Wild speculation here. ;-)

Daimler-Chrysler owns the rights to the Jeep grille design. AM General, the HMMWV/Hummer manufacturer, has a right to use it on Hummers as they were part of AMC motors (along with Jeep) when the HMMWV was originally designed using that grille design. AMC went belly up, Chrysler bought the remains excepting AM General. Chrysler then merged/was absorbed by Daimler-Benz.

Daimler-Chrysler is extremely protective of the Jeep trademarks. A while back, someone here sent them a letter asking if they'd have a problem with a Poser Jeep. Their reply was the WWII military jeeps were public domain, but all of the later CJ designs were off limits.

They sued AM General and GMC over the H2's use of that grille design. That they wouldn't send DAZ a C&D letter over what they see as a violation of their trademark wouldn't surprise me in the least. Not to mention, either AM General or GMC could have done so.

If Daimler-Chrysler is the culprit, odds are it's modeler can fix it quickly and easily with a different grille. If AMG or GMC are the offended ones, the modeler will probably have to replace the model outright.

Then again, I might be completely off base. ;-)

Message edited on: 10/20/2004 00:27