essentially similar to those of the Isis case. To the extent that Cantab's actions duplicate those of Isis, it, too, would appear eligible to import its assemblages of Morgans under the equipment conformance declaration. Although conforming and certified equipment items are no longer imported pursuant to 19 CFR 12.80(b)(1)(ii), the corresponding provision of the new regulation that allows im portation of such equipment is 49 CFR 591.5(b).

I hope that this is responsive to your request.