What Does the Buyers Guide Sticker on a Used Car Mean?

Two stickers, two governments

Walk a Maine used-car lot and the cars should carry window paperwork required by two different levels of government. The Buyers Guide is federal: the FTC requires dealers to display it on used vehicles offered for sale, as explained in the FTC's guide to buying a used car from a dealer. Maine adds its own used-car disclosure requirements for dealers on top, described in the Maine BMV's used car buyer's guide. Reading both takes two minutes and tells you more than an hour of sales conversation.

What the FTC Buyers Guide tells you

The Buyers Guide's core job is to answer one question: is this car sold with a warranty or not? The sticker has checkboxes:

• "As Is – No Dealer Warranty" means the dealer is making no promise about the car's condition after the sale. If something breaks on the drive home, that's generally your problem, not the dealer's — which is exactly why an independent inspection before purchase matters so much on an as-is car.
• "Dealer Warranty" means the dealer is promising to cover certain repairs. The sticker must state what percentage of repair costs the dealer pays and which systems are covered, for how long. Read those lines literally — "50% of labor on the powertrain for 30 days" is a very different promise than "warranty."

The FTC's article also stresses a point buyers miss: anything the salesperson promises verbally should be written on the Buyers Guide or into the contract. The sticker even says spoken promises are hard to enforce. If the dealer says "we'll fix that rattle," get it in writing.

What Maine adds

Maine law requires licensed dealers to disclose additional information about a used vehicle's history and condition on a state-required sticker — the BMV's used car buyer's guide describes what dealers must post and what your rights are in a dealer transaction. Compare what the state sticker discloses against what you find in a title-history check; the two should tell a consistent story about the car's past.

Private sales: no sticker at all

Neither sticker applies to a private-party sale. An individual selling their own car owes you no Buyers Guide and no dealer disclosures — one of the fundamental trade-offs covered in our dealer vs. private sale guide. In a private sale, your inspection, your history check, and the title paperwork are the whole protection package.

A practical reading routine

• Photograph both stickers before negotiating — they're part of the deal's paper trail.
• If the as-is box is checked, price the car accordingly and treat the pre-purchase inspection as mandatory.
• If a warranty box is checked, ask for the warranty document itself, not just the sticker summary.
• If a sticker is missing entirely at a dealership, ask why before going further.