Interpretation ID: aiam3240
National Sales Manager
American Moped Associates
1852 Langley Avenue
Irvine
California 92714;
Dear Mr. Achille: This responds to your letter of March 11, 1980, forwarding to Mr Schwartz of my office the proposed vehicle identification number (VIN) scheme for American Moped Associates, and in confirmation of your subsequent telephone conversation with Mr. Schwartz.; Your VIN scheme complies with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicl Safety Standard No. 115, with the following exceptions. The fourth through eighth characters of the VIN are required by S4.5.2 and Table I of the Standard to encode certain descriptive characteristics of the vehicle. For motorcycles, which include mopeds, this information is (1) type of motorcycle, (2) line, (3) engine type and (4) net brake horsepower. While the information which American Moped Associates proposed to encode in the fourth through eighth characters will undoubtedly be useful to your company, it is not necessary to advise the agency of your internal coding. Further, While much of the information the Standard required to be decoded from these characters is self-evident because of your product line, it is nonetheless necessary to forward this information to the agency as specified in the Standard.; Based on your discussions with Mr. Schwartz, it appears this mayb easily accomplished utilizing essentially the same format as you currently propose. It is my understanding that you no longer intend to encode the color in the fifth position of the VIN, but rather utilize a single 'filler' character such as 'M'. Further, I understand that all your mopeds utilize the same engine and comprise two lines characterized by the number of speeds. Consequently, based on your product line, your submission to the agency might read:; Characters 1-3 LAM: WMI assigned to American Moped Associates. Character 4 (internal use) Character 5 M: Indicates moped type: gasoline, one cylinder, engin with a displacement of_______, net-brake horsepower measured at the crankshaft of __________.; Character 6 (internal use). Character 7 1 indicates one-speed Indian line. 2 indicates two-spee Indian line.; Character 8 (internal use). Character 9 Check digit. Character 10 Model year. Character 11 T: Indicates Taipei plant of manufacture. Y: Indicate Yuanlin plant of manufacture.; Characters 12-17 Sequential number. Please feel free to contact Mr. Schwartz should you have any furthe question on this matter.; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel