The document Wisconsin uses when the assignment on the back of the title cannot carry the transfer - a title with no room left, a non-conforming certificate with no odometer wording on it, an abandoned vehicle sold by a municipality. It is a real WisDOT form with a real number, it is required by name in situations a private seller does meet, and you cannot download it.
Written against MV2488 (not published online), issued under s. 342.155(1), Wis. Stats., and ch. Trans 154, Wis. Adm. Code. This page is not a walkthrough, because the document is not published. Everything above is transcribed from the forms that name the MV2488 - the MV2419 and the MV2300 - and from ch. Trans 154, rather than from the sheet itself.
There is no download link for the MV2488 here because there is not one anywhere - Wisconsin DMV does not publish it. The card below explains where it does come from.
There is no completed MV2488 on this page because WisDOT does not publish a blank one. It is secure stock rather than a download: mv2488.pdf returns 404 from the department's forms directory, the form is absent from the public vehicle forms index, and the MV2419 prints the reason on its own face - the form is obtained through Maps and Publication Sales using form DT1435, and photocopies of form MV2488 are not acceptable. Trans 154.02(9) explains why, defining a secure printing process as one which deters and detects counterfeiting. Nothing here is reconstructed from memory or from a third-party copy; what this page sets out is what the forms and rules that reference the MV2488 say it must contain.
| On the form | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| Why it is here at all | MV2419 names it as a requirement: if the vehicle is model year 2011 or newer, the seller is required to complete a MV2488 Vehicle Transfer and Odometer Mileage Statement, along with this form. |
| Where it comes from | The same sentence says how: the MV2488 form may be obtained through Maps and Publication Sales (WisDOT Stores) using form DT1435. |
| Why a print-out will not do | MV2419 again, in its own words: photocopies of form MV2488 are not acceptable. It is secure stock, and Trans 154.02(9) defines what that means - a printing process which deters and detects counterfeiting. |
| What it has to contain | Trans 154.03(2)(a)1 lists the certification a conforming odometer statement carries: the mileage at the time of transfer, the name and address of the transferring party, the name and address of the purchasing party, the date of transfer, and whether the reading is actual. |
| Who signs it | Both of you. s. 342.155(1)(b) requires the transferee to print their name on the mileage disclosure statement and sign it, and forbids one person signing as both transferor and transferee. |
| Its two cousins | The MV2115 Supplemental Reassignments, restricted by WisDOT's dealer guidebook to titles issued before 1 May 1990, and the MV2690 Power of Attorney. Neither is downloadable either. |
There is no MV2488 to read: Wisconsin DMV does not publish it, so nothing on this page describes its contents beyond what the agency itself says about it — that is here — and what is on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicles 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 Wisconsin seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Wisconsin involves.