Why everyone should drive an old car

mtn wrote:

ClemSparks wrote: Everything I have licensed and legal right now has Historic plates.

In the great state of Illinois, if you get Antique vehicle plates you can only drive it to and from car shows. And presumably to get repaired.

Here in MD, there are Antique, Historic, and Street Rod plates. Supposedly a 5000 mile per year limit for the last two, just like the Hagerty classic car insurance. But no log books required that I've seen. My kid's '79 Chevy is street rod plated, and he drives it to school every day, right past the local county police shop. They never even asked about it when he got pulled over for a taillight out. My MGB and my '63 Comet will be getting street rod plates, as well (for "historic" cars that are modified).

when I lived in PA.. I looked into getting historic plates for one of my cars... and couldn't do it because the car was not 100% as it left the factory in regards to options, wheels, and the radio

The one thing I'll add is that in most states you need to have at least one car registered with regular plates, since the ones with collector or antique plates aren't to be used as daily drivers.

mad_machine wrote: when I lived in PA.. I looked into getting historic plates for one of my cars... and couldn't do it because the car was not 100% as it left the factory in regards to options, wheels, and the radio

This is stopping me. You have to send in photographs of your car with the application. Maybe I will send them in anyways, who knows if they would be able to recognize.

PA has some odd rules when it comes to registering a car. I really like how the DMV is ONLY for getting your license. If you want to title and tag your car, you have to go to a Notory.

stuart in mn wrote: The one thing I'll add is that in *most* states you need to have at least one car registered with regular plates, since the ones with collector or antique plates aren't to be used as daily drivers.

Here in MD, I can use the BMW as teh DD with normal registration. What I liked about Washington state was no inspections, so it was easy to register and drive the old car as the daily. Especially as at the time, the cost of registration annually was based on a basic $25 fee and then an excize tax based on the new retail value of the car, depreciated annually, so any old car was at the lowest registration fee level (but a new car was stupid money. My SVT Contour was over $500 a year. Which is what really impresed me about my fellow sports car club members with brand new Ferrari F40s and current registration... One of the guys paid nearly $10k annually just for plates). And here in MD, the historic or street rod plates remove the need for the inspection as well, but you have to have a "normal" car registered at the same time. Also, the historic tags can be put on cars that do have some mild mods, like radio, wheels, header, and even a litle bit of lowering. But much more than that, and you have to get the street rod plates, which are identical in fees and regulations, but just mean that the car was modified more from stock. That's where cars like Baja Bugs go, and an MGB with a Miata engine.

I might need to look into hotrod plates for my fiat

daytonaer wrote: This is stopping me. You have to send in photographs of your car with the application. Maybe I will send them in anyways, who knows if they would be able to recognize.

Well, do what a lot of people do (and what I intend to do once the BMW hits 25 years old)...get a buddy with a stock looking car to let you take photos of it with your tag affixed. Legal? Not really. Does anybody really give a fig? Not really. I see lots of cars at autocrosses, etc that would never get collector tags from PA yet they have them. Provided you aren't driving it every day I have no beef with such shenanigans.

wearymicrobe wrote: In reply to ddavidv: Man when you get used to iDrive after a few months it is a godsend. Especially the phone book and cell phone interface. I swear I can dial in my sleep with that thing. Never take my eyes off the road and not very distracting.

iDrive could make me breakfast and kiss me goodbye, and I still wouldn't feel the need to have it. That's just me. I can read a map and I rarely tune my radio beyond 3 XM stations, so I simply don't need all that junk. With the 750, there are just so many buttons, controls and functions the damn car is more like an airplane than a vehicle. I want to drive, not play video games or program my wipers speed to match one of my 137 daily moods. At what point do we say enough! The threshold for that is going to be different for everyone, but as they add more of this stuff to lower level cars it is becoming harder to avoid the new (unnecessary) technology.

unfortunately iDrive and MBs COMMAND systems have created a need most people did not have before. Just like GPS (not a bad thing) climate control (I prefer knobs) and all the other gadgets that in reality, do nothing but isolate you from driving

As for Mississippi, the Antique tag situation is great. Once it's 25 years old, you plop your cash down, get the tag, and you're done. Last time they need to see you. You can drive the wheels off. Doesn't need to be in any shape at all. It can be (and I've seen 'em) a gigantic pile of ferric oxide, duct tape, and bondo with some primer sprayed on and driven 50+ miles a day. As long as it's got the plate you're fine.

About not having a historic for a DD:

I think that's the intent of the law. But the loophole for me is that I have, like 4 vehicles with historic tags at the moment (and at least one more in 2011 when the '86 is eligible). That's 4,000 a year I could currently drive, legally (not than anyone will care or check). That fits my daily commute

I've got a moped and a bicycle for everything else. I suppose at some point I'll have something with regular tags again, though...

Really the best thing about MOs Historic tags is...well, there are two:
No inspection
They never expire

That means I can have a car sitting at my property, without insurance, forever and the city really can't say anything about it.

I'll probably screw this up for everyone, though ;)

Clem