You must notify the DMV within five days if you:
- Are cited for a traffic violation.
- Sell or transfer your vehicle. ✓
- Paint your vehicle a different color.
Answer: B. Sell or transfer your vehicle.
You must notify the DMV within five days when you sell or transfer your vehicle.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's vehicle registration section covers buying and selling directly. It says that when you sell a vehicle, you notify the DMV within five days by filing a Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability, which the handbook points you to online. The same section gives a separate 10-day window for a buyer transferring ownership into their own name, so the five-day deadline belongs to the seller's side of the transaction. That is why selling or transferring your vehicle is the situation that triggers the five-day notice.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Are cited for a traffic violation. — The passages never mention a five-day notice after a traffic citation, so this is not the reporting duty described here.
- C. Paint your vehicle a different color. — Repainting a vehicle is not discussed in these passages at all, and no five-day DMV notification is tied to it.
Remember it
Think of the five-day clock as the seller's clock: once the car leaves your hands, the DMV hears about it within five days.