Picture this, you walk into a car dealership and see this stunning vehicle on the showroom floor. Only problem is you don’t know how much the car is worth. Actually you don’t know anything about the car. You don’t even know what packages are in the car. Crazy right?

Before 1958 that’s pretty much how new car purchases were done. Customers were expected to pay full price for a vehicle they knew nothing about nor were customers given a full breakdown of the math of the car. How did you know if you got a good deal or not? You didn’t.

The Monroney Sheet, commonly known as the window sticker, was named after a senator Almer Stilwell “Mike” Monroney from Oklahoma. The Monroney Sticker gives the consumer a thorough breakdown of a car. From where it was built to MSRP, you will find this on the Monroney sticker.

In 1958 Monroney sponsored a bill called the Automobile Information Disclosure Act. The intentions of this bill were to help consumers get a good understanding of why the price of the new vehicle was that specific price. Until this bill was brought up, there were no window stickers in cars and consumers had no idea what they were paying for. The bill was actually started with car dealerships fighting with car manufacturers over handling franchises. The Automobile Dealers Day in Court Act passed in 1956 to help even out the power between dealerships and automakers. During the process of the bill being passed, the multiple hidden fees that were being pushed onto customers by sneaky dealers soon took the spotlight. That’s when Monroney came to the rescue. He came up with the brilliant idea of the sticker that we see in every brand new vehicle today.

Many people ask, “Did Monroney get tricked in a transaction?” The answer is no. He simply wanted consumers to be treated fairly and have the full understanding of the breakdown of the vehicle.