49 U.S.C. § 32702
Section 32702 · Definitions
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Ioffe v. Skokie Motor Sales, Inc. (2005)
Most recently applied in 739 F. Supp. 2d 1017 - In Re Nissan North America, Inc. Odometer Litigation (September 2010)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In this chapter—
(1) “auction company” means a person taking possession of a motor vehicle owned by another to sell at an auction.
(2) “dealer” means a person that sold at least 5 motor vehicles during the prior 12 months to buyers that in good faith bought the vehicles other than for resale.
(3) “distributor” means a person that sold at least 5 motor vehicles during the prior 12 months for resale.
(4) “leased motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle leased to a person for at least 4 months by a lessor that leased at least 5 vehicles during the prior 12 months.
(5) “odometer” means an instrument or system of components for measuring and recording the distance a motor vehicle is driven, but does not include an auxiliary instrument or system of components designed to be reset by the operator of the vehicle to record mileage of a trip.
(6) “repair” and “replace” mean to restore to a sound working condition by replacing any part of an odometer or by correcting any inoperative part of an odometer.
(7) “title” means the certificate of title or other document issued by the State indicating ownership.
(8) “transfer” means to change ownership by sale, gift, or any other means.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section
In clause (1), the words “(whether through consignment or bailment or through any other arrangement)” and “such motor vehicle” are omitted as surplus.
In clause (4), the words “a term of” are omitted as surplus.
In clause (5), the words “the distance a motor vehicle is driven” are substituted for “the actual distance a motor vehicle travels while in operation” for clarity and to eliminate unnecessary words.
Pub. L. 104–287
This amends 49:32702(8) and 32705 to clarify the restatement of 15:1982(5) and 1988 by section 1 of the Act of July 5, 1994 (Public Law 103–272, 108 Stat. 1049).
Amendments
2012—Par. (5). Pub. L. 112–141, which directed insertion of “or system of components” after “instrument”, was executed by making the insertion after “instrument” both places it appeared.
1996—Par. (8). Pub. L. 104–287 inserted “any” after “or”.
Effective Date of 2012 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 112–141 effective Oct. 1, 2012, see section 3(a) of Pub. L. 112–141, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 2012 Amendment note under section 101 of Title 23, Highways.
Effective Date of 1996 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–287 effective July 5, 1994, see section 8(1) of Pub. L. 104–287, set out as a note under section 5303 of this title.