Motor Vehicle Safety and Cost Savings Authorization Act of 1980

Motor Vehicle Safety and Cost Savings Authorization Act of 1980 - Amends the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1980, 1981, and 1982 for traffic and motor vehicle safety.

Amends the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act to authorize appropriations for: (1) automobile bumper standards; (2) consumer information studies; (3) diagnostic inspection demonstration projects; and (4) odometer requirements.

Specifies that the impact test velocity used in the bumper standards shall be 2.5 miles per hour for longitudinal impact test procedures and 1.5 miles per hour for corner impact test procedures. Denies the Secretary of Transportation authority to establish any impact test velocity exceeding the aforementioned speeds before September 1, 1982. Directs the Secretary, within 18 months after the close of model year 1982, to promulgate a bumper standard in accordance with specified requirements.

Directs the Secretary to submit to the President for transmittal to Congress an annual report regarding the progress made on carrying out this Act. Sets forth information to be included in such report.

Authorizes the Secretary to exempt those classes of motor vehicles for which the Secretary finds that odometer readings have no meaningful relation to value or performance. Directs the Secretary to publish, together with the rule containing such exemption, the findings of fact which support the exemption and an analysis of the reasons for such exemption.

Sets forth procedures for the notification, by the manufacturer by first class mail, of the most recent purchaser of a tire that has been determined to be unsafe or defective. Directs that public notice be made under certain circumstances. Prohibits the Secretary from establishing any rule that requires a tire dealer or distributor to compile records of tire sales. Directs the Secretary to require such dealers or distributors to furnish the first purchaser of a tire with a form that such purchaser may complete and return directly to the manufacturer.

Specifies that, in determining a State's compliance with enforcement of the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit, a sampling technique rather than a monitoring of all vehicles would suffice.

Directs the Secretary to amend the standard to require that affected automobile manufacturers install passive occupant restraints (airbags) in all passenger cars having wheel bases not greater than 100 inches in model year 1983 and in all passenger cars manufactured in model year 1984 and thereafter. Defines "affected manufacturers" as those that produced more than 1,600,000 passenger cars worldwide and sold more than 200,000 passenger cars in the United States in model year 1979.

Directs that passive seatbelt assemblies installed in passenger cars beginning in model year 1983 shall be detachable by the user in a manner that does not impair the subsequent reattachment and performance of such assemblies.

Exempts manufacturers from installing passive occupant restraint systems in certain passenger car models to be discontinued on or after December 31, 1982.