How to fill out New Mexico MVD-10002

The single sheet every New Mexico transfer funnels into, and mostly not the seller's to fill. The buyer files it; the counter completes the fee ladder down its right edge - sale price, less trade-in, net excise tax, registration, penalties. What makes it a seller's document anyway is the block across its middle: a full federal odometer disclosure with a printed name, signature and date line for the seller as well as the purchaser, so your pen touches this application even though it is not your application.

Written against MVD-10002 (Rev 05/24), issued under NMSA 1978 §§66-5-201 through 66-5-239 (the financial responsibility notice printed on the form). Sign the odometer disclosure before the buyer drives away. This is the one block of the buyer's application that cannot be completed without you, and a buyer stuck at a counter with an unsigned disclosure has thirty days of penalty clock running and your telephone number.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVD-10002 from the realfile.tax.newmexico.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVD-10002 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The buyer fills this in

   The vehicle block

   VIN, year, make, model, colours and body type, copied from the face of the certificate rather than from the car or from memory.

   Watch out: Seventeen characters for anything 1981 or newer, checked against the title character by character. A transposed pair here is the commonest reason a packet makes two trips.

2. 2
   The buyer fills this in

   Type of Title: 02

   The printed code list at the top right. A private-party purchase is 02, Title Transfer.

   Watch out: 04 is a duplicate and 03 a lien release - picking those codes changes what the counter processes, not just what it is called.

3. 3
   The buyer fills this in

   Registered owner name and address

   The buyer as their identification spells them, at a bona fide New Mexico residence address - a post box alone does not register a car.

   Watch out: Two owners must choose a connective here. 'Or' lets either sell alone later; 'and' requires both signatures on everything, and the division will not write 'and/or' on a new title.

4. 4
   The buyer fills this in

   Date Purchased

   The assignment date from the certificate - the day the deal was actually signed.

   Watch out: This date is checked against the title and any bill of sale, and the earliest one governs the 30-day requirement. An optimistic later date is a discrepancy, and discrepancies are rejectable.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   The odometer reading

   Whole miles into the blank that says (no tenths), matching the reading on the certificate's assignment exactly.

   Watch out: Two documents from one sale disagreeing about the mileage is precisely what the prescreen exists to catch. Copy the number, do not re-read the dash a week later.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   One of three mileage codes

   AM, EL or NM. There is no exempt box on this form - the three printed choices are the whole menu.

   Watch out: On a pre-2011 vehicle that federal law exempts, the clerk records the exemption in the system; do not tick NM to approximate it, because NM is a warning brand that follows the vehicle.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Seller's name, signature and date

   Print, sign and date under the certification. This is the only place the seller touches the application.

   Watch out: The sentence you are signing is a federal certification with criminal penalties for fraud. Sign it the way the certificate spells your name, on the day you actually hand the car over.

8. 8
   The buyer fills this in

   Purchaser's name, signature and date

   The buyer countersigns the same certification, acknowledging the reading and the code.

   Watch out: Do this at the car, together. The clerk verifies both acknowledgements, and a missing one sends the buyer back to find you.

9. 9
   The lienholder fills this in

   Lien holder blocks - or nothing

   Only if the buyer is financing: the lender's name, mailing address, file date and maturity date, exactly complete.

   Watch out: The division names the specific omissions that bounce an application: lien file and maturity date, lienholder name and mailing address. An authorized agent can fax or email the missing pieces, but only after the delay has happened.

10. 10
    Dealers only

    The fee column stays empty

    Sale price through net registration, down the right edge, marked for the division's use.

    Watch out: The counter computes the excise tax here, against the higher of your declared price or the book-value floor the division applies to private sales. Writing your own arithmetic in the column reads as alteration.

What gets this one rejected

• •A missing seller signature on the odometer disclosure. The clerk is instructed to verify that the seller and purchaser both acknowledge the reading, and half of that pair cannot be supplied at the counter.
• •A lien block with the file date, maturity date, or the lender's mailing address missing - the manual lists exactly those omissions as grounds to return the application.
• •A purchaser name that differs from the assignment on the certificate. The names on the application must match the names on the ownership document, in the same connective.
• •A date purchased that contradicts the earliest signed document. The division dates the sale from the first assignment - title, bill of sale or invoice - not from what is typed here.
• •Highlighting anywhere on the sheet. Highlighted entries are lost when the document is scanned, and the manual makes highlighted documents rejectable on that ground alone.
• •Anything written in the Division Use Only fee column - those figures are the counter's arithmetic, and an applicant's entries there read as alteration.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It is the buyer's filing, on the buyer's deadline. The application goes in within 30 days of the assignment date, with the title, the insurance affirmation, identity and two proofs of New Mexico residency. The seller's involvement ends at the odometer block.
• •It doubles as an odometer disclosure. The manual lists this form alongside the title's own assignment, the Bill of Sale and the Odometer Mileage Statement as a place the federal disclosure can live - useful when the certificate's assignment is short of room.

Every line here was read off MVD-10002 (Rev 05/24) itself — the PDF is here — and off the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, Motor Vehicle Division pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all New Mexico seller paperwork, or what selling a car in New Mexico involves.