Oregon puts the whole private sale on the reverse of one document and gives the seller ten days to tell Salem it happened. The awkward part is that the front of the certificate has a signature line on it too, and it is not yours. Here is the whole thing, taken from the Oregon Department of Transportation, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division's own pages and the forms themselves.
Start hereHow to fill out an Oregon titleThe reassignment block on the back, filled in for one private sale — and the front-side signature line that catches people out.Open the walkthrough →Most states let a cautious seller record the mileage anyway. Oregon does not: “DMV will not record voluntary (non-required) odometer readings.” If the car falls outside the disclosure rule, the reassignment block's mileage line is simply not part of the transaction, and writing a figure there buys you nothing.
The line is drawn by model year and by age together. DMV's wording is that a disclosure is required “if your vehicle is model year 2011 or newer and under 20 years old” — which is the current federal rule at 49 CFR 580.17, and the back of the certificate prints it rather than the superseded ten-year one. A 2017 wagon sold in 2026 is squarely inside it. A 2010 pickup is outside it forever.
Model year 2010 or older: Exempt, permanently. Nothing goes in the odometer line and DMV will not record it if you write one.
Model year 2011 or newer, under 20 years old: Required. Whole miles, no tenths, and the buyer signs underneath to say they saw it.
Model year 2011 or newer, 20 years old or more: Exempt from that point on — a 2011 leaves the rule in 2031.
Over 16,000 lb GVWR, not self-propelled, Class I ATVs, snowmobiles: Exempt whatever the year, on DMV's own list.
A transfer where at least one owner stays on the title: Exempt. Adding or removing a spouse is not a disclosure event in Oregon.
You, the seller: Fill in the REASSIGNMENT block on the back of the certificate and sign the SIGNATURE line inside it. Every owner named on the front who is giving up their interest signs there — there are three printed rows for it. No notary, and no witness.
The buyer: The buyer prints and signs once more, lower down the same block, under the line “I am aware of the above odometer disclosure made by the seller/agent.” Then they file an Application for Title and Registration, Form 735-226, with DMV in Salem within 30 days.
There is a signature line on the front, and signing it does nothing for you. The front of the 735-410 carries a box headed “USE THIS SECTION WHEN THE ONLY CHANGE IS TO REMOVE A SECURITY INTEREST”, and the line inside it is labelled, in the department's own capitals, SIGNATURE (DOES NOT RELEASE INTEREST). It is for an owner who has paid off a loan and wants a clean title in the same name.
Beside it Oregon prints the correction in bold, because people sign the wrong one often enough to be worth the ink: “To release interest in the vehicle, complete the reassignment on back of the title.”
Down both margins of every Oregon title runs the same warning, set vertically in capitals: VOID IF ALTERED OR ERASED. Across the foot: VOID WITHOUT CHAIN LINK WATERMARK. There is no correction fluid version of this document and no crossing-out version — a name written on the wrong line is a Statement of Error or Erasure of a Name, Form 735-502, not a scribble.
Oregon Department of Transportation, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division, title requirements
The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.
A reassignment block on the back of the certificate, an application the buyer files in Salem, and a seller notice you file inside ten days.
Oregon puts the lender's release on the front of the certificate and posts the new title straight to whoever holds the interest next.
Lost, never arrived, or right in every respect except the one letter DMV printed wrong — and Oregon uses a different form for each of them.
A power of attorney Oregon will accept, the one it will not, and the sentence it wants written above the signature.
Whether the estate is probated decides everything, and the affidavit that avoids probate is the only Oregon form here that needs a notary.
Totalled, rebuilt, or built from parts — the salvage title, the certification that unbrands it, and the insurer's notice that starts the whole thing.
In Oregon the plates go with the car unless you take them off, and the registration period follows the plates.
Left alone, the plates and the registration period you have already paid for go down the road with the car. Oregon DMV puts the alternative in a single sentence on its selling page: “You may remove your license plates before selling your vehicle.” Neither choice is wrong. They cost different people different money, and nobody at DMV will tell you which you picked.
The department's own Notice of Sale form argues for taking them: “One way to ensure you don't get tickets or towing charges after selling your car is to remove the plates when you sell it. The buyer can get a 21-day trip permit from DMV.” That is the case for stripping them at the kerb, and it is a real one — a plate still on the car is still the plate a camera photographs.
The Title & Registration Handbook records the price of doing it: “If the plates on an Oregon titled vehicle are removed from the vehicle before it is sold or at the time of sale, or the plates have been transferred to another vehicle, full registration fees must be paid for new plates.” That bill lands on the buyer, along with a $26 plate fee and a $35 light-vehicle trip permit to get home on, so expect it to come out of the price.
Keeping them only pays if you are putting them on another vehicle you own — that is a $30 plate transfer and the remaining registration period moves across with them. Move them onto somebody else's vehicle and the handbook is unforgiving: “the remaining registration on the plates ceases for both vehicles.”
ORS 803.112 gives you ten days: “the transferor of an interest in a vehicle covered by an Oregon title shall notify the Department of Transportation of the transfer within 10 days of the date of transfer.” The back of your certificate lists the three ways to do it under the heading SELLER NOTICE — online at DMV2U.Oregon.gov, on Form 735-6890, or by completing the back of the registration card.
It does less than people hope and more than they expect. DMV's own summary: “DMV will note on your record that you sold the vehicle, but you will stay listed as the owner until the buyer transfers the title.” The statute agrees — notification “is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an assignment or release of any interest in the vehicle.” What it does is put a dated line on the record naming the person who drove the car away, which is the thing you will want to exist when a citation arrives.
The ten days has no penalty. Filing a false one is a crime twice over.
Nothing in ORS 803.112 fines a seller for filing late, which is why so many Oregon sellers never file at all. What the statutes do carry is a pair of Class C misdemeanours either side of it — knowingly submitting false notice of transfer under ORS 803.114, and knowingly submitting false information about a transfer under ORS 803.116. Guessing at the buyer's address to fill the box in is the wrong kind of thorough. Oregon Revised Statutes 803.112 to 803.116.
Register at DMV Services in Salem, by post or at any DMV office within 30 days of the purchase. There is no sales tax to collect and none to pay: Oregon's two vehicle taxes are a privilege tax on dealers selling here and a use tax on vehicles bought from dealers outside the state, and a used car sold between two private people meets neither. The title fee is $101, $106 or $116 depending on the vehicle's combined MPG rating, and $192 if it is all-electric — the same chart whether the title is a transfer, a duplicate or a replacement.
What they need to bring:
Oregon tests emissions in the Portland and Medford metropolitan areas and nowhere else, and it is tied to registering the vehicle rather than to selling it. Nothing stops you selling a car that would fail, and nothing obliges you to have it tested first. What matters to the price is whether your buyer lives inside a boundary, because if they do it is their bill and their morning.
A DEQ certificate is generally good for six months from the test date, so one taken for your own renewal in the spring can still be sitting in the glovebox when you sell in the autumn. Oregon DEQ, vehicles tested and exempted.
Oregon Department of Transportation, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division · figures and rules as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.
See also: selling a car in Oregon and the rest of the guides.