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Used Car Buyers Guide (FTC Used Car Rule)

The window sticker a dealer must display on every used vehicle offered for sale, stating whether it comes with a dealer warranty or as is - and why the sticker overrides the contract.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

The federal Used Car Rule requires a dealer to post a Buyers Guide on every used vehicle it offers for sale and to give the buyer the original or a copy at the sale. The Guide states, in a fixed federal format, whether the vehicle is sold with a dealer warranty or as is with no dealer warranty, what a dealer warranty covers and for how long, what share of repair costs the dealer will pay, and that the buyer should ask to have the vehicle inspected by an independent mechanic before buying. It also notes that a manufacturer's warranty may still apply and reminds the buyer to check for open safety recalls. Where the sale is negotiated in Spanish, the dealer must post the Spanish version.

The Guide is not a formality: by the rule's own terms it becomes part of the sales contract and overrides any contrary provision in it. A dealer that posts a warranty Guide and then has the buyer sign an as-is contract has given a warranty. That is the reason the Guide is the first document a lawyer asks for in a used-car dispute, and the reason a buyer should keep it with the contract.

The rule applies to dealers, defined by the number of used vehicles they sell in a period, and not to private sellers, who may sell as is without any disclosure under federal law. As is means the dealer gives no warranty of its own; it does not defeat a written manufacturer's warranty that is still in force, and it does not excuse fraud or misrepresentation about the vehicle's condition or history. Some states go further and prohibit or limit as-is sales by dealers or impose a used-vehicle warranty that a dealer cannot disclaim, and those laws apply alongside the federal sticker.

Where this comes from

The Used Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 455, issued by the Federal Trade Commission under the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41 and following; § 455.2 requires the Buyers Guide, § 455.3 makes it part of the contract, and § 455.5 requires the Spanish-language version when the sale is conducted in Spanish. The rule was revised in 2016 to add the recall and manufacturer-warranty statements. State used-vehicle warranty laws, such as Massachusetts General Laws chapter 90, § 7N 1/4, add dealer obligations that the federal rule does not displace.

When people hire a lawyer for this

A buyer whose used car failed soon after purchase should locate the Buyers Guide before anything else: if it shows a dealer warranty, or if the dealer never posted one, the buyer's position is considerably stronger than the signed contract suggests. A lawyer will also ask whether any manufacturer's warranty was still running, whether the dealer made statements about the car's condition or history that turned out to be false, and whether the state has its own used-vehicle warranty law.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

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