Anyone familiar with CA Historic Plate registration process?

I was looking into registering my 308 as a California Historic vehicle. But it appears that doing so provides no benefit whatsoever.

There is no smog waiver.

And the form seems to indicate the full registration fees need to be paid in addition to the Historic Plate fee.

The only thing I get out of this would be: I pay more, and I am certifying under penalty of perjury that my car is primarily driven to historic parades and car club meetings.

Why in the world would anyone pay more to lose driving privileges????


- Sam in Saratoga

 

congratulations:
you have discovered yet another method the DMV uses for extracting money from the hobbyist.


I put a set on a '65 Buick Riv because of the color…and nothing more.

 

Simple...because renewal is only $107 per year! So if you have a valuable classic that you rarely drive, it allows the car to be registered and save you potentially thousands of dollars in fees.

I converted one of my already registered, but very rarely driven classics and it saved me over $4700 for the year. I also registered a Non-Op classic for historic plates and had no issue...ie, never had to pay the full (non-historic plate) reg fees.

Yes, you can do this and still drive the car a lot, but then that exposes you to violating the intent of the historic plate, and who knows what the penalties are if caught. I drive my Dino 246GT numerous times per year, so it stays registered the regular way.

 

Wow, that's another Calif. cash stream! Here in Tennessee our historic vehicle cost is a one time fee of 27.75 and no yearly inspections. Plus you only receive one plate.

 

I don't have the historic plates but I know a bunch of owners who do. After an initial smog check (for post '75 MY) the DMV has never required a smog check again of any of the owners I know. I can see the value with a post '76 carb car for sure and if you plan on substantial mods to a FI car that will no longer pass a visual test I can see that. A stock FI car should pass smog. If it doesn't, you owe it to your Ferrari to fix whatever's wrong. That's why I still run regular plates: mostly stock and I want to drive it legally to more than parades.

 

OK, so what you are saying is that I pay the standard reg fee the first time, and then the renewals are cheaper?

Also, how did you save $4,700 for one year? If you are paying the standard reg fee for the first time, where did the single-year $4,700 savings come from?

I have heard of classic cars being waived the smog requirement, but the DMV is no longer supposed to be doing that. The loophole, supposedly, has been closed:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/b6694537-9245-49f4-93ff-f577dbe0abf6/12vin12.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

 

The first year reg fees for my Aston Martin DB4 was ~$4900 (calculated based on purchase price), so $4900-107 is over $4700 savings...basic math. I didn't know about the historic plate option when that car was first registered, so I (unknowingly) coughed up the big bucks first time around.

 

Didn't that $4900 fee include the sales tax? No way reg fee's are that high...... or am I?
Historic plates don't cancel the sales tax.....

 

No, sales tax on a $755k car is more like $58k. The $4900 was JUST the registration cost.

 

Maybe a dealers license in order here to keep things in "inventory"....gotta love the tax man...Yikes!

 

Just imagine the reg cost for a 250 GTO if you didn't go with historic plates!

 

OK, so I went to the DMV to get the story straight.

I was advised that Historic Vehicle registration will reduce one portion of the registration free down to $2 per year, but will not affect the other portions of the registration fee. In my particular case, that translates to total annual savings of: $78.

Although the savings are nothing to write home about, nonetheless, when my car comes up for registration renewal, I think I will register her as a Historic Vehicle.

 

The VLF (tax deductible) portion of my switch over to historic plates was $2, the other $105 was various fees. Since it won't be until Aug before I'm renewing an existing historic plate, I couldn't say what the total reg renewal fee will be.

But if you ever get stopped with historic plates while leisurely driving about or doing errands, you leave yourself exposed to `violating' the agreement you made when applying for those plates.

Lastly, and what should come as no surprise, unless you asked a DMV supervisor, you're likely to get different answers at different offices or even with different clerks at the same office. Part of the extra `entertainment' you get when visiting the DMV...no extra charge!

 

Yeah we thought about moving from California but we like the climate and I like the car events here (Monterey) and beside we have family ties that keep us here... However after retirement in 15 years we may move since California is not retirement friendly.. too expensive even after the kids move out and the house is paid off... But for now we deal with it...

 

I just got my historical plates.

Savings are negligible as others have stated. It's really just for cool factor. The other thing is some owners report not having to smog - while others report they do. I know there was a misunderstanding in the past that the DMV had to send a memo to correct the smog policy. But as I stated, some owners post memo - still have not gotten a smog requirement years after the memo.

As far as the law. It is vaguely written. Specifically the car must: "primarily driven in historical exhibitions, parades, or historic club activities"

I would count "FOG" as well as "FCA" events as historical club activities..which is already 1/2 of my driving.

What does primarily mean though? 90%, 75%? 50.01%?

The law doesn't say clearly. I would argue if the same cop sees you everyday with these plates you should not get them.

In Summary

Pros
----
slightly cheaper
unique plate - I have only seen the plate a few other times in my 30+ years driving California roads
"potentially" smog exempt

Cons
-----
Chance of getting a 'fix it ticket' (though I argue very small)

To me it's very worth it.

 

Not sure how you can say `slightly' cheaper. Depending on the value of your car, it can be an obscene savings. Even my daily driver leased Audi costs me about $500/yr to register, and no, it's not an R8.

 

Hi Ron, you are 100% correct. Now that I think about it, my registration did go down from $700 to $127 - so that's a pretty good chunk of change.

Cheers

 

What is your Mondial valued at?

My '92 348 registration fee with custom plates is sub $300...

Kai

 

Ours were $400 or more each. Even my old pickup was over $300. Now $45 and no smog certs.

None of ours ever failed a smog and we got nailed for smog every single year. It was supposed to be random on cars with a high failure rate. Right. Every year for 3 exotics that never failed. Sounds random to me.


Jerry still wonders why people leave.

 

THANK YOU!! Yes, after Ron jingled my memory again - I remember thinking it was excessive!!! when I got the bill I just paid it....I don't know the formula that went into how much registration costs - so I just thought it was standard "Ferrari Tax" stuff...
$730 to be exact.
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$127 - much better
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Holy ****!!!!

That's what I pay for my Tesla.

Something is seriously wrong. Mine is less than half of that {queue argument which car is more valuable...😜}

That is really weird.

Kai

 

Hey, we're both from California - taxes are just something that I'm used to getting punched in the gut for!

 

Must be more expensive in Menlo Park than San Jose....

😎

Kai

 

Or DMV screwed up my registration and too stupid to have known!



Cheers