Cost and Weight Added by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for Model Years 1968-2001 in Passenger Cars and Light Trucks

Book excerpt: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began to evaluate the cost of its Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in 1975. The agency's contractors perform detailed engineering "teardown" analyses, for representative samples of vehicles, to estimate how much specific FMVSS add to the weight and the retail price of a vehicle. This process is also known as "reverse engineering." By July 2004, NHTSA and its contractors had evaluated virtually all the cost-and weightadding technologies introduced by 2001 in passenger cars and light trucks (including pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and full-size vans) in response to the FMVSS. The agency is now ready to estimate the cost and weight added by all the FMVSS, and by each individual FMVSS, to model year 2001 passenger cars and light trucks, and also in all earlier model years, back to 1968. NHTSA estimates that the FMVSS added an average of $839 (in 2002 dollars) and 125 pounds to the average passenger car in model year 2001. Approximately four percent of the cost and four percent of the weight of a new passenger car could be attributed to the FMVSS. An average of $711 (in 2002 dollars) and 86 pounds was added to the average light truck in model year 2001. Approximately three percent of the cost and two percent of the weight of a new truck could be attributed to the FMVSS.