Re: NHTSA Web Site

[Scott Miller <sdmiller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, Pat, where on earth did you get the idea that I wanted to clean up
the WHOLE data base?  :^)   I may just take a look at the BMW portions
to get a feeling for the magnitude of the thing, since that's what we
care about here in Digestland.  But don't expect me to be handing the
NHTSA any massaged data, I'm not a "contractor", after all, just a guy
with a car and a few thousand "friends" with similar cars.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation.

Scott Miller
GGC BMW CCA #44977

Pat Donahue wrote:
> 
> Scott writes:
> >
> > I just spent a few minutes looking through the NHTSA web site that lists
> > complaints about vehicle defects.
> >
> > >>http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/compmmy1.cfm
> >
> > (Pat, is this your work?)
> 
> Um.  I just set up their databases so they could be searched on line.
> 
> > I thought the complaints were supposed to be limited to safety issues,
> > but there were also complaints of noises and other apparently non-safety
> > issues.  BTW, if you try this out, you'll have to use the various
> > iterations of your model to see all the complaints (i.e. 325i, 325is,
> > 325ix, 325, etc.)  Results of investigations are not listed, just a
> > general description of the complaints.
> 
> The people whose job it is to go through and enter only certain types of
> complaints are ..um.. contractors.  Need I say more?  (I'm a contractor
> too so don't get your panties in a bunch.)
> 
> > It would be nice if there was a way to download the data for, say, all
> > BMWs, so that it could be cleaned up and presented to this list in a
> > more coherent manner.  Wait, I better watch what I'm asking for, I might
> > get it.
> 
> Dang Scott!  That's mighty nice of you.  You can go to
> ftp://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/all and get the databases there along with some
> description of what to do with all the parts.  Be sure to get just the
> uncompressed versions because PKZIP has some bugs in it that cause some
> major problems.
> 
> Remember that these databases are replaced each Tuesday so you'll want
> to throw out what you have and get a fresh copy then.  :)
> 
> Some pointers (again).  You need to do the searches for your model, even
> try things like 3-series.  You also need to do each search with the year
> set to 1900 because anything that applies to all years gets entered that
> way.  I started working on an alternate search to hit all the databases
> and allow you to just type in the start of the make and model (some
> people can't spell BMW).  You can actually give that a test run at:
> http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/central/ but remember this isn't
> quite ready for prime time.
> 
> Have fun.  And Scott?  Thanks for volunteering to clean up all that
> data.  The job is immense and I never thought I'd see anyone just
> volunteer!  :)
> --
> Pat Donahue  CCA 125031
> Vienna, VA
> '91 M5 4GTFUL
> '88 325is destined for ITS

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