2025 Year in Review for Dealers
2025 has been a year. One of up’s and downs, we’ve heard you. Margin & regulatory struggles, successes in other areas. We are down in the trenches just like each and every one of you and are living the same truth.
- Financing Rule Changes
Jan. 1, 2026 HB 3178 takes effect, changing the funding timeline from 14 days down to 10 days from the buyer taking possession of a vehicle. Dealers are unable to do anything with a trade or any down payment until the financing is fully funded. If financing is not completely funded within that time, reimbursement of collateral and any down payments must be returned, or the dealer must honor the original deal themselves, meaning the dealer would be required to in-house finance.
Failure to adhere to the new rules will result in unlawful trade practices, which means more complaints, increased liability, and possibly more fines.
- HB3991 – That massive bill…the one everyone is petitioning about
HB3991 is the massive tax bill to fund the DMV, ODOT, and increase taxation on a ton of things, including:
- Fuel Prices
- Vehicle Registration
- Payroll Taxes
- EV/High Fuel Efficiency Charges
- Title Fee Increases
Fuel Prices – increases the per-gallon tax by $.06 per gallon.
Registration Fees – The Increase varies from $85 to $105 annually, nearly doubling them.
Here are a few examples:
| Type of Vehicle | 2025 Registration Cost | 2026 Registration Cost |
| Passenger Car (gas) – e.g., Toyota Camry | ~$43 | ~$85 |
| Light Truck / SUV – e.g., Ford F-150, Toyota Tacoma | ~$63 | ~$105 |
| Heavy Pickup (¾-ton / 1-ton) – e.g., Ford F-350 | ~$63 | ~$105 |
| High Fuel-Efficiency Vehicle (40+ MPG) – e.g., Toyota Prius | ~$78 (43 + 35) | ~$150 (85 + 65) |
| Electric Vehicle (EV) – e.g., Tesla Model 3 | ~$158 (43 + 115) | ~$230 (85 + 145) |
Payroll Taxes – from .1% to .2% – doubling the payroll taxes.
EV & High Fuel Efficiency – Supplemental fees for these vehicles increase by $30.
Title Fees – Increasing substantially from $77 to 216 per title.
- NMVTIS Check – Jan. 1st 2026, all dealers in Oregon must run and retain a copy of the check verifying for all brands on vehicles being sold at the time of sale. The copy gets added to the deal paperwork and retained for the same duration as the deal.
You do not have to provide the report or allow a viewing of the report to the customer; however, any brands must be disclosed as has been required for years. Nothing changes beyond a report pull at the time of sale and keeping that report for any audits.
An example workflow to include this in a standard process:
Bank Approval => Print Paperwork => Print NMVTIS Report => Sign Documents => Hand Over Keys
Failure to adhere to these requirements can & will result in DMV rejections, fines, and possibly suspension and/or termination of your dealer license.