The rule
Every piece of safety equipment on a car you sell must comply with Division 12 of the Vehicle Code. Vehicle Code 24007(a)(1) says it as a bar on you: no dealer, and no holder of a retail seller's permit, shall sell a new or used vehicle that is not in compliance with the Vehicle Code and the DMV's regulations, unless the vehicle is sold to another dealer, sold to be legally wrecked or dismantled, or sold exclusively for off-highway use. Vehicle Code 24007(a)(3) adds one more: the equipment rules do not reach a dealer's sale of a leased car to the lessee who already had it, when the car is registered in California.
The other half is Vehicle Code 24002(b): it is unlawful to operate a vehicle that is not equipped as the code requires. So the buyer's drive home in a car with a dead brake lamp is a violation for the buyer, and the sale was one for you. The car has to be right before it is offered, not fixed after the buyer complains.
What counts as Division 12 equipment
Division 12 begins at Vehicle Code 24000. The chapters a used car meets are general provisions (24000 and following), lighting (24250 and following), brakes (26301 and following), windshields and mirrors (26700 and following), and other equipment (27000 and following), which holds horns, exhaust, emission controls, noise limits, seat belts, tires, fenders and fuel caps. If a section in that division requires an item, or regulates it when it is present, the item is Division 12 equipment and has to comply at sale. Paint, upholstery, a dent and the radio are condition, not equipment; the Buyers Guide and the contract handle them.
The walk-around
| Item | What the code requires | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Headlamps | At least two, one each side, 22 to 54 inches high | 24400 |
| Taillamps | Two on a car made and first registered 1958 or later; red; visible 1,000 feet on a car made after January 1, 1969 | 24600 |
| Stop lamps | Two on a car first registered 1958 or later; red on 1979 and newer; visible 300 feet | 24603 |
| License plate lamp | White light, plate legible from 50 feet | 24601 |
| Turn signals | Required on a passenger vehicle made and first registered January 1, 1958 or later | 24951 |
| All required lighting | In good working order, bulbs of the correct voltage | 24252 |
| Service brakes | On all wheels; in good condition and adjusted to pull evenly; stop a passenger car from 20 mph within 20 feet | 26311, 26453, 26454 |
| Parking brake | Holds the car on any grade it is driven on, held by mechanical means | 26451 |
| Windshield | Required on a passenger vehicle; no defect that impairs the driver's view; safety glazing on a car made after January 1, 1936, and selling one without it is barred | 26700, 26710, 26701 |
| Wipers | Two, on a car first registered after December 31, 1949 | 26706 |
| Window film | Front side windows take only clear film at 88 percent light transmittance, with the installer's certificate in the car; the rear window may be tinted when both outside mirrors show 200 feet back | 26708 |
| Mirrors | Two, one on the left, each showing 200 feet to the rear | 26709 |
| Horn | Audible at 200 feet | 27000 |
| Muffler | Adequate, in constant operation, no cutout or bypass | 27150 |
| Emission controls | Every required device present, connected and working | 27156(b) |
| Fuel cap | Cap of nonflammable material on the filler | 27155 |
| Seat belts | A dealer may not sell a used passenger vehicle made January 1, 1962 or later without two front belts, or one made January 1, 1968 or later without a belt at every seat | 27314 |
| Tires | A dealer may not sell or install a tire worn below 1/32 inch in any two adjacent grooves | 27465 |
| Fenders or flaps | As wide as the tread, on any vehicle with three or more wheels | 27600 |
Three of those sections are written on the sale itself: 26701 (glazing), 27465 (tires) and 27314, whose only exceptions are sales to dealers, dismantlers and junk dealers; 27314.5 adds a seat belt notice on the window of a 1972 through 1990 model unless it has lap and shoulder belts front and rear. And under 27156(c) no one may sell or install a device that alters a required emission control, so a tune or intake the Air Resources Board has not exempted under 27156(h) comes off before the car is offered.
Why the buyer cannot waive it
Division 12 safety equipment cannot be waived, and a signed acknowledgment of the defect changes nothing. Three reasons. First, 24007(a) is written on your act of selling and has no consent clause; the only exceptions are the three sales the statute names. Second, Civil Code 3513: a person may waive a law meant solely for their own benefit, but "a law established for a public reason cannot be contravened by a private agreement." A brake lamp protects the driver behind the buyer, who signed nothing. Third, 24002(b) makes the buyer's own driving unlawful.
The as-is box on the Buyers Guide is where dealers go wrong. Under 16 CFR 455.2 that box means the dealer gives no warranty, which is a statement about who pays for repairs after the sale. The form governs warranties and says nothing about equipment, so 24007(a) applies to an as-is sale as to any other. "As is" covers the alternator that fails next month. It does not cover the tire that was bald at delivery. When a sale with a known safety defect ends in a crash, the claim comes back as fraud or deceit causing loss, a ground against the license under Vehicle Code 11705(a)(14), and against the bond.
Salvage cars and the 2024 change
Vehicle Code 24007(d) adds a certificate for one kind of car. A salvage vehicle rebuilder that sells a total loss salvage vehicle, revived or not, gives the buyer a vehicle safety systems certificate of compliance under Business and Professions Code 9888.5 and following, before or at delivery, unless the car is sold to a dealer or for wrecking or dismantling. Until 2024 those were the brake and lamp certificates. AB 471 of 2021 folded both into BAR's Vehicle Safety Systems Inspection program: licensing opened March 27, 2024, the brake and lamp programs ended September 27, 2024, and the DMV no longer accepts a brake and lamp certificate (BAR, spring 2024 newsletter, read 2026-10-22). A revived salvage car in your inventory needs the new certificate from a licensed station before it sells.
When you must register with BAR
The Bureau of Automotive Repair registers automotive repair dealers under Business and Professions Code 9880 and following. The definition decides who: an automotive repair dealer is a person who, for compensation, engages in the business of repairing or diagnosing malfunctions of motor vehicles, or who collects compensation for repair services referred or sublet to someone else (Business and Professions Code 9880.1(a)). Acting as one without a current registration is unlawful (9884.6(a)). BAR's own words: the registration is required to diagnose, service or repair vehicles for compensation, including mobile, referral and sublet work, and is not required of a fleet owner that repairs only its own fleet, a business that services only non-passenger vehicles, or a machine shop (BAR, Apply for a license, read 2026-10-22). The fee is owed for each place of business (Business and Professions Code 9884(a)): $200 to register, $200 a year to renew, and $250 if the renewal is late (16 CCR 3351.1).
Where that leaves a used car dealer: reconditioning your own inventory, with your own employees, with no customer and no charge, is not repair for compensation. Business and Professions Code 9880.1(f) says "customer" does not include the repair dealer itself. The line is crossed the day money changes hands for repair work: a buyer who pays you to fix something after the sale, service contract or warranty repairs billed to the obligor, a service bay open to the public, or collecting from a customer for work you sent to a shop, which 9880.1(a) names outright. Business and Professions Code 9884.16(a) denies an unregistered shop any lien for labor or materials and any right to sue on the repair contract, so a dealer who fixes a buyer's car unregistered has no legal way to collect for it.
If you run your own Smog Check station
BAR licenses stations under Health and Safety Code 44014 as test-and-repair, test-only or repair-only. The station license requires the automotive repair dealer registration first, costs $100 to apply and $100 a year to renew, and STAR certification is a further step for a station that wants to inspect directed vehicles (BAR, Apply for a license, read 2026-10-22). The people who test hold their own BAR licenses, limited to the vehicle classes they have passed the department's exam on (Health and Safety Code 44014(e)). A dealer's station may certify the dealer's own cars, under the same limits as any other: no certificate for a tampered car (44015(a)(1)), a gross polluter certified only at a test-only or qualified test-and-repair station (44015(a)(3)), and a fraudulent certification revokes the station license with no reinstatement (44072.10(c) and (d)) while putting the dealer license up for revocation with a five-year floor (44072.10(b)).
Estimates and invoices once you are registered
Registration brings the Automotive Repair Act's paperwork with it. Before any work, the customer gets a written estimate of parts and labor for the specific job, and no work is done and no charge accrues until the customer authorizes it (Business and Professions Code 9884.9(a)). Work beyond the estimate needs the customer's consent after the need is found and before the work is done; oral consent is noted on the work order and then on the invoice or acknowledged in writing. Work you will send to another shop is disclosed on the estimate, and you answer for it as if your own people did it (9884.9(b)). Oil changes, filters, bulbs, wiper blades and tire rotation, the preventive maintenance list in 9880.1(j), need no written estimate when the price is posted or the customer acknowledges it (9884.9(e)). A teardown to find the fault gets its own estimate first: the teardown cost and the area to be opened, the cost to reassemble, the gaskets and seals that will be destroyed, and the longest reassembly will take (16 CCR 3353(c), amended July 1, 2025 per BAR's regulatory actions page, read 2026-10-22).
Never let a customer sign a work order that omits the repairs requested or the odometer reading, and hand over a copy of anything they sign (9884.7(a)(2) and (3)). The invoice records all work, warranty work included, with services and parts listed separately and subtotaled, sales tax stated separately, every used, rebuilt or reconditioned part marked as such, and each crash part marked original or aftermarket; one copy goes to the customer and one stays with you (9884.8). It carries your registration number and the business name BAR has on file (16 CCR 3356). A customer who asks when the work order is taken gets the replaced parts back (9884.10), and BAR's sign saying so hangs where customers see it (9884.17). Keep the records three years (9884.11). BAR's guide to all of this is Write It Right, updated January 2026 (bar.ca.gov/wir, read 2026-10-22). The grounds for losing the registration are the mirror image: untrue statements, fraud, gross negligence, and work that departs from accepted trade standards without the owner's consent (9884.7(a)).
Sources
- Vehicle Code 24002 and 24007, unsafe and noncomplying vehicles; 24252, 24400, 24600, 24601, 24603 and 24951, lighting; 26311, 26451, 26453 and 26454, brakes; 26700, 26701, 26706, 26708, 26709 and 26710, windshields, glazing, film and mirrors; 27000, 27150, 27155, 27156, 27314, 27314.5, 27465 and 27600, other equipment; 11705, grounds against the license. Read 2026-10-22 on california.public.law, which carries the leginfo text.
- Civil Code 3513, laws established for a public reason, read 2026-10-22.
- 16 CFR 455.2, the Buyers Guide, read 2026-10-22 on law.cornell.edu.
- Business and Professions Code 9880.1, 9884, 9884.6, 9884.7, 9884.8, 9884.9, 9884.10, 9884.11, 9884.16 and 9884.17, the Automotive Repair Act, read 2026-10-22.
- 16 CCR 3351.1, registration fees; 3353 and 3356, estimates and invoices, read 2026-10-22 on law.cornell.edu.
- Health and Safety Code 44014, station licensing; 44015, certificates; 44072.10, fraudulent certification, read 2026-10-22.
- BAR, Apply for a license (bar.ca.gov/apply); Write It Right (bar.ca.gov/wir); Regulatory actions; spring 2024 newsletter on the Vehicle Safety Systems Inspection program. Read 2026-10-22.
- DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007), topics 6 and 13.