IN vehicle manufacturer bonds.
$250 flat.
A company that manufactures or assembles new motor vehicles or major component parts and sells them to Indiana dealers, distributors, or the public is licensed by the Secretary of State’s Auto Dealer Services Division, and IC 9-32-11-2 conditions that license on a $25,000 bond in favor of the state. Ours is $250 flat, and the price you see is the price at checkout.
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Three steps. One sitting.
Manufacturer licensing involves zoning, a background check, and a certificate of insurance naming the Secretary of State. The bond is the piece you can close today:
Apply online
Entity details, years in business, your dealer number if one has been issued, and an effective date. That is the application — no financial statements required for the bond itself.
Pay & e-sign
Vehicle merchandising bonds are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. If a check runs at all it is a soft pull that never affects your score.
Upload to the Dealer Portal
Since October 1, 2024 bond and insurance updates go through the online Dealer Portal only. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email ready to upload with the manufacturer application or renewal. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the vehicle manufacturer bond actually guarantees
Indiana regulates the top of the distribution chain as well as the bottom. The Secretary of State’s Auto Dealer Services Division licenses a manufacturer — a person engaged in manufacturing or assembling new motor vehicles or major component parts and selling them to dealers, distributors, or the public — and the licence reaches a factory branch office of the manufacturer and entities controlled by the manufacturer. Recreational vehicle and manufactured home manufacturers are expressly outside it and are not required to obtain this licence. If you sell at retail to the public as well, the Division applies the new and used dealer location requirements to that premises on top of the manufacturer rules.
The bond is the same statutory instrument every Auto Dealer Services licensee files. IC 9-32-11-2 requires a bond satisfactory to the secretary in the amount of $25,000, in favor of the state, securing the fines, penalties, costs, and fees the secretary assesses after notice, an opportunity for a hearing, and an opportunity for judicial review — and securing payment of damages to a person aggrieved by a violation of IC 9-32 by the licensee after a judgment has been issued. In the manufacturer context the likely aggrieved parties are the franchised dealers and distributors downstream of you, which is why the same section requires a licence issued to a factory branch or distributor branch to specify each place of business and be conspicuously displayed there.
Treat it as a standing condition rather than a filing. Your licence expires annually on a date keyed to the first letter of your business name — the Division runs the calendar from February 1 for names beginning A–B through January 1 for W–Z — and renewals may be submitted up to 90 days in advance. The Division’s renewal instructions are explicit that the expiration dates on your bond and insurance must fall after your licence expiration date, and that the licence is suspended during any lapse in bond coverage. A continuation certificate on the existing bond is acceptable, and the certificate of insurance must name the Secretary of State as certificate holder — not the BMV.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields. Have your dealer number handy if one has been issued; the credit consent in this application authorizes a soft pull only.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Indiana bonds.
File the bond and finish the manufacturer application.
$250 flat, soft pull only, executed bond usually in the same sitting and ready for the Dealer Portal. Free until issued.