Every used car parked on a dealer’s lot in the United States is required by federal law to wear a specific yellow window sticker, and most shoppers walk right past it. That sticker is called the Buyers Guide, and the Federal Trade Commission’s Used Car Rule, in force since 1985 and codified at 16 CFR Part 455, requires nearly every licensed dealer to display one on every used vehicle offered for sale. It has to spell out whether the car comes with any warranty, which specific systems are covered, and for how long. It has to state what percentage of repair costs the dealer will pay versus what lands on the buyer. Dealers who fill it out wrong, or skip it entirely, can face a civil penalty of more than $53,000 per violation. Almost nobody reads past the words “As Is.”

What the Sticker Is Legally Required to Disclose

The FTC’s own Dealer’s Guide to the Used Car Rule spells out exactly what has to appear on the form, and it’s more specific than most people assume. Dealers must check a box declaring the car is sold either “As Is-No Dealer Warranty,” with implied warranties only, or with a spelled-out warranty that names each covered system in its own column next to the length of coverage for that system. The rule specifically bans vague shorthand like “drive train,” because buyers can’t tell from that word alone whether the transmission, the differential, or the transfer case is actually included. If a warranty exists, the sticker has to state the percentage of parts and labor costs the dealer covers, and if costs are split, both the dealer’s share and the buyer’s share get their own numbers. States that don’t allow dealers to eliminate implied warranties require an entirely different version of the form, so the box a dealer checks isn’t cosmetic. It’s tied to what a court will actually enforce if the transmission dies in the parking lot.

“As Is” Doesn’t Mean What Most Buyers Think It Means

“As Is” is the box that ends most conversations before they start, and it’s also the box most misunderstood. It means the dealer has no obligation to fix anything after the buyer drives off. No implied warranty, no verbal promise, nothing. The Buyers Guide anticipates that dealers will try to soften that with a handshake and a line like “we’ll take care of you if anything goes wrong,” which is exactly why the FTC’s form includes a line telling buyers, in plain language, that oral promises are difficult to enforce and to get anything a salesperson promises in writing. That single instruction is arguably the most useful sentence on the entire sticker, and it’s usually the one skimmed fastest. A handful of states won’t let dealers use the As Is box at all, forcing an “Implied Warranties Only” disclosure instead, a distinction that changes what legal recourse a buyer actually has if something fails in week two.

The Fine Print on the Back You’re Allowed to Ask For

The front of the sticker gets all the attention, but the back carries information that matters just as much once something goes wrong. Federal rules require the back of the Buyers Guide to list the dealership’s name and address, plus the name or job title and phone number of the specific person a buyer should contact with a complaint. That’s not boilerplate, it’s the difference between chasing a general sales line and reaching someone whose job includes hearing a complaint out. The back also summarizes what a separate service contract would add on top of the Buyers Guide’s own terms, since dealers frequently try to upsell one at the point of sale. Buyers are legally entitled to a copy of the guide before signing anything, and the FTC’s guidance confirms dealers must let a buyer take it home. That’s a right surprisingly few people exercise before they leave the lot.

Enforcement Is Real, and Dealers Still Get Caught

This isn’t a rule that exists only on paper. According to the FTC’s own compliance guidance, the agency has run undercover sweeps of dealer lots across multiple states over the years, checking whether stickers are posted at all and filled out accurately, and it has issued warning letters and brought formal actions against dealers who skip the disclosure. The agency periodically adjusts the civil penalty for inflation, and as of its most recent guidance that ceiling sits above $53,000 per violation, a number large enough that compliance is generally cheaper than the fight. None of that changes what happens if a shopper doesn’t read the sticker themselves. The rule puts the information within reach; it doesn’t force anyone to look down before they look at the price.

The Buyers Guide exists because a used car’s condition is invisible from the sidewalk, and federal law decided decades ago that the seller has to put what they know in writing rather than leave it to a handshake. What’s changed since 1985 isn’t the rule itself. It’s how easy it’s become to treat a legally binding disclosure as just another piece of paper taped to glass.