PA Antique/Classic Registration

In reply to Furious_E :

Well I'm happy to hear that the photo portion has been dropped. I was kind of wondering how I was going to get the RX3 past that whenever it gets finished.

I have two PA antique cars. The rule is that the car has to [be restored to or maintained in *substantially* the condition in which it was manufactured] (I'm unsure of the exact wording). If you look up "substantially" in the dictionary, you'll see it means "mostly", which is defined as "more than half". My new wagon is pretty rusty, but it's more than half not, so I think I'm okay. I think that less than half modified should be okay, too.  I've seen some fairly aggressive cars with antique tags.

Operation is limited to one day a week for transportation, but club events and car shows result in that entire day being free. So, only take it to work one day a week (or cruise through the car show/cruise-in on the way to work if you work weekends), or hope that the same cop doesn't see it two days in a row and decide to be a dick. I really want to make a car club at work that meets at lunchtime, so that every day can be a "club event."

PA cops *love* inspection stickers. They will pull a U-turn in busy traffic and run 3 carloads of nuns, 2 school busses, and a funeral procession off the road to write you for driving without valid inspection. It's no joke in PA. 

Also, it costs $150ish to get your car titled and tagged as an antique. It pays for itself in 2 years or so, when you factor in that you aren't paying for tags, safety, or emissions. If you have a truck that qualifies, the payoff is even quicker, but there is a rule that you can't haul with an antique truck. That's one of the reasons I got a wagon. No hauling restrictions on cars. 

In reply to Furious_E :

I did.. and I am going back to 2000 here.

Wow, I’ve gone for years without current inspection in some cars here in PA. Sometimes I never inspected them during my entire ownership.  Never once had a problem in the 10 years I’ve lived here.  Must be certain municipalities that care and others don’t. 

Sonic said:

Wow, I’ve gone for years without current inspection in some cars here in PA. Sometimes I never inspected them during my entire ownership.  Never once had a problem in the 10 years I’ve lived here.  Must be certain municipalities that care and others don’t. 

It also depends on the car. The state decided to revoke my dad's "privilege to register vehicles" once, because they asked him to prove that he had insurance on a certain date 5 years previous, and he refused because "my insurance has never lapsed, and why does it matter now?!?" He then drove all of his cars without valid tags or inspection for the next several years, while signing one a year over to my mom (at which time they would get registered and inspected again). For the most part, he drove the Lincoln LS. He was itching to get pulled over for it, because he was a retired state cop, and he wanted to complain to the kid that pulled him over about the stupidity of it all. They never noticed. 

PA no longer has purple and white tags. You get the standard dopey white with blue letters like everyone else, it just says "Antique Historic Vehicle" on it or whatever. The antique car picture is gone too.

My '93 Lightning is tagged as a Classic. Good thing, because the PO lopped the cats off to run duals out the side. I tow with it, haul mulch with it...nobody has ever said I couldn't. Other than using it for those tasks it doesn't go outside much so the local PD's pay no attention to it.

My Spec E30 race car was tagged as an 'antique' . That only happened after they dropped the photo requirement.

I refuse to feel any guilt about my tag usage because I see far too many complete turds driving around with collector plates that are most definitely daily drivers. At least my stuff is actually collectible, unlike a four door 1989 Plymouth Acclaim.

Ddavidv, do you mean like this?

This seems to have been a trick in MD for a while now. Unfortunately, these shiny happy people are going to ruin it for guys like me who just need to get their uncatalyzed, V8 swapped sports cars legal 

In reply to Furious_E :

last time I was in Easton, I had a clapped out primer black civic next to me at the wawa. The primer was overshot onto the lights and windows, it had no exhaust, and mismatched wheels with differing amount of tread. It was delivering pizza with antique tags

snailmont5oh said:

Ddavidv, do you mean like this?

How is that even possible? That thing is nowhere near old enough for any collector tag.

In reply to ddavidv :

I'm not even sure what year it is, but the Escape came out in 2000, so it's at least old enough.