Official vehicle means a U.S. Government-owned or leased motor vehicle that is fueled by petroleum or electric batteries, has a minimum of four wheels, and is designed primarily for use on highways, such as sedans, station wagons, buses, carryalls, and trucks.

(a) A/LM funds and controls the acquisition of official vehicles required by overseas posts. Accordingly, any acquisition of official vehicles by overseas contracting activities must be approved and authorized in advance by A/LM.

(b) GSA is the mandatory source for U.S. manufactured vehicles acquired in the United States. Purchase requests are submitted by A/LM to GSA on behalf of overseas posts. Overseas posts shall use U.S. manufactured vehicles unless justified as described in paragraph (c) of this section.

(c) Overseas posts may acquire non-U.S. manufactured vehicles only in special cases that are approved in advance. Requests to purchase non-U.S. manufactured vehicles may be justified under the conditions specified in 6 FAM 228.9–3(B)(c). The request shall be submitted to A/LM for approval. If approval is granted to acquire non-U.S. manufactured vehicles from the local economy, overseas posts shall follow the normal procedures in the FAR.

(d) Standardization of motor vehicles shall follow the procedures in 606.370.

(a) Acquisition of U.S. manufactured vehicles.

(1) GSA is the mandatory source for official vehicles purchased in the United States for all Federal agencies. Non-DOS agencies must have a waiver from GSA that allows them to acquire official vehicles from sources in the United States other than GSA, in accordance with the Federal Property Management Regulation, 41 CFR 101–38.104.

(2) DOS overseas contracting activities shall not obtain GSA waivers or acquire vehicles through GSA or directly from sources in the United States on behalf of other agencies. Requests to acquire vehicles in this manner shall be returned to the requesting agency without action, and the agency instructed to use its own contracting personnel or GSA for this purpose.

(b) Acquisition from non-U.S. sources. No GSA waiver is required for official vehicles purchased outside the United States from non-U.S. sources. Normal acquisition procedures shall be followed. However, contracting officers should be aware that statutory ceilings apply to the acquisition of passenger vehicles (i.e., sedans and station wagons) (see P.L. 103–329), so other agencies shall not request that posts acquire vehicles without providing an analysis of how the price compares with this ceiling.