(Dodge Spirit photos by Nicky D.)
Correction: I originally thought the MA historical vehicle requirements were 20 years. They are actually 25 years.
I have no idea how the criteria for “historic” or “antique” cars varies from state to state, but at least in my home state of Massachusetts, the minimum age for a vehicle to be registered with special “Antique” plates is 25 years.
Now in many ways 25 years is an appropriate interval, particularly in the northeast where it sometimes seems like a 25+ year old car that wasn’t somewhat collectible to begin with or isn’t a Camry is rare sight, especially in well-preserved condition. Yet on the other hand, it’s rather astonishing to think that something such as a 1992 Toyota Camry will soon be considered an antique in the eyes of the state.
Predictably, the majority of owners who do apply for such extra-cost vanity plates, own something that has a collector status such as a ’70s-era muscle car, an ’80s Mercedes, or one of the final “big” Cadillacs. Which makes it all the more unusual that the owner of this 1990 Dodge Spirit has taken the time to fill out the paperwork, wait at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and pay whatever the extra fee is for Ohio “historical vehicle” plates.
Judging by the car’s well-cared for condition, it’s presumptive to say that the owner ordered these plates as a display of affection for his or her very likely originally-owned Dodge, and not as a joke. So while a 1990 Dodge Spirit may not be everyone’s definition of a historical vehicle, it’s probably played a significant enough role in its owner’s life over the years, making it indeed historical in the personal sense. And that’s good enough credentials for me.
Related Reading:
Although this varies by state, there are often tax/fee advantages, or a waiver of emissions requirements for vehicles with historic plates.
In most states, the cut-off is 25 years, though some states (I know Maryland is one such example) do have a 20-year cutoff. Usually, there is some sort of usage requirements, such as that the car can’t be used for daily commuting, but these restrictions are almost impossible to enforce.
Sometimes, states require that vehicles displaying antique plates participate in a certain number of car shows per year, which could be a little awkward for something like a 1990 Dodge Spirit…
Yup. Marylander here. I’m eagerly waiting for the 18 months to pass so I can get historic tags on my ’98 Voyager. No emissions testing and significantly cheaper registration.
Though you cannot use the Voyager as a daily driver without breaking the law.
Breaking which – the laws of good taste,
which all minivans violate? lol
Virginia and Pennsylvania are both 25 years, you don’t have to go thru annual state inspection (because a truly antique car wouldn’t pass inspection standards anyway), and – the big one – in Virginia, depending on the county, you can end up exempt from personal property tax on that vehicle.
Which can have interesting ramifications: Like my 1929 Indian 101 Scout, which was worth more than the sum total of all the other vehicles I owned at that time, wasn’t taxed; but my E36 BMW M3 hammered me at tax time.
Over the years, this tax exemption has led to a lot of abuse, and you see a lot of old vehicles in Virginia that are in such poor condition but obviously never going to get a restoration sporting antique tags and being put in daily use. The state managed to cut the abuse back by: a. Making it mandatory to have one vehicle under regular registration before you could file for antique tags on a second vehicle, and, b. In some areas, having the local sheriff’s deputy picking off antique tagged vehicles in the local daily rush hours (by law antique tagged vehicles are not allow to be used daily).
Though I had antique tags on it in Virginia, I always brought my Galaxie in for an annual inspection anyway. I knew very little about suspensions at the time (did I mention I owned a Galaxie?), and it seemed like a fast and cheap way to get things like ball joint wear checked out. And the small shop I went to would let me hang around while the car was on the lift, so I got to see exactly what parts I’d need to replace.
The owner of this car is one of those people I can really appreciate in the antique car hobby. Anyone can save a Hemi Challenger.
It takes a real antique enthusiast to bother preserving the mundane four door sedans that comprised the majority of automobile sales in that year, but are far and few between at the classic car shows.
^ This.
Agreed. While these aren’t exactly some people’s idea of collectible, consider the 1953 Plymouth featured yesterday. The workaday cars of past eras should be preserved and cherished just as much as the Kings of Collectability. Personally, when I go on one of my Ebay daydreaming jags and start perusing the auctions I’m always drawn to such mundane also-rans as collonade sedans, K cars, etc. I hate to see something like a mid 80’s K-based New Yorker (for example) at a scrapyard, just as most “normal” collectors or enthusiasts would gasp over an ’81 Z28 going for scrap. To each his own.
+1!
Agree!
This car belongs to my girlfriend’s Dad, Michael. Not pictured are the three Mustangs he also owns- a 1995 convertible (also pristine…actually just visible in one photo), a new edge Mustang GT on Mickey Thompsons, along with a 5th generation mustang. He even rents a neighbor’s garage to help keep them looking their best. By his count, he has owned nearly 200 different cars.
The Dodge Spirit is a one-owner little old lady car, purchased from the neighbor when she passed away. It has only ~40,000 miles. It’s Michael’s winter “beater,” and is actually quite a pleasant ride. I believe the historic plates were acquired because they don’t need to be renewed.
I sort of posted these photos as a lark, and I’m quiet pleased that Brendan gave the Dodge Spirit a proper write up. Michael is not an internet user, unfortunately, but I’m sure we’ll print this out and share it with him.
Thank you for the information. I could not help but notice that the plates are embossed which is neat and probably a rarity by now.
+1! …and remember folks, all Model As,TriFives Etc were once ordinary cars like this Dodge!
Good point. Made me rethink my opinion of it.
Agreed! Found a 58 Chevy Delray Sedan a few years back that the owner really liked.
When I check out a cruise or show, I end up gawking at ’49 Plymouths,’37 Chevys ETC. It’s not that I dislike Muscle Cars or TriFives, It’s just they’ve become common as Camrys (Camries??) at shows. A random nice ’54,’64, or hell a ’74 Pontiac sedan in mint condition is a treat. BTW I was, Er…”assembled” in a ’58 Biscayne 4Dr, so LoBuk© ’58 Chevy sedans have personal significance to me!
20 years old doesn’t seem so old but going back to the mid 70’s, I can remember people getting all excited about seeing 20 year old cars on the road. I guess that Dodge aged much better than most 50’s iron did.
Yeah, when I was in high school and college my cars were around 10 years old. They seemed ancient and were mostly used up. My parents’ cars seemed so old when they would sell them, but in retrospect they were only 10 years old. Today 10 year old cars are common, reliable, and rust free…and worth more than what most kids can afford.
A lot of progress was made from the 80’s to the 90’s.
So true. I can clearly remember my Dad saying that once his cars reached 5 years or 60k miles they were “done”. Ten years or 100k miles and your car was ANCIENT. But look how far the quality of automobiles has come. Our 1977 Chevy Caprice Estate wagon looked old after 5 years of normal use. There was rust all along the back windows and the woodgrain started to lose its sheen, turning that odd milky white color, even with Dad trying hard to keep it from getting that way. The electrical system wasn’t that great either. The power windows and locks had a mind of their own, the passenger side lighted vanity mirror used to blink when Mom opened it and the digital clock (installed crooked and with foam sticking out around the side of it) quit after it was only a couple of years old. On the positive side, the trusted GM 350 V-8 was a workhorse and that car never left Dad stranded. But fit and finish wasn’t good at all, in fact it was a horribly built car. Moldings, emblems and hubcaps would simply fall off that car all the time! I know there is lots of love for the downsized ’77 Caprice here on CC, but I have to be perfectly honest. Ours was an absolute POS!
I would not be surprised to see state governments jack up the age requirement to increase tax revenues, especially as tax-and-spend agencies ramp up their costs, and their bureaucracies bloat.
I only have one car over 25 years, and it’s at over double that age. No State inspections here, and it long ago outlived the smog check requirement. Its “value” for licensing purposes is nil so the fees are at the minimum. So it still proudly wears regular plates.
Of course I could have been a “green-minded” citizen and gotten a few kopecks (Soviet-style reference) by turning it in to be scrapped under Obama’s “cash for clunkers” program, and by now I could have a midlife Toyota that is worth less…
True enough! The first car I bought on my own was a ’59 Olds 88 (for $80! – I think $30 was just for the new battery in it!) In 1979 it was ludicrously old for a used car – a 1996 Oldsmobile today, – An old but not THAT old of a used car!
My daily driver will turn 20 next year. And it’s not a classic, just a solid, boring, reliable car that I’m too cheap to replace currently when all it costs me is gas. Also, both of my Malibus were my DDs at age 20. But I agree–driving a 50’s car in the 70’s probably seemed like a complete dinosaur. But time marches on–seeing a 70’s car in the 90’s wasn’t that out of the ordinary, and seeing a 90’s car in 2016 is pretty unremarkable (maybe more so if you live in an area that sees a lot of road salt).
It’s 20 years in my home Canadian province, with a reduced registration cost ($19 per year).
Unfortunately, this limits the amount you can drive your vehicle. Normally, you can only drive to and from classic car events or shows. Because of this, a lot of classic cars around here just have normal or seasonal (April 1 to Oct 31) plates.
You must be in New Brunswick, unless there’s another province that issues seasonal plates…
I always liked the simple, upright styling of these. What was reliability like on these overall? A friend of mine had a Plymouth Acclaim and it just kept going and going, but maybe she just got a good one.
My 92 Acclaim was one of the most trouble free cars I’ve ever owned.
it depends. If you had one with the 2.5, it’ll probably run forever. with the Mitsu 3.0? it’ll probably run forever, though dragging wispy blue clouds for most of its existence.
if it’s an R/T with the Turbo III? lol.
Better buy up as many timing belts and head gaskets as you can find, ‘cos that engine eats those things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When my dad sold his several years ago, it needed a head gasket bad. The only one I could find was a (expensive) Cometic multi-layer steel job. I joked how that head gasket would outlast the rest of the car.
If they had the 3 Liter 6G72 V6 and 3 Speed Torqueflite like my 95 Voyager they were fairly reliable if a bit crude, but at least the Spirit is probably lighrer. Having no power options is also a plus and sure the paint might fall off, but whatever.
It’s 25 years here in Illinois, so my Cougar has 3 years to go, I know someone who has them on their 1987 Sable. Popularity and status of an object should have no bearing on whether an object is classic or not, if it’s survived it’s survived and as long as there is 1 person to appreciate it it’s worthy IMO
I’ve heard a lot of talk about abuses of the system but really it seems like ridiculously small potatoes to crack down. How many people driving “regular” 20-25 yo cars that qualify even know they can get the classic plates? And how many of the few who do even cheat the rules? If you’re driving a 25 year old car here in Illinois and it hasn’t rusted in half, that deserves reward I say, and as far as ripping the state off on the reduced registration fees and being daily driven despite mileage restrictions, it’s still being fed heavily taxed gas, gas which it probably uses more of than newer models.
In Virginia, I swear every redneck with an old beaten-to-hell pickup has figured out that if you go for vintage plates you can defer maintenance until the vehicle stops running because you never have to go in for inspection, and rather than paying $5.00/year in personal property tax, you pay nothing. And you don’t have to renew your plates every year, either.
It’s either that, or the “farm use” plates, which are intended for essentially unregistered vehicles used within the farm’s property limits with allowances for an occasional trip into town to pick up supplies or sell at the local farmer’s market. I’ve seen more than a few bright and shiny 4×4 pickups with tall lift kits on them and that plate.
Read in the paper a few years ago that someone got caught trying to use a “farm use” plate on a Ferrari.
Stupid people and people acting stupid looking for angles. The world is full of them.
That is a nice specimen of that era Dodge. Most were used up and scrapped if there was a minor issue with them.
In Maryland it is cheaper to register Historic car. It is $51.00 for Historic/Street Rod plates verses about $135 for Cars/trucks under 3,700 pounds or $187 for cars/trucks over 3,700 pounds.
The other benefit is not having to get the car safety inspected or emissions tested. The not having to have the car go through emissions testing is the reason my 1995 Deville is tagged Historic. It was a nightmare back in the day dealing with that OBD 1.5 setup that GM used on a lot of its 1994-1995 cars. It probably is worse now trying to get them running correctly to pass the smog test. My car would pass a safety inspection easy but it is a pain in the ass dealing with the VEIP (MD State Emission Agency) on a newer car, let alone an older car.
I do think that all cars in MD should get a safety inspection though. There are some decrepit cars out there riding around in MD.
You not supposed to drive a Historic registered car all the time. MD Vehicle law stated that the car can not be driven to work or all the time. But they really don’t enforce it. I drive my Deville for a full week to work or around town once a month to keep the car running well. gas costs on the car and the fact I drive a 2011 Colorado mean that it is not my main car. I also have full insurance on the Deville just like on my truck so any claim would be fully paid.
The Historic tag criteria may change as when it was brought out the assumption was that there would not be may of those cars on the roads. However now that we have hit the 20 year mark for all those mid Toyota Camry, Corollas, Honda Civics which are still on the road with regular tags just waiting for retagging, there is a proposal to change the Historic car rules and make them more strict
I concur re: the MD historic tag fees and restrictions. The interesting thing is that Maryland did have a 25 year cut off—-it was changed in 2006 to 20 years.
Attached is my current project car—a 1989 Acclaim—-2.5 with turbo and 71,000 miles. It runs great and is a blast to drive—for an EEK machine.
In Arizona historic vehicle plates are available for cars 25 years old and older. They cost $25 for the plate itself, plus a $10 annual surcharge in addition to regular registration fees. Emissions inspections are still required; Arizona doesn’t have a safety inspection program. Only cars older than the 1967 model year are exempt from emissions inspection.
Arizona’s historic vehicle plates are made from Arizona-mined copper, by state law. (Copper is still a significant economic driver in Arizona; we have numerous active copper mines and smelters. Arizona is known as the “Copper State” as well as the “Grand Canyon State.”)
Arizona offers another alternative. You can register your 25 year old or older vehicle as historic, and not get the copper historic plates. You are issued a standard plate. I have the copper plates on my 67, two 68,and two 69 Chevy’s, but have standard plates on my 79,80 and 86 Chevy’s, all registered as historic. The extra $10 surcharge is dropped so the fee is $25 per year and emissions tests are not required.
Any mileage or use restrictions in Arizona for those plates? I would be tempted to get a locking plate bar to keep my Copper plate from being stolen if I had one.
Funny how, as you get older, 20 years seems like yesterday, whereas, a 20-year old car at the age of 25 seemed really old. I think that this is part of the phenomena about why this car seems so uncharacteristically ‘historic’ or ‘antique’. There is also the fact, brought up by Phil above, that 20 year old cars are so much more common now than they were in, say 1990.
Thanks Brendan! If the original K-car had looked like
this when launched in 1980, it would have been as
revolutionary looking as the Taurus was 5 years later.
Honda and Toyota are either very proud of their 1990’s Accords and Camrys still running around after all these years (my ’99 Accord included) or mad that owners are keeping them so long and not buying another car!
I honestly still see so many of my style Accord (and color – the infamous silver/beige known as Heather Mist) it is ridiculous!
Sadly, the quality of newer Hondas and Toyotas has slipped IMO. Due to all the high-tech stuff being added to the average family car and the price not being able to go up accordingly, the quality of certain items (like the cloth used for the seats for example) is nothing like it used to be. The focus is now on the electronic gadgetry and other areas have slipped. Having a close friend that is a Master Honda mechanic, he told me firsthand in the 34 years that he has been working on Hondas he has never seen so many problems with the new cars, both engine and transmission wise as well as electrical.
30 years is the age for classic (collector) car plates in Washington state. No inspections and smog exempt after 25 years. I have a plate from 1986 in the old white and green format. This can be used with the tags removed and mounted to the rear, no front plate required with this or collector plates, unlike regular plates that need to have a front plate also.
If a car is 40 years old, it is considered an antique. All the rules are the same, except the plates say antique instead of collector.
No yearly registration fees. I went in last week to change over, found out I have to wait until 2017. Even though my Jetta was built in September 1985, the law requires it to be the next year after the model year to be recognized as 30 years old. So I paid once more, but for the last time.
This Spirit looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor.
It is gonna be neat when the Rainer Base can be used with the year of manufacture program.
Both Virginia and North Carolina also have Year of Manufacture regulations. If the car is older than a certain date (it’s more than 25, not sure what the cutoff is) you can use a plate from the vehicle’s year of manufacture from any state. You do have to register the YOM plate with the DMV, and you will be issued a current tag, which does not need to be displayed but does need to be kept in the car and produced upon request.
Whatever the cutoff year is probably correlates with the time period when states stopped issuing new plates every year and started re-stickering existing plates.
I guess if its old enough for the “vintage” tags, well, I guess it shows we are just getting a bit older. On the other hand, it seems that most of the truly vintage drivers you see at this time of year is the endless parade of 70’s up motorhomes and such, and on the housing front, I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m waiting for some old “mobile home” listed as a “heritage trailer” or some such thing! Some of this stuff is getting really ancient!
It has been awhile since I checked, but in Indiana, a historical plate was available on vehicles 25 years and older. Oddly, while we have no state inspection here for regular plates, someone has to inspect the car (at least the first time) to get the historic plate. I had two cars that got historic plates (a Model A and a 64 Imp) a year or two either side of 1990. I have had a couple, however, that got regular plates because I was afraid that they might not pass that initial inspection.
I found this Hoosier in Portland, OR and I was told there are no mileage or usage restrictions with these plates which is neat.
The way each state differs is both dramatic and endlessly interesting.
With my historic plates, it was a one-time $20 charge for the plates on cars of 25 years old or older. There is no inspection (either initial or annual), no annual renewal fee, no smog test (I have never had one performed on any car I’ve ever owned, nor have I had to), and a 1000 mile annual limit. While I’m supposed to keep a log book (which I do) nobody ever checks it.
However, I can exceed the 1000 mile limit if going to shows, get-togethers, etc. The 1000 miles is pleasure miles, just to drive it for the fun of it.
I also heard that Indiana (I think) would let you put 1989 Plates from any state on your 1989 Indiana registered vehicle just for an example.
It’s the same here.
“in my home state of Massachusetts, the minimum age for a vehicle to be registered with special “Antique” plates is 20 years.”
I believe that it’s actually 25 years. See the links below:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section1 (the definitions aren’t all in alphabetical order; the easiest way to find the definition of “antique” is to search for the word “antique”)
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/forms/20132.pdf
In Nevada, you can get:
Classic Rod (20+ years old and modified)
Classic Vehicle (25+ years old and stock)
Old Timer (40+ years old)
They cost a bit more than standard plates, exempt the car from emissions check, and limit the car to 5000 miles/year. But the DMV won’t check your odometer, and people do abuse the system.
My ’90 Acura sports Classic Vehicle plates, because I bought it in Washington, where it had been smog exempt for 5 years. I had no idea if it would pass NV smog, so I just got the Classic plate.
(Side note: if you try to smog your old car and it fails, you are prevented from putting a Classic plate on it.)
However, most of the state is “non-smog” counties and everyone there just gets a regular plate because there isn’t any advantage to getting a Classic plate.
Oh, and if you want a regular plate for your old car, you have to smog it – back to 1968! I don’t know any other state that forces a 1968 car to go through smog check.
Colorado’s Denver-metro (front range) vehicle emissions test program applies to all vehicles older than 7 years. Vehicles older than 1967 have a lower repair-cost failure waiver ceiling, though. I’m fairly sure there are other states that require emission tests on pre-1968 vehicles, too, whether on a periodic basis or just once at the time of registration transfer or change.
Not that I don’t believe you, but smog-testing cars built prior to 1968 begs the question, “To what standards are they tested?” because there weren’t any standards in effect before 1968.
No, it doesn’t. “Begging the question” doesn’t mean asking or raising it.
The standards are very, very lax for cars built before the advent of emissions control. When I lived in Denver, the oldest year range standards were something like 1000 ppm unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and 5.5% carbon monoxide (CO) and no test for NOx. Then the next year range was 550 ppm HC and 5.5% CO, the next group was something like 350 ppm HC and 3% HC, etc. Exhaust coming anywhere near those numbers is absolutely filthy; any car that was ever legitimately deemed roadworthy and can’t meet those standards is a bona fide gross polluter and does not belong on the road until it’s repaired.
For reference, my ’65 Valiant—built before emission controls and in stock condition with a well-worn but well-tuned engine running breaker points, etc, used to turn in test results of 150 ppm HC and 1.5% CO in the Denver-area tests.
“Begging the question” used the way Evan did has been used for so long that it’s become a common vernacular use of the expression. I suspect few folks know (or even fully understand) the historical basis of the expression.
It’s acceptable here at CC. 🙂
It is! Literally! LOL!
Cheers for pointing out the correct usage, despite my acknowledgment that the misusage has become an accepted usage, much as “flammable” in place of “inflammable” has done.
A real pisser could also go with the fact that the title should have said “AN historic vehicle”, But I’m not into grammar nazism! Life’s too short…
This was more about meaning than grammar, I’m not one of those people who jumps on simple spelling mistakes either, or expects post facto editing of posts! 🙂
The 20-25 year limited seemed more reasonable in the era of annual change: a 1959 Impala and 1979 Impala are night and day visually (even though mechanically similar!) But how different is a 1996 Grey™ Blob® different from a 2016 Grey™ Blob® ? Oddly one of the restrictions of an “antique” was restricted night driving due to pre-1940 cars not having sealed-beam headlights, To day a car is an antique if it HAS sealed-beam headlights!
That Spirit is the spittin’ image of our 1990 Acclaim we owned for 10½ years! We bought ours new, and when I eventually turned it over to our daughter to drive, it didn’t last much longer. After the third accident, and patching it up on my own – I did replace the air bag and had it properly installed – I felt the car was getting a little iffy for her, besides she wanted a smaller car.
We traded it for a 1997 Cavalier. In the three years she drove that, she never put a scratch on it and made sure to report any annoyance to me immediately! Yes, she loved that little Cockroach of the Road©!
Wifey and I loved our mighty Acclaim, too…
© Geozinger
Wanna see some extremely freekin’ restrictive criteria and rules for collector-vehicle plates? Take a look at British Columbia’s. 25 years of age are necessary but not sufficient; the car must also be completely undamaged and unmodified, with very few and minor exceptions.
Wow, that’s some serious bureaucracy! The fact that BC examines a car’s upholstery for imperfections is astonishing. Or that they would reject a car for having a non-period radio.
And it’s not explicitly mentioned in those links, but you don’t get a break on insurance rates, either. I don’t know that “bureaucracy” is really an accurate word for this. Strict, yes. Stringent, yes. Hardassed, yes, compared to many other jurisdictions where all it’s gotta be is “n” years old and you can slap a collector plate on it. But while I don’t necessarily agree with each and every one of the BC restrictions—some of them are arbitrary and thoughtless, and at least one of them is simultaneously legally meaningless and illegally restrictive—I do see and agree with the point of what they’re trying to do. They don’t want people slapping a collector plate on any ol’ jalopy that just happens to have survived for 25 years. Just because a car is old doesn’t mean it’s a legitimate collector’s item, and just owning an old car doesn’t make me a legitimate collector, either.
Of course, that raises the question of why even have the program in the first place, especially now there’s no longer periodic emission testing of any motor vehicles in BC. I suppose it’s for the cachet, and maybe for some added leverage when arguing with ICBC (the provincial public auto insuror everyone must buy coverage through) when they don’t want to pay a claim. Of course, what the left hand gives, the right hand takes away; I’ve little doubt that if the owner of a collector-plated vehicle tries to file an insurance claim, ICBC try their hardest to deny it on grounds the vehicle wasn’t being used or kept for collector-car purposes at the time of the damage or loss. My supposition is based on my own experience with ICBC and, coincidentally, a very well preserved ’91 Dodge Spirit I drove until recently. Had I kept it, it’d’ve been eligible for collector plates this year.
And furthermore, BC isn’t the only jurisdiction with stringent restrictions on collector vehicles. Last time I checked, Wisconsinites can’t drive their collector cars at all during one month of the year (January, I think). Which is kind of a pointless and silly restriction given the reality of Wisconsin weather in January. Some states have yearly mileage caps. Police in Washington State are known to keep their eyes open and give what-for to drivers they spot routinely commuting in cars with collector plates. And collector vehicle insurance is another matter altogether; Hagerty are terrific to deal with and their policies are very affordable, but that’s based on limited risk exposure by dint of minimal use of the car in actual traffic. If you crack up your collector car in the grocery store parking lot (or on the way to or from), don’t bother filing a claim!
I think Wisconsin is for the 3 Winter months. That came about because a number of folks were putting collector plates on winter beaters. Clearly not the intent and even upset those with collector cars.
Bob
I thought Winter in Wisconsin was 9 months! LOL!
I looked into it once. A Wisconsin “Collector” plate goes on a car at least 20 years old and no body mods. Fee is two years’ worth of regular registration + $50 and does not ever need to be renewed as long as you own the car.
But you have to have a regular vehicle registered too, they won’t issue it to you if it’s your only car. The car can’t be on the road in January (a month of unrelentingly crappy weather throughout the state.) If you need to operate it in January you can get a 5-day temporary. If it’s a truck, you can’t haul large loads.
Same rules for “Hobbyist” cars, same thing except they have body mods.
Either way, no January usage = no winter beater “Collector” cars.
In Connecticut, you can still get reasonable insurance using collector plates but regular insurance. I just don’t put collision on the cars. Fingers crossed but the worst damage has occurred to my old cars in parking lots and garages. Somehow, I manage to back 18 and 19 foot cars out of too-narrow spaces without hitting anyone, ever, and yet people in little Camrys and such have now thrice managed to swipe my rear quarter panels as they back out. Another guy backed into my Olds in the garage, cracking the fibreglass fascia. Thankfully, these peoples’ insurance has paid for all of this, though I’m at a perpetual loss as to how they could possibly not have seen my HUGE cars.
Wow, talk about bureaucracy run amok. I can’t find any information on whether the BC (BS?) collector plate offers a serious financial incentive or not. But, if it does, the effect could be that the guy that owns a ’50s Gull Wing Mercedes that could cross the line at Barrett-Jackson for a million dollars might get a great discount, and the guy that keeps his grandmother’s slightly imperfect ’72 Oldsmobile 98 around for small town parades might get hosed. What a bit of governmental hogwash that would be.
With run-of-the-mill cars lasting a lot longer, it might be reasonable to just grant historical or collector status to cars demonstrated to be 30 years old and older, provided the owner has another normally registered car that would ostensibly be the daily driver. If people still really want to game the system with a couple of crappy old cars, I say let ’em. Those cars under the owner’s likely budget aren’t going to last long anyway.
So what if the guy drives the ’72 Olds to work everyday for a week during the summer? The worst that could happen would be that it might put a smile on the face of a guy like me if I happened to see it. And, it will put out a lot less pollution than the guy that flies in his private plane to Barrett-Jackson.
Mutter, mutter, grmph, stupid, mutter, mutter, bureaucrats.
Great write-up as usual Brendan!
In 1990 I recall my parents going to California for a business trip for my Dad’s printing company. They rented a Dodge Spirit which I thought my Dad would hate, but he came home actually excited about how nice that car was! He said it rode well, was comfortable and handled great. I was totally shocked to be honest!
In RI it is 25 years before antique plates are allowed. I think as we get older 20 years doesn’t seem nearly as long as we thought it was as kids. Heck, we are almost at the 20 year anniversary of the new millennium! Seems like yesterday that everyone was scared of the big “crash”!
My 4Runner is vintage 95 and uses normal tags etc. In 4 more years it is exempt from the smog inspection but still requires safety check. My 57 chevy just sets but I also had a regular tag on it till 2007. Changes in inspection requirements make it worth while to keep it going but limitations on use of antique tagged vehicles mean I won’t bother.
The 57 didn’t even have seat belts when I first got the Texas registration. I was a little surprised that they didn’t require a retrofit. Possibly they do now.
Great article and a neat car! Indiana is one of the few states that has no mileage or use restrictions with Historical Plates and possibly with Year of Manufacture Plates. I kind of wish Oregon was the same.
Oregon has not had a plate recall since 1956 and I am driving a 1990 Mercedes Benz with 1990 plates which is neat. Oregon DMV offers retro looking Pacific Wonderland/Sesqucentennial Plates which are cool looking. Oregon has strict rules with its year of manufacture program and vehicles registered as antiques so I would not bother with those programs.
I have historic Ohio plates on my 1984 Toyota Van.
Ohio does what the BMV lady called “lifetime registration”. It was about $55 (our normal 1 year registration) but is good for 50 years!
They do say that the vehicle shouldn’t be your daily driver and you’re only supposed to use it for things like going to car shows, car club meets, parades, pleasure drives, or to/from mechanic. You can imagine that if you were to be pulled over there’s a solid chance to talk your way out of it by citing one of those. Just don’t say “I’m driving to work” and you’re fine 🙂
They also let you use period correct historic plates for no fee. I have the original 1984 plates on mine and the historic black and white plates in my trunk. The BMV has both on file as valid.
One of the few areas that Ohio is laid back
I once owned a 1993 Plymouth Acclaim version of the same car. It’s fondly remembered by my wife and I as the ‘Plymouth from hell’.
And it was all my own fault. I didn’t do enough due diligence before I bought it.
Its Mitsubishi V-6 DID run well, albeit occasionally it smoked. Everything else about the car was crap.
Connecticut is 25 years for classics and no emission. I don’t think there are any mileage or driving restrictions. When I bought my ’77 Buick they were still issuing great black on white “Early American” plates with a classic buggy on them and I’ve kept those. Now, they’ve abandoned these in the spirit of including 25+ imports with much duller dark navy on white “Classic Vehicle” plates. At least they’re still embossed. My ’75 Olds has these. Now, they also allow you to sport Year of Manufacture plates with DMV permission, but you have to keep the “Classic Vehicle” plates in the car at all times. I’m trying to use my grandfather’s sky blue on white 1975 plates on the Olds.
I really resent these restrictions on use I’ve read about above. There’s no good argument for it. Making a new car wastes more energy than driving an old one. The states just want to fill their coffers at emissions stations, and I’m sure there’s some cronyism and lobbying with the auto industry and dealerships as well keeping those rules in place.
Great points about these being just as worthy of classic plates as the pedestrian cars of more distant yesteryear. I’d just as soon a few of these and Chevy Celebrities remained on duty as the big boats of the prior years that I love.
As to the car, my grandmother’s dear friend had a ’91 Acclaim in a dark maroon shade for her last car. Well, she’s still with us, but at 98 is no longer on the road. As I remember she had traded an applesauce colored two door Subaru hatch in for it. It wasn’t a Brat, not sure what it was.
CT has no driving restrictions on classic plates. If you only looked at the DMV website you may think there was no advantage to getting the classic plate, emissions testing automatically stops at 25 years no plate change required, the fees and registration are the same as a regular plate. There is actually only one advantage, property tax , classic vehicles can’t be valued at more then $500 for property tax purposes.
Oddly you don’t need classic plates to get the tax reduction, but if you don’t get the plates the town assessor can request to inspect the vehicle to make sure it’s a classic vehicle preserved as built. But it just needs to be 20 yeas old to get the plate. One of the reasons for this was some assessors were abusing the law to increase tax revenue. Until the car is 20 years old they have to use average blue book for value, after 20 years they could actually asses the vehicle without the book so some assessors severely overvalued the 20 year old cars to inflate the books. (one example a beat 300k mile XJ being valued at 9k because that’s what the assessors saw perfect examples going for on EBAY.
I doubt the CT law will change as it does not cost the state anything, just the towns which have little pull at the state level lately, it also mostly benefits the extremely wealthy car collector more then the guy registering his beat daily driver so lobbying would be hard.
In South Carolina, you can get Antique tags for a vehicle that is 25 years or older. There’s absolutely no advantage to doing so, since vehicles 15 years or older pay a deminimus personal property tax, the registration fee is the same as a regular registration and there are usage restrictions.
When I was in basic training in 1990, these Dodge Spirit sedans were used as police cars on my base.
Georgia is very simple because the country folk like it that way.
25 years or older equals a one-time antique tag.
30 years or older equals no title needed to process the vehicle, just a bill of sale.
However, if you do want a new title for a 30 year or older vehicle that has a misplaced title, you do have to pay $100 along with the $18 title fee.
I seriously thought about keeping a 1992 Volvo 740 wagon earlier this year. However, I ended up selling it to a fellow Volvo enthusiast. I just hadn’t been driving it much and my 15-year-old daughter still wants a bit time before learning how to drive. I’ll find something else in the meantime.
I’ve thought about getting the Virginia plates for the Volvo when I get it back fully roadworthy, since that would exempt me from inspections (though only safety, emissions testing in this state is only done in a few metro areas, mainly Northern Virginia near DC and perhaps Hampton roads). Virginia’s rule is 25 years so as an ’88 it more than qualifies. As elsewhere, the letter of the law only allows driving to and from shows/club events plus “occasional” pleasure use, and directly forbids using it for work transportation. In practice I think they’re far less strict, though they can impose a pretty severe penalty if they want to (forbidding you from registering that vehicle in the state for a 5 year period, effectively forcing you to sell or long-term store it.)
It would also give me a break on insurance, which would be handy (somehow that car runs close to $500/yr to insure just for basic liability.)
Michigan’s Historical plates require the vehicle be 25 years old. The law also mandates that the vehicle can only be driven for maintenance, parades, or to/from a car show. The benefit is that a Historical plate is roughly the same cost as a regular plate, but it only requires renewal once every 10 years.
Funny thing, though: Michigan law effectively defines the entire month of August as a car show! (this is because of the Dream Cruise and all the other events that typically happen)
As for Mr. X and I, we have regular plates on the Continental (’78) and Thunderbird (’77), since we don’t want to try explaining how there’s a car show with exactly one old car at the local greasy spoon.
And bravo to the person that likes their Spirit enough to keep it in that shape! There’s a Spirit parked on the street near my office building every day, but it’s in rough shape. Nearly all the clearcoat’s long gone from it and surface rust has taken over where the paint has gone too. But, they’re still rocking it as a daily driver, so kudos to them.
Unfortunately, when it comes to registering cars, I live in a high tag and personal property tax state. My 2012 F-150 Supercrew was mind blowing when I brought it home a few years ago – over $700.00 a year!
On the other hand, my 2002 Durango is still in daily service with my kids, and at 13 years of age, registration plummeted to around $56.00. We have no inspections for anything, so I doubt an historical plate would make much difference if it were to last that long.
After the fact, I checked Nebraska. 30 years, a substantially original car, and $70.60 gets you a plate that does not expire. Under the program, you can also use a period correct license plate on your car, provided it is in good condition or restored to its original colors and style.
That explains the occasional car I see wearing ’60s or ’70s vintage plates.
That’s not a bad program.