The California DMV has a very specific carve-out in the law for wholesale-only auto dealers. The exception is meant to offer low-volume, wholesale-only dealers the opportunity to get lower limit auto dealer bonds. As a result, wholesale dealers save themselves some money. This is actually a question on the DMV Pre-Licensing test so most dealers already know this rule but it’s worth mentioning given how many times I hear this question. Wholesale Dealers that sell less than 25 cars/trucks per year can get away with the $10K surety bond. The only other carve out exists for Motorcycle-only dealers, regardless of retail or wholesale. Motorcycle-only dealers also have no sales caps in order to still qualify for the $10K bond.
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This is the #1 most common question we receive even though it's actually a DMV pre-licensing test question. The answer is a little complicated but hopefully, this makes sense. There is a carve-out in the law that allows a $10,000 bond for motorcycle-only retail dealers. [...]