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The bottom line: To sell a car privately in Arizona, sign the title over to the buyer, or transfer it online on AZ MVD Now if you both have accounts and the car has no lien. A 2011 or newer car needs the odometer reading on the title.
The signature does not need a notary, and you do not need an emissions test or a safety inspection to sell. A bill of sale on Form 48-2004 is recommended but not required.
Take your plates off and keep them. Then file a sold notice within 10 days, because removing the plates alone does not end your liability. File it online on AZ MVD Now or by mail with Form 46-8502.
If you have lost the title, order a replacement on AZ MVD Now for $4 before you list the car.
Compare offers from multiple buyers before you set a price.
- Sign the title over to the buyerOdometer reading: odometer disclosure is required for vehicles 2011 model year or newer and recommended for older vehicles.
- Take your plates off the carRemove the plates and keep them; transfer them to another vehicle you own, or file a sold notice and request a registration credit at azmvdnow.gov
- File Form 46-8502 within 10 daysFile online via AZ MVD Now (Submit a Sold Notice), or mail Form 46-8502 to the MVD. It helps protect you from liability for the car after the sale.
- Write a bill of saleForm 48-2004
- Emissions test
- Safety inspection
- Notary on the title
- Notarized bill of sale
- Replacing a lost title
- $4Takes up to six weeks for a mailed application; can be ordered online; Form 96-0236
- Loan on the car
- Lienholders hold the title electronically; once the lien is satisfied, the lender releases it electronically through the MVD.
- Two owners on the title
- With OR between the names either owner can sign alone; with AND or AND/OR both owners must sign.
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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Step-by-Step Process for Arizona
Step 1: Prepare Your Arizona Paperwork
In Arizona, your title is probably not in a drawer at home. Arizona issues electronic titles by default. Full e-transfer is available via AZ MVD Now if both parties have registered accounts. Vehicles with liens cannot use eTitle Transfer.
So the first job is to look: open AZ MVD Now and check whether the title sits there clear, or whether a lender is still on it.
If your title is missing:
Only the owner of record can order a replacement, on Form 96-0236. It costs $4, and online via AZ MVD Now (Title Replacement service) or by mail with Form 96-0236.
Only one owner has to sign, however many are on the title. Allow up to six weeks for a mailed application, which is the reason to do it before the first buyer calls rather than after. Our guide to a replacement title walks through the rest.
No title, and no replacement coming?
Arizona has one narrow exception, and it ends at a scrapyard. Under A.R.S. § 28-2098 a registered scrap metal dealer or a licensed automotive recycler may buy a car with no title at all.
Every one of these has to be true: vehicle must be at least 12 model years old, transactional value $1,200 or less, free of any lien, and sold to a registered scrap metal dealer or licensed automotive recycler.
You sign a sworn statement covering why you have no title: you never titled it in your name, you lost the paper, or you sent it back to MVD. The law requires the yard to pay by check rather than cash.
If that is not your car, the general rules for selling a car without a title cover what is left. Peddle and Wheelzy both quote on cars headed that way.
If you still owe money on the car:
The whole thing is electronic in Arizona: lienholders hold the title electronically; once the lien is satisfied, the lender releases it electronically through the MVD.
Get the payoff figure from the lender first and ask how long their release takes. If the loan is bigger than the car is worth, the gap comes out of your pocket at the payoff, not the buyer’s.
Once the lender releases the lien, Arizona lets you sign the car over on a Title Transfer Bill of Sale, which the FAQ below covers.
Step 2: Prepare Your Car
Wash the dust off and vacuum the fine grit out of the carpets; in Arizona both are constant and both show in photographs. Take the pictures early in the morning or near sunset, because midday sun blows out every panel and hides the paint you are trying to sell.
Put the service history in one folder. An Arizona buyer looks hardest at two things, the air conditioning and the tires, so any receipt covering either is worth having on top.
Then run a history report on your own VIN before a buyer runs one for you.
Step 3: Price Your Car
Get a number from KBB and a second from Edmunds, then go and see what the same year and trim is actually listed at around Phoenix and Tucson, where most of the state’s buyers are.
Decide your floor before anyone messages you and write it down. The buyer who has driven in from Yuma will ask you to come under it, and it is easier to say no to a number you set yesterday.
Step 4: Advertise Your Car
Facebook Marketplace reaches the Arizona buyers nearest you. Cars.com and Autotrader reach further, including buyers coming over from Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
Put the year, the trim, the mileage and your metro in the first line, say whether the car is in an emissions area, and say the plate does not come with it.
Rather skip the listing? Peddle and Wheelzy make offers on an older car or one with damage, and Carvana on a car newer than 1992 that runs and drives safely.
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Offer amount 35% 5/5
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Process ease 20% 5/5
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Offer validity 15% 4/5
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Pickup / drop-off 15% 4/5
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Payment speed 15% 4/5
- Accepts cars with active loans
- Trade-in can save on sales tax
- License plate starts the quote
- Direct deposit option available
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
- Free towing
- Fast payment
- Buys non running cars
- Pays by check at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
- You choose how soon the pickup happens after you accept the offer
- Free towing anywhere in Arizona, at a time you pick
- Paid on the spot when the driver collects the car
- No dealer, title transfer or car removal fees
Step 5: Meet with Buyers Safely
Pick somewhere busy and covered by cameras in daylight: a bank parking lot, or a police-station lot that marks out an exchange bay. In summer, agree an early morning slot; nobody makes a good decision about a car standing in an open lot in July.
Photograph the buyer’s license before the test drive and go with them. Leave the title at home.
Step 6: Handle Payment and Negotiate
Take the payment inside a bank, not in the parking lot outside it. If it is a cashier’s check, stand at the counter while the teller confirms it; if it is a transfer, wait until the money shows in your account, not until a screenshot shows on the buyer’s phone.
Say no to a check that arrives in the mail, to an offer to pay part now, and to anyone who wants to send more than the asking price.
Step 7: Sign the Title Over, or Transfer It Online
Arizona gives you two ways to do this.
Online. Both of you need an AZ MVD Now account with Enhanced Authentication completed. The buyer generates a transfer code and gives it to you, you enter it with the odometer reading, and the buyer confirms before ownership moves.
Once a transfer starts, it has to be finished inside 24 hours.
It only works on a passenger vehicle with an Arizona title, current registration, no more than two owners and no sold notice already filed. Where emissions testing applies, the car also needs a current test, unless the buyer is outside an emissions area.
On paper. Fill in the assignment on the back of the title and give it to the buyer.
Where the buyer takes it: MVD office, Authorized Third Party office, or AZ MVD Now (eTitle Transfer).
The odometer line matters either way: odometer disclosure is required for vehicles 2011 model year or newer and recommended for older vehicles.
Record the reading rather than guessing at it.
Buyer’s deadline: 15 days from the date of sale. That deadline matters in Arizona, because the registration ends with the sale, so the car they have just bought is not legally registered until they sort it.
If they are late: $8 for the first month of delinquency and $4 for each additional month, up to $100, on the registration fee under A.R.S. 28-2162(A).
Made a slip? Do not patch it. Order a clean replacement title and start again.
Step 8: Take the Plate Off and Claim Your Registration Credit
Arizona plates stay with you, and the plate comes off before the new owner takes the car.
What happens to the plate is your choice: remove the plates and keep them; transfer them to another vehicle you own, or file a sold notice and request a registration credit at azmvdnow.gov.
There is money in doing it promptly, because the registration credit is worked out from the time still unused.
The credit cannot be backdated, so a month of delay is a month of credit gone.
Step 9: Submit Your Arizona Sold Notice
This is the filing that ends your side of it, and it is the one step you can skip: if you ran the transfer online through AZ MVD Now, the sold notice was filed for you and there is nothing to send.
On paper, or where the online route did not apply, File online via AZ MVD Now (Submit a Sold Notice), or mail Form 46-8502 to the MVD.
When: 10 days.
That is what the notice is for: it protects you from liability for tickets, accidents and the like that happen after the sale.
You can claim the registration credit in the same visit, so it is worth doing both at once rather than twice.
Step 10: Cancel Insurance
Leave the insurance running until the plate is off the car and the sold notice is filed. Cancel it after that, not before.
Arizona Sale Checklist
Before the Sale
At the Sale
After the Sale
Arizona MVD Resources
State Resources:
- Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)
- AZ MVD Now
- Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division
Phone Support:
You can also find your nearest MVD office through our list of state DMV websites.
Arizona Fees and Costs
| What You Pay? | Cost | When? |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate title (if the paper title is lost) | $4 | Before sale |
| Lien payoff (if applicable) | Loan balance | Before sale |
| Emissions test (Phoenix or Tucson area) | $12.25 to $23.75 depending on the test type and whether the station is in the Phoenix or Tucson area | Buyer pays, to register |
| Everything else | $0 | Buyer pays |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to get the title notarized when I sign it over in Arizona?
No. Arizona does not require the title assignment to be notarized for in-state sales. MVD’s own list of what a transfer needs is the application, the signed title or a Title Transfer Bill of Sale, a lien release if there is one, and the fees; a notary is not on it.
When is a bill of sale required in Arizona?
A bill of sale is recommended, but Arizona publishes two of them and only one is about the sale price. The ordinary one is Form 48-2004. The other, the Title Transfer Bill of Sale, stands in for the title itself rather than recording a price.
Notarizing it is not required, and the state form carries a block for a notary or an MVD agent if you want one used. Our free bill of sale generator writes a plain one in a couple of minutes.
Can I sell my car if I still owe money on it in Arizona?
Yes. Once the lien is released you sign the car over on the Title Transfer Bill of Sale, Form 38-1306, rather than on a paper title.
That form is for Arizona-titled vehicles only. If the payoff is more than the car brings, the difference is yours to cover before any of this happens.
If I use eTitle Transfer, do I still have to file a sold notice?
No, the transfer files it for you. MVD generates the sold notice automatically and puts it in My Documents on your AZ MVD Now account, so there is nothing left to send.
One thing is worth knowing afterwards: the old paper title, if you ever had one, is no longer valid and can be destroyed.
Can the buyer drive the car home once I’ve taken the plate off?
Not on your plate, and not on the old registration either.
Their options are to register it first, or to buy a Restricted Use 3-Day Permit. It is worth telling a buyer this before they arrive expecting to drive away.
Do I need to keep insurance on the car while it’s for sale?
Only while it is being driven. Arizona lets you de-insure a vehicle instead, which MVD describes as temporarily discontinuing the required insurance until the car is ready to be driven again.
A de-insured car is not suspended for lack of insurance unless it goes on an Arizona road.
You can do it at AZ MVD Now. If buyers are still coming to test drive it, keep the policy running.
The buyer is from out of state. Does Arizona require anything special?
Your side does not change: the title is signed over, the plate comes off, the sold notice is filed. What changes is the route, because MVD runs a separate out-of-state eTitle Transfer for a car titled elsewhere, or where either party lives outside Arizona.
Both my spouse and I are on the Arizona title. Do we both need to sign?
It depends on the word printed between your names on the front. In Arizona, with OR between the names either owner can sign alone; with AND or AND/OR both owners must sign.
It is worth checking before the buyer arrives, because a missing signature means a second trip.
My car was inherited. What additional Arizona forms do I need?
If there is no probate, Arizona has a non-probate route. The form is Form 32-6901 (Non-Probate Affidavit), and the threshold is the decedent's personal property, including vehicles, must not exceed $200,000, and at least 30 days must have passed since the death.
The car goes into the heir’s name first. Only then can it be signed over to a buyer.
How do I sell a junk car in Arizona?
The same way, unless the car qualifies for the no-title exception: title signed over, plate off, sold notice filed, and a tow truck rather than a test drive. A typical junk car in Arizona is offered $593 (cars 10 years and older, 280 offers, ranked 12 of 44 states).
Article Update History
Every rule on this page now comes from the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division, and inherited cars, emissions test costs and junk-car offers are added.
The page now reflects Arizona's current MVD rules.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form 96-0236" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$4" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Form Name
"Form 46-8502" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Filing Deadline
"10 days" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"recommended" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form 48-2004" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Title Replacement Available Online?
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Sell Without Title: Legal Authority
"A.R.S. § 28-2098" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Electronic Title Handling Note
"Arizona issues electronic titles by default. Full e-transfer is available via AZ MVD Now if both parties have registered accounts. Vehicles with liens cannot use eTitle Transfer." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Title Transfer Form
"Form 32-6901 (Non-Probate Affidavit)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"not required (buyer needs a passing test to register in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Buyer Penalty for Missing Registration Deadline
"$8 for the first month of delinquency and $4 for each additional month, up to $100, on the registration fee under A.R.S. 28-2162(A)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"AZ MVD Now" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"602.255.0072 (TDD 602.712.3222)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$12.25 to $23.75 depending on the test type and whether the station is in the Phoenix or Tucson area" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"with OR between the names either owner can sign alone; with AND or AND/OR both owners must sign" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Estate Value Threshold
"the decedent's personal property, including vehicles, must not exceed $200,000, and at least 30 days must have passed since the death" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 1 figure from 17,628 instant cash offers" Accessed Oct. 2, 2026
