Cost data

The Motor Vehicle Exemption, by State

Written by JaredLast reviewed 2026-08-25

Figures reviewed 2026-08-25 (today). Rate data is sourced per table and each table states its own reporting period.

How much car equity does the federal exemption protect?

$5,025, as of filings on or after April 1, 2025. 11 U.S.C. § 522(d)(2) exempts "the debtor's interest, not to exceed $5,025 in value, in one motor vehicle" — but that number isn't printed in the statute itself. The base text of § 522(d) still shows older dollar figures; the current amount comes from a separate adjustment the Judicial Conference of the United States publishes in the Federal Register under authority of 11 U.S.C. § 104. The February 4, 2025 notice raised the figure from $4,450 to $5,025, a 13.2% increase reflecting three years of consumer price index change, and courts across the country — including the Northern District of Florida, whose published adjustment table this page verified the figure against — apply it to every case filed on or after that date.

Section 104 sets the adjustment on a fixed clock: every three years, calculated from the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers over the preceding three-year period, and rounded to the nearest $25. The last adjustment took effect April 1, 2025. The next one is due April 1, 2028. A figure quoted from this page, or any other source, should be checked against that date — a $5,025 exemption stated confidently in 2029 would already be wrong.

Can a state block residents from using the federal exemption?

Yes. 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(1) lets an individual debtor choose the federal exemptions in § 522(d) unless "applicable law" — meaning the debtor's own state — says otherwise, and § 522(b)(2) is the mechanism a state uses to say otherwise. A state that opts out closes off § 522(d) entirely; its residents must use the state's own exemption statute instead, no matter how it compares to the federal figure. A state that does not opt out leaves the choice in place: a filer there can pick whichever scheme, federal or state, protects more of what they own.

This is a state-by-state decision each legislature made on its own, and it isn't uniform across the country. It also isn't something a filer can infer from the state's cost of living, its politics, or its size — Ohio and Florida have both opted out; New York and Massachusetts have not. The only way to know is to check that state's own exemption statute for the "federal exemptions not authorized" language, or its absence.

Which state's exemption actually applies to a given filer?

Not necessarily the state the filer lives in on the day they file. 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A) sets a domicile test: the exemptions that apply are those of the place where the debtor's domicile "has been located for the 730 days immediately preceding" the filing date. That's about two years. A filer who has lived in the same state that entire time uses that state's rule (or the federal rule, if the state hasn't opted out) without complication.

The harder case is someone who moved states during those 730 days. The statute has a look-back built in for exactly that: if the debtor's domicile wasn't in a single state for the full 730-day period, the applicable law is that of wherever the debtor was domiciled for the 180 days immediately before that 730-day period began — or for the longer portion of that 180-day window, if domicile changed within it too. A recent interstate move, in other words, can mean the exemption that governs a car purchased and titled in a brand-new home state is actually the old state's rule, opted-out or not. This is exactly the kind of fact pattern to raise with a bankruptcy attorney before assuming either state's figure applies.

What do individual states actually protect?

This table covers seven states, each figure checked directly against that state's own current statute — or, for the three states whose statutory text has been superseded by an inflation adjustment, against the official table that publishes the operative amount. It is not a ranking and not a national survey — states not listed here simply weren't verified in time to publish a number this site can stand behind.

A few things the table can't show in a single cell. Most of these states define the protected amount as equity — the vehicle's value above any lien — not the car's price or its full market value, so a heavily financed car with little equity may need very little exemption at all regardless of the number in this table. North Carolina says so explicitly, defining "value" at N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1C-1601(b)(2) as "fair market value of an individual's interest in property, less valid liens superior to the judgment lien sought to be enforced." Massachusetts is the exception worth flagging: its base $7,500 is measured in "wholesale resale value," not value above liens, and only the enhanced $15,000 figure for a debtor who is 60 or older or has a disability is written in terms of "equitable value." A state's own definition of "value" carries other wrinkles too: California treats its figure as an aggregate across vehicle equity, execution-sale proceeds, and insurance proceeds together, not that amount layered on top of each.

Three of the seven figures are also not the number printed in the statute, and this is the single most common way a vehicle exemption gets quoted wrong. California's § 704.010 still reads $7,500, New York's C.P.L.R. § 5205(a)(8) still reads $4,000, and Ohio's § 2329.66(A)(2) still reads $3,225 — but all three states adjust their exemptions for inflation on a three-year cycle, exactly as the federal scheme does, and in each the adjusted figure rather than the codified text is what a court applies:

Ohio is the sharpest illustration: the codified text on the state's own website reads $3,225, which is $1,800 below the amount actually available, and a filer reading the statute alone would understate their protection by more than a third. It is the same failure mode as quoting § 522(d)(2)'s base text instead of the current federal adjustment — the statute is the authority, but it is not the number.

Ohio and North Carolina are useful contrasts precisely because they say the same thing in almost the same words but reach different numbers: Ohio's figure is tied to its own state-specific CPI adjustment schedule under Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.66(B), which directs the Ohio Judicial Conference to adjust every dollar amount in the section on April 1 of every third year, rounded to the nearest $25 — a state cycle that runs independently of the federal one and that happens, for this triennium, to land on the same $5,025. North Carolina by contrast has no inflation adjuster at all; its $3,500 moves only when the legislature amends the statute, and it states its opt-out directly — "the exemptions provided in the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 522(d), are not applicable to residents of this State." Pennsylvania sits at the other extreme: its own exemption statute has no motor-vehicle line item at all, just a $300 general exemption, which is why Pennsylvania filers overwhelmingly rely on the federal figure instead — and why "non-opt-out" doesn't automatically mean a state's own number is competitive.

Does the exemption work the same way in a Chapter 13 case?

The exemption amount itself doesn't change, but what it does changes. In Chapter 7, non-exempt equity is property the trustee's collection duty under 11 U.S.C. § 704(a)(1) can reach directly — it's part of why most individual Chapter 7 cases have no non-exempt equity in anything and close as no-asset cases. In Chapter 13, there's no immediate liquidation; instead, the exemption feeds the "best interest of creditors" test at 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(4), which requires that unsecured creditors receive at least as much through the plan as they would have received "if the estate of the debtor were liquidated under chapter 7." Car equity that a filer couldn't fully exempt raises the floor on what the Chapter 13 plan has to pay unsecured creditors — it doesn't put the car itself at risk of an immediate sale the way an under-exempted asset can in Chapter 7.

That distinction is separate from, and doesn't replace, the rules on financing a new car during an open Chapter 13 case, which run through 11 U.S.C. §§ 1305(c), 1322(a)(1), and 1327 rather than the exemption statute at all. For that process, see Can You Buy a Car During Chapter 13?.

What this doesn't answer

This page explains what the federal exemption statute and seven states' own exemption statutes currently say. It doesn't calculate any individual filer's equity, tell anyone which exemption system to elect, or resolve which state's law applies to a specific move history — those are fact-specific questions for a bankruptcy attorney, not something a reference table can settle. For the Chapter 7 side of what happens to a financed car generally, see Car Loan After Chapter 7 Bankruptcy; for the four things that can happen to that loan once a case is open, see Reaffirm, Redeem, Surrender, or Keep Paying; and for how a no-equity case gets its no-asset label in the first place, see No-Asset Case. For more cost breakdowns, see the cost hub; for how this site is funded, see how we make money and the editorial policy.