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I know why they did this. A lot of "old cars" have been showing up on the road with historic tags. Early 90's are been tagged and used as daily drivers, skirting inspections. It bothers me that I won.t be able to take my car to work but I am guessing they won't bother me. My guess they will be looking at the Plymouth Sundance I saw at the gas station today. Rusty, bad muffler driven by a teenage girl.
Location: I moved to pittsburgh so I can be near Primantis
Posts: 405
well first of all, in MD there is no state inspection after the initial. you can have gaping exhaust holes in the body and no brakes, but as long as the yearly checked emissions aint too high, you are ok.
But MD has always had rules on historic vehicles., mileage, road use etc. my friend has a riggins (special ford truck from the 80's) and he gets stopped all the time
Florida had a Collectible tag back in the 90s for 20 year old cars and 25 year old Antique. The collectible got nixed quickly because all the shitbuckets still barely on the road 20 years later got tagged. Those 5 years really prune them.
Easiest thing for Maryland to do is up it to 40 years.
Here in Maine, we are fortunate that, while you are required to sign an affidavit stating your intentions to use the car for parades, etc., you are not under any legal obligation to do so, so nothing that you may be doing at a given moment can get you in trouble.
They require you to have a "regular" car registered as well, so you will not be likely to be using the antique as your only car.
I agree, though, with the idea that the age requirement could fairly be increased for a less-restricted antique plate:
I recall back in 1974 when my father dragged home a '46 Lincoln on the end of a hook.
It hadn't been driven in years. The interior was rotted and completely destroyed, and all interior metal was rusted and in need of complete refinishing. The glass was all bubbly where the safety layers had delaminated. The steering wheel was cracked, as were all of the plastic control *****. The cloth wiring was cracked, unsafe, and unusable. The engine was free, but did not run. The gas tank was rusted and the fuel lines were shot. The hydraulic window mechanisms were all gunked up and required complete rebuilding. The body was rusted (though not rusted through) and the trim was deteriorated. The brakes were frozen up solid and all of the brake lines were rusted through. The tires were all cracked and only held air for a day or so.
That car was 28 years old.
Compare that the last 1988 car you saw drive past you on the road (or even the last one you saw shoved off to the side in someone's yard).
Back when the 25-year antique plates were conceived of, 25 year old cars were OLD, and there were not many around that could be driven. Cars from the '30s and '40s (and '50s) just didn't last that long, and if you had one, and kept it on the road, it was an accomplishment.
Cars from later years were just flat-out made better, with longer-lasting mechanical components and materials (vinyl sure looks better after twenty years in a barn than mohair does), making it far more likely that people will want to use them as everyday transportation, rather than as curiosities.
A two tiered system, such as "Antique" and "Vintage" or "Senior" might not be a bad solution.
but I am guessing they won't bother me. My guess they will be looking at the Plymouth Sundance I saw at the gas station today. Rusty, bad muffler driven by a teenage girl.
Don't count on it. When VA changed their AV licensing law in 2007, the freaking cops went after bonafide antiques a lot more than they did the POS wearing antique plates. Or did till the old car community kicked back and starting carpet-bombing the law's legislative sponsor's email and office phone lines.
That legislator (who represents my district BTW) said the intent was to get questionable antique registrations off the road. Then why pray tell did the local fuzz hit the guy with an AACA National winner on the way home from dinner instead of hanging out at the local Goodyear plant at shift change? THAT'S where they'd find dozens of beaters with antique plates. They'll buy a beater so their new vehicle doesn't get coated in rubber and chemicals, license it antique to beat the inspection, emissions and property tax, and drive it everywhere.
If you had taken time to dig into the financial projections attached to that law it was pretty damned obvious the real objective was increased revenue. They had forecast NINE MILLION DOLLARS additional revenue from that bill.
VA antique plates are the only ones in the state that can be seized on the spot by a LEO. I know a local Pontiac guy who had one burned out taillight on a 67 Catalina convert (with the other three as well as the brake/turn signal on the dark taillight bulb functioning normally) and a city cop pulled the plates on the spot when he left a downtown street festival cruise night. Sure, it was a young bully cop throwing his weight around, but the police chief got an earful from a lot of people the next week.
I used to say live and let live. But anymore if I see a POS with antique plates I take a picture and send it to the DMV and the local police chief. That way if the objective of the increased fees and added hoops I had to jump thru to keep my antique plates was truly to get questionable plates off the road, the ball is in their court.
But I still see just as many POS wearing antique plates as ever.
Last edited by rocketraider; September 16th, 2016 at 03:37 AM.
In NY it costs more each year to register a car with Historical plates and you don't have to have a Historical plate for a collector car policy. I simply have regular vanity plates, which cost $60 to get and an extra $31.25 a year, as opposed to Antique vanity plates which cost an extra $30 per year plus the extra $31.25 for the vanity plate. The only restriction from driving your car to work comes from your insurance company (if you have a classic car policy), and most people seem to ignore that anyway.
Last edited by allyolds68; September 16th, 2016 at 04:58 AM.
Ohio's antique registration laws are pretty decent. I have "historical" plates for my '68. They're suppose to be for limited use only but I've seen some on peoples daily driver beaters. It's a 1 time registration that lasts for 40 yrs. It was under $30. I'll be 90 when I have to renew! I hope I can still push in the clutch by then! The other nice thing is you can run 2 different plates. I have to keep 1 of the 2 historical plates in the car at all times but it doesn't have to be mounted (I have mine under the front seat) plus you can use year specific plates on the car. I have a nice vintage set of 1968 plates on the car, front(we have to run a front plate in Ohio) & rear. Both the historical plate & the '68 plate #s are on the registration papers.
I have regular tags on my Olds. Historic or collector plates aren't necessary for my insurance policy. I was told by my insurer that I could drive the car to work occasionally but it should be mostly used for pleasure cruising. I've only driven it to work once in the past 8 months.
All of this legislation is just to get more money for government. They don't care about the environment, old cars, or safety.
I am thinking I going to talk to my state rep. I think it is going to get worse because of how long cars last now. Couldn't hurt. An exemption for pre-80 cars or so.
One interesting thing in VA is that there is a little-known provision in the law that allows you to use YOM plated on a daily driver IF you follow the rules for a regular use registration. That means that you do have to get an annual safety inspection and pay the annual registration fee. Personally I have no problem with this, as I intend to do just that with my 67 Delta. The only problem is that you are supposed to display the year/month registration stickers on the plate, but there is no place on the old plates to put the (because the year was stamped right into the plate). Neither DMV nor the VA state police (who are responsible for car registrations and inspections) can answer where to put the stickers. Several folks have used the small metal tabs that they sell for similar purpose in Calif, so far with no problems.
Another problem is that a bad cop who is ignorant of the law can felony stomp ...er...STOP... you like they did to that elderly Washington state couple.
September 15th, 2016, 05:27 PM
