so i stop in traffic the other day, and i'm behind this 78 ? grand prix, and its got all the rust holes, broken & burned out lamps, oil smoke pouring from the exhaust leaks, its basically a primered junker. i notice it has MD historic plates on it. part of me thinks, hey thats cool, he got over on the G-man a little bit. then i got to thinking, people like this are the ones who give the antique car hobbyist a bad name what with their untuned, rusted out primered beaters. i'm sure they get historic tags to avoid state safety inspections, not sure about emissions tests, but i think in MD thats decided by age of vehicle only ( with some exemptions ) i'm pretty sure they arent doing it for cheaper insurance, the insurance companies got wise to that long ago. i also see lots of 60's - 80's ? light trucks with historic plates, and i think they are just looking to avoid safety inspections too. the plates are alot cheaper. whats it like in your state ? any thoughts on this ? henry
Henry, Funny you should mention these plates...I just did this for all my cars over 25 years old, the minumum age of vehicle in Ohio that qualifies for Historical Plates. In Ohio, there is a ONE TIME fee of less than $30 for Historical Plates...that's right $30 fee FOREVER. My plates now expire on my birthday in the year 2050. I hope I live that long and if I do, I'll gladly pay that fee again!! On 2 of our cars, I did purchase custom plates (GSX for the Black GSX and GSX NO1 for the prototype) and they do run an additional $30 per year per vehicle. Quite a bit better than the $70 renewal fee I was paying for the custom plates before! The law in Ohio concerning Historical Plates reads as follows: To qualify, motor vehicles must be at least 25 years old. They are solely collector's items and are used for participation in club activities, exhibitions, tours, parades, etc. They are NOT for general transportation. That is a cut & paste from the Ohio BMV website. I do not know about emission testing as I live in a county that does not have to test.
Here in Conn. we have to pay for plates every 2 years for a cost of $85.00. I wish that we had plates whose registrations lasted 50 years! I agree,the cars that are rotted out and smoking and have these plates on them,don't deserve the privilege of having antique tags. For cars of this caliber,the "Junk" tags are more fitting.
sounds like OH law is very similar to MD law for historic vehicles, only here i think it was $30 every two years. that " fee " probably just doubled, i know std car & truck tags just doubled, making light truck tags about $180 every two years. ouch ! our governor didnt want to raise taxes, so he just doubled all " fees " a recycler plate would've been more appropriate for the car i saw, as in, on its way to the junkyard. henry
Conn... Carl, I bought my car from Conn back in 2000 and I could have sworn that the guy had some sort of antique or historic plates on the car. o No:
