Participation in the Business Partner Automation Program is mandatory for new vehicle dealers and optional for used vehicle dealers. 

The program authorizes our partners to process and issue validated registration cards, full year registration stickers, automobile, commercial, motorcycle, exempt vehicle license plates, and sequential Arts Council License Plates from their remote locations.

Apply for the Business Partner Automation Program

New and used vehicle dealers must obtain a NMVTIS report for any used vehicle offered or displayed for sale, and must display a warning on the vehicle when the report indicates the state has branded the title.

Dealers who will be providing automobile servicing and repair are required to file an application with their local Bureau of Automotive Repair office. The application process takes approximately six to eight weeks and includes a fee.

Pursuant to  Business and Professions Code (BPC) §7502, no person will engage within this state in the activities of a repossession agency (as defined in §§7500.1 and 7500.2) unless the person holds a valid repossession agency license or is exempt from licensure pursuant to §§7500.2 or 7500.3.

A dealer who does not have an established place of business in California, but who is currently authorized to do business in this state and who has an established place of business as a vehicle dealer in another state, is not subject to licensure under this article if the business transacted in California is limited to the importation of vehicles for sale to, or the export of vehicles purchased from, persons licensed in California under CVC §§11700 et seq., 11700.1.

The term “vehicle dealer” does not include any of the following:

• Insurance companies, banks, finance companies, public officials, or any other person coming into possession of vehicles in the regular course of business, who sells vehicles under a contractual right or obligation, in performance of any official duty, or in authority of any court of law, if the sale is for the purpose of saving the seller from loss or pursuant to the authority of a court.
• Persons who sell or distribute vehicles of a type subject to registration for a manufacturer to vehicle dealers under this code, or who are employed by manufacturers or distributors to promote the sale of vehicles dealt in by those manufacturers or distributors. However, any of those persons who also sell vehicles at retail are vehicle dealers and subject to this code.
• Persons regularly employed as salespersons by vehicle dealers licensed under this code while acting in the scope of that employment.
• Persons engaged exclusively in the bona fide business of exporting vehicles or of soliciting orders for the sale and delivery of vehicles outside the territorial limits of the United States, if no federal excise tax is legally payable or refundable on any of the transactions. Persons not engaged exclusively in the bona fide business of exporting vehicles, but who are engaged in the business of soliciting orders for the sale and delivery of vehicles, outside the territorial limits of the United States are exempt from licensure as dealers only if their sales of vehicles produce less than 10 percent of their total gross revenue from all business transacted.
• Persons not engaged in the purchase or sale of vehicles as a business, who dispose of any vehicle acquired and used in good faith, for their own personal use, or for use in their business, and not for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this code.
• Persons who are engaged in the purchase, sale or exchange of vehicles, other than motorcycles subject to identification under this code, which are not intended for use on the highways.
• Persons temporarily retained as auctioneers solely for the purpose of disposing of vehicle stock inventories by means of public auction on behalf of the owners at the owner’s place of business, or as otherwise approved by the department, if intermediate physical possession or control of, or an ownership interest in, the inventory is not conveyed to the persons as retained.
• Persons who are engaged exclusively in the business of purchasing, selling, servicing, or exchange racing vehicles, parts for racing vehicles and trailers designed and intended by the manufacturer to be used exclusively for carrying racing vehicles. A “racing vehicle” is defined as a motor vehicle of a type used exclusively in a contest of speed or in a competitive trial of speed which is not intended for use on the highways.
• Any person who is a lessor.
• Any person who is a renter.
• Any salvage pool.
• Any yacht broker who is subject to the Yacht and Ship Brokers Act Article 2 (commencing with §700) of Chapter 5 of Division 3 of the Harbors and Navigations Code and who sells boat trailers in conjunction with the sale of a vessel.
• Any licensed automobile dismantler who sells vehicles that have been reported for dismantling as provided in CVC §11520.
• The Director of Corrections when selling vehicles pursuant to §2813.5 of the California Penal Code.
• Any public or private nonprofit charitable, religious, or educational institution or organization that sells vehicles if all of the following conditions are met:
  • The proceeds of the sale of the vehicles are retained by that institution or organization for its charitable, religious, or educational purposes.
  • The vehicles sold were donated to the institution or organization.
  • They meet all of the applicable equipment requirements of CVC Division 12 (commencing with §24000) and have been issued a certificate pursuant to §44015 of the Health and Safety Code.
• The institution or organization has qualified for state tax-exempt status under §23701d of the Revenue and Taxation Code, and federal tax-exempt status under §501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
• Any motor club, as defined in §12142 of the Insurance Code, that does not arrange or negotiate individual motor vehicle purchase transactions on behalf of its members but refers members to a new motor vehicle dealer for the purchase of a new motor vehicle and does not receive a fee from the dealer contingent upon the sale of the vehicle.