2023 Iowa Code › Title VIII - TRANSPORTATION › Chapter 322 - MOTOR VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS, WHOLESALERS, AND DEALERS › Section 322.2 - Definitions.

322.2 Definitions.
As used in this chapter and unless a different meaning appears from the context:
1. “At retail” means to dispose of a motor vehicle to a person who will devote it to a consumer use.
2. “Autocycle” means as defined in section 321.1.
3. “Completed motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle which does not require any additional manufacturing operations to perform its intended function except the addition of readily attachable equipment, components, or minor finishing operations. “Completed motor vehicle” also includes a glider kit vehicle as defined in section 321.1.
4. “Department” means the state department of transportation.
5. “Distributor” or “wholesaler” means a person, resident or nonresident, who in whole or part, sells or distributes motor vehicles to motor vehicle dealers, or who maintains distributor representatives.
6. “Distributor branch” means a branch office similarly maintained by a distributor or wholesaler for the same purposes.
7. “Distributor representative” means a representative similarly employed by a distributor, distributor branch, or wholesaler.
8. “Engaged in the business” means doing any of the following acts for the purpose of the sale of motor vehicles at retail: acquiring, selling, exchanging, holding, offering, displaying, brokering, accepting on consignment, conducting a retail auction, advertising as being engaged in any of those acts, or acting as an agent for the purpose of doing any of those acts. A person selling at retail more than six motor vehicles during a twelve-month period may be presumed to be engaged in the business.
9. “Factory branch” means a branch office maintained by a person who manufactures or assembles motor vehicles, for the sale of motor vehicles to distributors, or for the sale of motor vehicles to motor vehicle dealers or for directing or supervising in whole or part, its representatives.
10. “Factory representative” means a representative employed by a person who manufactures or assembles motor vehicles or by a factory branch, for the purpose of making or promoting the sale of its motor vehicles, or for supervising or contacting its dealers or prospective dealers.
11. “Final-stage manufacturer” means a person who performs such manufacturing operations on an incomplete motor vehicle that it becomes a completed motor vehicle.
12. The “holder” of a retail installment contract means the retail seller of the motor vehicle under or subject to the contract or, if the contract is purchased by a sales finance company or other assignee, the sales finance company or other assignee.
13. “Incomplete motor vehicle” means an assemblage consisting, at a minimum, of frame and chassis structure, power train, steering system, suspension system, and braking system to the extent that those systems are to be part of a completed motor vehicle, that requires further manufacturing operations, other than the addition of readily attachable components, such as mirrors or tire and rim assemblies, or minor finishing operations such as painting, to become a completed motor vehicle.
14. “Incomplete motor vehicle manufacturer” means a person who manufactures an incomplete motor vehicle by assembling components none of which, taken separately, constitute a completed motor vehicle.
15. “Manufacturer” means any person engaged in the business of fabricating or assembling motor vehicles. “Manufacturer” does not include a person who converts, modifies, or alters a completed motor vehicle manufactured by another person or a person who assembles a glider kit vehicle as defined in section 321.1. “Manufacturer” includes a person who uses a completed motor vehicle manufactured by another person to construct a class “B” motor home as defined in section 321.124 or a motorsports recreational vehicle as defined in section 321.1. “Manufacturer” also includes a final-stage manufacturer.
16. “Motorcycle” means as defined in section 321.1. “Motorcycle” does not include an all-terrain vehicle as defined in section 321.1.
17. “Motor vehicle” means any self-propelled vehicle subject to registration under chapter 321.
18. “Multi-stage manufactured vehicle” means a motor vehicle built in two or more stages in which an incomplete motor vehicle, built by one manufacturer, is completed by another manufacturer who adds cargo carrying components or other components to the vehicle.
19. “Person” includes any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, joint adventure, or association, and the plural as well as the singular number.
20. “Place of business” means a designated location wherein proper and adequate facilities shall be maintained for displaying, reconditioning, and repairing either new or used cars.
21. “Retail buyer” or “buyer” means a person who buys a motor vehicle from a retail seller.
22. “Retail installment contract” or “contract” means an agreement, entered into in this state, pursuant to which the title to, the property in or a lien upon the motor vehicle, which is the subject matter of a retail installment transaction, is retained or taken by a retail seller from a retail buyer as security, in whole or in part, for the buyer’s obligation. The term includes a chattel mortgage, a conditional sales contract and a contract for the bailment or leasing of a motor vehicle by which the bailee or lessee contracts to pay as compensation for its use a sum substantially equivalent to or in excess of its value and by which it is agreed that the bailee or lessee is bound to become, or has the option of becoming, the owner of the motor vehicle upon full compliance with the provisions of the contract.
23. “Retail installment transaction” means any sale evidenced by a retail installment contract between a retail buyer and a retail seller wherein the retail buyer buys a motor vehicle from a retail seller at a time price payable in one or more installments.
24. “Retail seller” or “seller” means a person who sells a motor vehicle to a retail buyer.
25. “Sales finance company” means a person engaged, in whole or in part, in the business of purchasing retail installment contracts from one or more retail sellers. The term also includes a retail seller engaged, in whole or in part, in the business of creating and holding retail installment contracts. The term does not include the pledgee of an aggregate number of such contracts to secure a bona fide loan thereon.
26. “Selling” includes bartering, exchanging, delivering, or otherwise dealing in.
27. “Special equipment” means equipment installed on a motor truck which, in combination with the motor truck on which the equipment is installed, constitutes a self-contained unit configured for a specific purpose. To constitute special equipment, a minimum of seven thousand five hundred dollars or twenty-five percent of the retail value of the motor truck, whichever is greater, must be expended in installing the equipment on the motor truck, including the cost of the equipment. “Special equipment” does not include equipment designed for the transportation of passengers.
28. “Used motor vehicle” or “second-hand motor vehicle” means any motor vehicle of a type subject to registration under the laws of this state which has been sold “at retail” as defined in this chapter and previously registered in this or any other state.
[C39, §5039.02; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §322.2]
97 Acts, ch 108, §35; 2000 Acts, ch 1134, §4; 2001 Acts, ch 32, §29; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §106; 2010 Acts, ch 1069, §107; 2012 Acts, ch 1048, §1, 6; 2013 Acts, ch 103, §19, 21; 2014 Acts, ch 1127, §16; 2016 Acts, ch 1083, §3; 2016 Acts, ch 1098, §18; 2018 Acts, ch 1010, §2, 3
Referred to in §321.1