Federal · Disclosure guide

The odometer disclosure, decoded.

Last updated 2026-04-23

The odometer disclosure statement is a federal anti-fraud rule, not a state one. Every time title to a covered motor vehicle changes hands in the United States — private sale, dealer trade, gift, inheritance — the seller must disclose the mileage to the buyer in writing, at the time of transfer, signed by both parties. The rule lives at 49 CFR Part 580 and is enforced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Skipping it is a federal offense with civil penalties that start at $10,000 per violation and scale up.

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Why the rule exists

Congress passed the Truth in Mileage Act of 1986 after a wave of rollback fraud cost American used-car buyers an estimated $4 billion a year. The act made mileage disclosure a federal floor — states can add to it, but they cannot subtract. The mechanism is simple: if the mileage is printed on the transfer document and signed, later disputes are proof problems instead of he-said-she-said. Rolling an odometer back a few years can lift a car's market value by $3,000 to $8,000, which is why the statute is aggressive.

The 20-year rule — what changed in 2021

Until December 31, 2020, the disclosure was only required for vehicles less than 10 model years old. On January 1, 2021, NHTSA's 2019 final rule took effect and extended the requirement to vehicles less than 20 model years old.

Mechanically: the exemption applies to vehicles whose model year is more than 20 years before the calendar year of transfer. In 2026, any vehicle with a model year of 2005 or earlier is exempt. In 2027 that line moves to 2006, and so on. If you are selling a 2006 or newer vehicle in 2026, the disclosure is required.

The phase-in still matters for older trades. A car that was exempt when its previous owner bought it in 2018 (because it was already 12 years old at the time, under the pre-2021 10-year rule) may re-enter the disclosure regime when you sell it today — the rule applies to the current transfer, not the last one.

Who is exempt

Three categories of vehicle never require the disclosure, regardless of year:

Heavy vehicles. Any vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of more than 16,000 pounds. That cutoff clears most commercial trucks, semis, and a handful of large SRWs. Non-motorized vehicles.Trailers, boats, and anything else without an engine and odometer — there's nothing to disclose. New vehicles sold by manufacturers to dealers.The first transfer in a car's life is handled under a separate Manufacturer's Statement of Origin.

And the age rule above: vehicles more than 20 model years older than the transfer year are exempt from the disclosure itself (not from the bill of sale — you still need that).

The three status boxes

Every compliant disclosure — whether on a state DMV form like Florida's HSMV 82050, California's REG 262, or a stand-alone bill of sale — asks the seller to tick exactly one of three boxes next to the mileage figure:

1. Actual mileage. Tick this if the odometer is working normally and the number on the dash is the number of miles the vehicle has actually travelled. This is the correct answer for the overwhelming majority of cars.

2. Exceeds mechanical limits. Tick this only for pre-digital five-digit odometers that have rolled past 99,999 and restarted at zero. A 1988 Corolla reading 14,000 miles after 210,000 real miles is the classic case. Digital odometers built for the modern six-digit range cannot trigger this status.

3. Not the actual mileage — warning, odometer discrepancy. Tick this whenever you cannot vouch for the reading: the cluster was swapped, the odometer was repaired, the vehicle spent time with a broken odometer, or you simply don't know its history. Buyers reasonably discount any car with this box ticked — but that's the point. The penalty for not ticking it when you should have is enormously worse than the price hit.

How to read the odometer correctly

Read it from the driver's seat with the ignition on (engine running or in accessory mode) and the display set to the total — nottrip A or trip B. Write down the exact whole number. Do not round. Do not estimate. If the odometer is in kilometres (some Canadian imports), note the units — the disclosure should be in the same units the cluster shows, and the buyer's state may ask for a conversion later.

If you are between repairs and the odometer is temporarily inoperative, do not invent a number. Tick not the actual mileage, write your best estimate based on maintenance records, and hand over any service receipts that corroborate the figure.

Paper versus electronic

The disclosure was historically printed on the back of the physical title, which is why old-style transfers happened with the title itself. Under NHTSA's 2021 amendment, the disclosure may now be made on a secure electronic document if the jurisdiction of transfer supports it — as of 2026, most states have at least partial e-title systems and every state permits a stand-alone bill of sale to carry the disclosure block. The E-SIGN Act (15 U.S.C. § 7001) makes an electronic signature on the disclosure legally equivalent to a wet signature for federal purposes.

The one thing that has not changed: bothseller and buyer sign. A disclosure the buyer didn't acknowledge isn't a disclosure; it's a note.

Penalties for getting it wrong

Civil penalties under 49 U.S.C. § 32709 start at $10,000 per violation, or three times the actual damages to the buyer, whichever is greater. The statute also allows attorney's fees, which is why odometer-fraud plaintiffs tend to have lawyers. For willful rollbacks, the federal criminal statute (49 U.S.C. § 32710) layers on up to three years of prison time per count.

The state penalties are separate. Florida calls intentional rollback a third-degree felony. California makes it actionable under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. Texas treats it as a Class A misdemeanour on a first offense and a state jail felony on a second. None of these are close calls in court when the disclosure form shows the wrong box ticked.

How our bill of sale handles this

In every state we support, the odometer disclosure block is part of the document we generate. Your answers in the wizard flow directly into the correct fields:

Florida. The disclosure is printed on the official HSMV 82050 with a federally compliant three-box layout and odometer-date fields. California. The REG 135 bill of sale includes the statutory odometer section required for a private-party transfer; the buyer's DMV intake uses it directly. Texas. We issue the odometer disclosure as part of the bill of sale; Texas also publishes Form VTR-40 for vehicles under 10 years old and under 16,000 lbs GVWR, which we reference in the footer of the generated document.

If the vehicle is exempt (MY 2005 or older in 2026, or GVWR over 16,000 lbs), the wizard shows the exemption checkbox and leaves the mileage fields optional. You do not have to hunt for the rule — we apply it from the year you entered.

Get the paperwork done — $9.99

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Start here for the state you're selling in: Florida · California · Texas.