Car Bill of Sale: Free Vehicle Bill of Sale Template for a Car, Truck or Van
A car bill of sale, or vehicle bill of sale, records a car, truck or van changing hands: the vehicle, the price, the date, and the people signing. Motorcycles, trailers and RVs have templates of their own: the motorcycle bill of sale, the trailer bill of sale and the RV bill of sale.
Download the free template
A blank template you fill in yourself. Type into the PDF's fields in your PDF reader, or print it and write by hand. Choose Word if you want to change the wording first. The files are created in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us.
Updated October 1, 2026
What an agency wants alongside a bill of sale differs: some publish their own bill of sale form, some ask for a notarized bill of sale in certain cases, and the deadline for transferring the title is not the same everywhere. The states we cover so far are listed below. Where we could confirm that a state agency has its own bill of sale form for an ordinary private sale, and the form is on a government website, that state's page links to it.
What the template looks like
Vehicle Bill of Sale
This document records the sale of the vehicle described below.
Seller
Seller's full name:
Seller's address:
Seller's phone or email:
Second seller's full name, if there is one:
Buyer
Buyer's full name:
Buyer's address:
Buyer's phone or email:
Second buyer's full name, if there is one:
Show the whole template
Vehicle
Year, make and model:
Body type and color:
VIN:
License plate number:
Title number:
Odometer reading (miles, no tenths):
Odometer status (write one: actual mileage; exceeds mechanical limits; not the actual mileage):
The odometer reading and status in this bill of sale are the buyer's and the seller's own record. They do not replace the odometer disclosure that the federal rule (49 CFR 580.5) or the state asks for.
Condition as described by the seller:
Sale
Sale price:
Date of sale:
Method of payment:
The seller sells the vehicle to the buyer for the price above. The seller states that the odometer reading is as written above.
Anything else the parties agree on:
Place and date of signing:
Seller's signature and printed name
Second seller's signature and printed name, if there is one
Buyer's signature and printed name
Second buyer's signature and printed name, if there is one
What to write about the vehicle
The template has a line for each of these, so the vehicle can be told apart from any other.
- Year, make and model
- Body type and color
- VIN
- License plate number and title number, if the vehicle has them
- The odometer reading at the time of the sale
- The vehicle's condition, as the seller describes it
The odometer line
The template asks for the mileage and for one of the three statements the federal odometer rule uses: the actual mileage, a reading that exceeds the odometer's mechanical limits, or a reading that is not the actual mileage. The odometer disclosure statement page quotes parts of the federal rule, each with its section.
The federal rule, 49 CFR 580.5, sets how the disclosure is made when a vehicle changes owners: what it contains, the document it is made on, and who signs it. The seller signs the disclosure and adds a printed name, and the buyer then signs it and adds a printed name too. Under 49 CFR 580.11, a state may also have disclosure requirements of its own that differ from 580.5, if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approves them.
The same rule exempts some vehicles from the disclosure (49 CFR 580.17), among them a vehicle that is not self-propelled, a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating over 16,000 pounds, and older vehicles: model year 2010 and older once 10 years have passed, and model year 2011 and newer once 20 years have passed, both counted from January 1 of the calendar year corresponding to its designated model year. A trailer that is not self-propelled is one of these.
Where we could confirm it, a state's page says on which document that state asks for the mileage to be written, and links to the source. The odometer lines on this template are the buyer's and seller's own record of the reading, and they do not replace the disclosure the federal rule or the state asks for.
Source: 49 CFR Part 580, Odometer Disclosure Requirements (opens in a new tab) (ecfr.gov). Last checked September 21, 2026.
After the sale
Transferring the title, paying any tax, telling the agency the vehicle was sold and what happens to the plates are all handled by the state, and the rules differ. Each state page lists rules about them that we could confirm in that state's own government sources, with the source of each rule and the date we last checked it.
The car title transfer by state and release of liability by state pages put the title transfer and notice of sale rules we could confirm side by side, one state per row.
Vehicle Bill of Sale rules by state
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- Nevada
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Not covered yet: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming.
For a state we don't cover yet, USA.gov has a list of state motor vehicle agencies: State motor vehicle services (opens in a new tab) (external site).
Frequently asked questions
Does a vehicle bill of sale have to be notarized?
It depends on the state. Where we could confirm what a state's motor vehicle agency says about notarizing a bill of sale, that state's page says so and links to the source; where we couldn't, the page leaves notarization out. A page that says nothing about it is not saying that no notary is needed.
Do I need a bill of sale if the title is signed?
Agencies differ on whether they want one. Where we could confirm when a state's agency requires a bill of sale for a title transfer, that state's page says so and links to the source; where we couldn't, the page leaves it out. Where we could confirm that the agency has its own bill of sale form for an ordinary private sale, and the form is on a government website, the page links to that too.
Who keeps the bill of sale?
The template has signature lines for the seller and the buyer, and for a second seller and a second buyer if there is one, so it can be printed and signed once for each of them. Where we could confirm when an agency requires a bill of sale for a title transfer, the state page says so and links to the source.
Is this template accepted in my state?
Where we could confirm that a state's agency requires its own bill of sale form for an ordinary private sale, and the form is on a government website, that state's page links to it and does not offer ours. Where an agency's page says something about a bill of sale on other paper, the state page quotes it and does not say that the agency accepts this template. Where we could not confirm what the agency accepts, the page says so. For a state we don't cover yet, this site has no information about what its agency accepts.