Monroney "Window" Sticker
When you ventured to the lot to look at your next car chances are you read the Monroney sticker, or as it is commonly called, “the window sticker”. Why is the sticker there? Does it have to be there?
The window development started in 1955 when Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney was named as the head of a committee investigating practices of car manufacturers and the amounts charged to dealer franchises for things such as shipping.
The same committee looked into practices of the franchisee’s and how they treated customers with regards to costs. Then, in 1958, Monroney sponsored the Automobile Disclosure Act of 1958 and the “Monroney Sticker” was born.
The Act required that the sticker be placed on a side window or windshield of every new car offered for sale. The sticker can only be removed by the consumer, kind of like those mattress tags.
The Act required the sticker to contain the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), engine and transmission information, standard equipment and warranty information. Over the years the Act has been changed to include the requirement of fuel mileage and crash test safety.
So can a car dealership remove the sticker before the sale of the car? No, they cannot, something that seems to escape David Stanley Dodge in, ironically enough, Oklahoma City.
Title 15 Chapter 28 Sec 1233 (c) says:
Any person who willfully removes, alters, or renders illegible any label affixed to a new automobile pursuant to section 1232 of this title, or any endorsement thereon, prior to the time that such automobile is delivered to the actual custody and possession of the ultimate purchaser of such new automobile, except where the manufacturer relabels the automobile in the event the same is rerouted, repurchased, or reacquired by the manufacturer of such automobile, shall be fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Such removal, alteration, or rendering illegible with respect to each automobile shall constitute a separate offense.
More reading is available including the following:
Cornell Law Site: 15 USC 28 1233
NY Times: The Senator Behind the Window Sticker
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