What stops the car manuf.from selling off those cars is Lialibity lawsuits,That is the reason Ferrari has a huge Ferrari junkyard of perfect(and very expensive)Ferrari's piled one on top of the other.They will NOT even sell a shifter nob off any of those pre- production cars.It is a combination of not wanting to put in the hands of the general public a car that Might have unengineered problems,that could cause a major problem.and the FACT that those cars are put into EXTREME testing,that could make those cars unsafe for general public use,and if, one of those cars got into the general public,and caused a major accident---well guess who would be involved in a major ligitation/lawsuit.Mostly the courts would award a judgement award and a major pumitive damage award,knowing,the the car manufaucturing company released a "unsafe car". Claude 00570 --- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "therealdmcvegas" <DMCVegas@xxxx> wrote: > --- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bruce Benson" <delornut@xxxx> wrote: > > > While it may be against the rules, what's really to stop a > manufacturer from just issuing a VIN plate to a pilot car? Since it > really is up to the manufacturer to destroy a pilot car, it's really > more of an "honor system" kinda thing. Nevermind any "foolproof" > system to prevent this from happening being in place. There just > isn't a system at all as I understand it. > > Otherwise, is this an actual law from the DOT/NHTA/EPA That these > vehicles MUST be destroyed, or is it just a mutal agreement that > selling them to consumers is frowned upon? > > Besides, perhaps this was a great way for the company to reward it's > executives without having to deplete their inventory that was to fill > the high backorder of cars at the time? > > -Robert > vin 6585 "X"