Redd

"That it's the law but people can break it since they aren't physically prevented from doing so, sounds like."
Actually? I can't break that law. No one in the US can break that law. The law says the vehicle must be manufactured in a certain way, so the only people who can "break" that law are people who are manufacturing cars. Unless you're registered as a car manufacturer? You can't break the law, it simply doesn't apply to you.

Point being, when a customer asks a dealer to change that setting? Neither one is a manufacturer, so there's no reason the dealer can't politely say "OK" and just make it happen. Or, anyone else. A smart service advisor would at least say "We don't do that because we're afraid of this federal law" instead of just saying it was impossible.

Once the car has been properly manufactured? The law doesn't place any obligation on any party to maintain it that way. If I tell the dealer I need cargo space, remove the rear seats and rear seat belts, are they going to argue about that too?

Funny thing about the CFR. That code is also the reason why the US stayed so far behind Europe on headlights for so many decades. Pre-WW2, the best and brightest lighting was specifically sealed beam, so the reflectors could not corrode. And fixed sealed beam, so the lamps couldn't jiggle out of alignment. So we got state and federal laws that mandated the best technology, fixed sealed beams. And because no one wanted to bother with that unsexy issue, we couldn't have better technology when Europe got it. We couldn't have halogen capsules or xenon lighting and we couldn't have headlights that move with the steering, to corner better.

The law is the law, but sometimes? It is simply old obsoleted law that has become "wrong". Thirty years ago, twenty years ago? The headlights on all of our cars would have been illegal, period.

That CFR section applies only to how a vehicle must be manufactured. Not how it is maintained or operated afterwards.