Two layers of law on one number
The mileage is the one number on a used car that a buyer cannot check by looking. That is why it has its own federal statute, the odometer chapter at 49 USC 32701 and following, with its rule at 49 CFR 580, and its own article of the Vehicle Code, 28050 through 28053. The federal law says what the disclosure contains and what a false one costs. The California article makes the tampering a state crime and tells a repair shop what to do when it replaces an odometer. Vehicle Code 11713(n) then ties the whole article to your license: a dealer that violates any section of it has committed a dealer violation.
The disclosure on every transfer
Every time a car changes hands, the seller gives the buyer a written statement of the odometer reading, and if the seller knows the reading is not the true mileage, the statement says so (49 USC 32705(a)(1)). The rule at 49 CFR 580.5(c) says what the statement carries: the reading with no tenths, the date of transfer, the printed names and current addresses of both parties, the make, model, year, body type and VIN, and the seller's signature and printed name. The buyer signs too and the seller gets a copy (580.5(f)). Nobody signs as both seller and buyer on one transfer (580.5(h)).
In California the statement lives on the Certificate of Title. The seller fills the odometer section on the front, the buyer acknowledges it there, and a dealer in the chain completes the "Dealer Transactions Only" section on the back (DMV Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual, VIRP 5.070, read 2026-10-22). When the title is not there to write on, because it is a noncomplying title, is lost and the transfer rides on a REG 227, or was unavailable at the time of sale, the disclosure goes on a Vehicle/Vessel Transfer and Reassignment Form, REG 262 (VIRP 5.075). The REG 262 is a secure document, not online; you order it from the DMV's supply warehouse (VIRP 1.020).
Two Vehicle Code sections repeat the duty for the parties you deal with. A private seller reports the mileage on the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability, due within five calendar days of the sale (Vehicle Code 5900). A dealer enters the reading at transfer on the report of sale and on the title, and says so if it knows the reading is wrong (Vehicle Code 5901(b)). Keep a copy of every statement you issue or receive for five years at your primary place of business (49 CFR 580.8).
The three readings
The seller picks one of three statements, and the rule leaves no fourth (49 CFR 580.5(e)).
| Statement | When the seller gives it | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Actual mileage | The seller certifies that, to the best of its knowledge, the reading is the miles the car has gone. | The normal case. Your own disclosure at resale can repeat it, if nothing you learn says otherwise. |
| Exceeds mechanical limits | The odometer has rolled past its highest number, as a five-digit unit does at 99,999, and the seller knows it. | The reading is a remainder, not the mileage. Price and disclose it as a car with unknown miles above the limit. |
| Not actual mileage | The seller knows the reading is not the true mileage, by more than a calibration error. The statement carries a warning that an odometer discrepancy exists. | The brand follows the car. A dealer may not sell it as "certified" (Vehicle Code 11713.18(a)(1)), and every later disclosure says not actual. |
You will swear at sale to the reading you accept at purchase, so the law has a rule for buyers who resell: a dealer may accept a disclosure only if it is complete (49 USC 32705(a)(3)). A title with the odometer box blank, or a REG 262 with the seller's half empty, is not a disclosure, and you cannot fill it in later. The DMV lets a private buyer whose seller has vanished enter the current reading with a Statement of Facts, REG 256, explaining why, but that procedure "does not apply to dealer transactions" (VIRP 5.025). Get it signed before the money moves.
Which cars are exempt, and the 2021 change
Until 2021 a car ten model years old was exempt from the disclosure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration changed that in a final rule of October 2, 2019 (84 FR 52664), and set the new rule to start January 1, 2021 (84 FR 65017, read 2026-10-22). The exemption now runs two tracks (49 CFR 580.17(a)). A vehicle of model year 2010 or earlier is exempt once it is transferred ten years after January 1 of its model year, so every 2010 and older car is exempt today. A vehicle of model year 2011 or later is exempt only twenty years after January 1 of its model year: a 2011 stays in until 2031, a 2016 until 2036. The DMV adopted the change in its memo VIN 2021-10 of December 8, 2021, with a table by model year, and encourages the disclosure on every car.
The same section exempts a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating over 16,000 pounds, a vehicle that is not self-propelled, a new vehicle before its first retail sale, and a vehicle the manufacturer sold straight to a federal agency (580.17(a) and (b)). For a used-car dealer the line is the model year: 2010 and older, write the mileage anyway; 2011 and newer, a missing disclosure stops the transfer.
Repairing or replacing an odometer
An odometer may be serviced, repaired or replaced, but it has to show the same mileage afterward as before. If the new or repaired unit cannot be set to that reading, it is set to zero, and the person who did the work attaches a written notice to the left door frame giving the mileage before the work and the date it was done (Vehicle Code 28053(a)). Failing to reset or to attach the notice is itself unlawful (28053(b)), and removing or altering the notice with intent to defraud is unlawful for anyone (28053(c)). The federal law has the same three rules at 49 USC 32704, with one difference: California puts the notice duty on the shop, the federal statute on the owner or the owner's agent. When your shop replaces a cluster, both of you are on the hook for that sticker.
The notice changes the disclosure. After a replacement, or a conversion from kilometers to miles, the title may say actual mileage only if a REG 256 from the party that did the work goes in with the application, giving the date, the old reading, the new reading and, for a conversion, the ratio used. Without it the disclosure reads "Not Actual Mileage" (VIRP 5.050). OL 2000 lists odometer replacement among the facts a dealer discloses at sale; the sticker and the REG 256 are what let you sell the car as what it is.
The odometer has to work when you sell
No section says in those words that the odometer must be in working condition at the time of sale. The DMV's outline teaches it because of what the sections do say. Driving a vehicle on a street or highway, with intent to defraud, knowing its odometer is disconnected or not working is a crime under Vehicle Code 28050.5 and 49 USC 32703(3). A disclosure of actual mileage from an odometer that stopped counting months ago is a false statement, which 32705(a)(2) forbids. So a car that comes to you with the cluster dark has two lawful paths: repair it under 28053, with the sticker, before the sale, or disclose the mileage as not actual and price it that way. Selling it on the reading it froze at is the third path, and it is the one that draws the misdemeanor and the accusation against the license.
The rollback ban and what it costs
The Vehicle Code names the acts. It is unlawful to advertise, sell, use or install a device that makes an odometer register anything but the true mileage (28050); to disconnect, turn back, advance or reset an odometer intending to change the miles it shows (28051); to sell or use a device built to turn one back (28051.5); and to drive on a disconnected one with intent to defraud (28050.5). Each of those four is a misdemeanor, not an infraction (Vehicle Code 40000.15). For a dealer, any violation of the article, the repair notice included, is also grounds against the license under 11713(n).
The federal penalties are larger. A person who violates the odometer chapter or its rule owes the United States a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation, and each vehicle is a separate violation, up to $1,000,000 for a related series (49 USC 32709(a)). NHTSA adjusts those figures for inflation at 49 CFR 578.6(f); the 2025 adjustment put them at $13,676 and $1,364,624, and nothing had changed them by October 2026, since the one 2026 amendment to 578.6 (91 FR 62290, September 30, 2026) touched only its fuel economy paragraph. A knowing and willful violation is a crime: a fine, up to three years in prison, or both, and when the violator is a corporation its officers and agents who authorized the act face the same (32709(b)). The buyer has a claim of their own. Anyone who violates the chapter with intent to defraud owes the buyer three times the actual damages or $10,000, whichever is greater, a floor the same rule lifts to $13,676 (578.6(f)(2)), plus costs and a reasonable attorney's fee, and the buyer has two years after the claim accrues to sue (32710). The state's chief law enforcement officer may bring the same claim on buyers' behalf (32709(d)). A false disclosure draws the same penalties as a turned-back dial, because 32705(a)(2) bars both.
The legal owner's disclosure on a repossessed vehicle
When a lender repossesses a car and sells it, the lender is the seller for odometer purposes. The rule defines the transferor as anyone who transfers ownership by sale, gift or any means other than creating a security interest (49 CFR 580.3), and a repossession followed by a sale is a transfer of ownership. The DMV's procedure follows: the legal owner of record, as repossessor, reports the mileage, releases its interest on a Certificate of Repossession, REG 119, and writes "REPO" on line 1 of the title. If the title has an odometer section the lender completes and signs it; if not, the lender completes a REG 262 (VIRP 5.055). The REG 119 transfers title without the registered owner's endorsement (VIRP 5.055), an involuntary transfer under Vehicle Code 5909.
For you, buying repossessions at auction or from a credit union, the point is who signs. The lender signs as seller, you sign as buyer, and the borrower who last drove the car signs nothing. A repo that arrives with the odometer section blank, or with the borrower's name where the lender's belongs, fails 32705(a)(3) the same as any other incomplete disclosure. Send it back for the lender's signature before the car goes on your lot.
Sources
- 49 USC 32703, prohibitions on tampering; 32704, service, repair and replacement; 32705, disclosure requirements; 32709, penalties; 32710, civil actions by private persons, read 2026-10-22.
- 49 CFR 580.3, definitions; 580.5, disclosure of odometer information; 580.8, retention; 580.17, exemptions, read 2026-10-22.
- 49 CFR 578.6(f), civil penalty amounts for odometer tampering and disclosure, read 2026-10-22; 91 FR 62290 (September 30, 2026), the one 2026 amendment to 578.6, which revises paragraph (h)(2) only, read 2026-10-22.
- NHTSA, Odometer Disclosure Requirements, final rule, 84 FR 52664 (October 2, 2019), and response to petitions for reconsideration, 84 FR 65017 (November 26, 2019), read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 28050, 28050.5, 28051, 28051.5 and 28053, odometers; 40000.15, misdemeanors; 11713(n), dealer violations; 11713.18(a), certified used vehicles; 5900 and 5901, notices of transfer; 5909, involuntary transfers, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual, chapter 5, Odometer Mileage Reporting: 5.025, 5.050, 5.055, 5.070 and 5.075; chapter 1, 1.020, Bill of Sale, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV Vehicle Industry News memo VIN 2021-10, New Odometer Disclosure Requirements (December 8, 2021), read 2026-10-22.
- DMV forms REG 119, Certificate of Repossession; REG 227, Application for Replacement or Transfer of Title; REG 256, Statement of Facts; REG 262, Vehicle/Vessel Transfer and Reassignment Form.
- DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007), topic 8.