"Historic Plates" (MD)

I have Historic plates (3 yrs). The Police pay no attention to that and have no interest in going to the trouble of checking odometers for all of that. No emissions testing, so I have no cats.

 

I had the same question and found out that the insurance company has a say so in this,at least in Nc. They wanted to know how much the car would be driven.I suppose as long as nothing happened how would they know,but if you filed a claim and for an accident on Tue morning at 6am on the freeway it would be hard to explain that you were headed to a car show. Just how they explained it to me.
B.

 

The show starts at 8 am and you're 100 miles away?

 

I only drive my car on special occasions. A special occasion of course being any time I fire up the car, but no one needs to know that. A number of ways to explain it away. Regular DD is not running right.

 

Texas has the same rules for historic plates. (But with us the cars have to be at least 25 years old.) The only benefits that I could figure out were slightly lower anual registration fees and inspection every two years instead of every one. I went ahead and got the normal plates, but next year I think I may go historic.

How many miles per year do you drive? More miles would increase your risk of running into a cop with a grudge against Ferraris. What benefits do you get in your state for having historic tags?

 

So, here is my experience with having 2 cars on historic tags:
1. Police don't care. To make it a little less obvious, I use a frame around the plate ($5 at advanced auto), which covers the word "historic". On both cares that have historic plates, I use no front plate. The 2 times I have been pulled over in the last 10 years for not having front plates (once in Rx7, once in 308), the police said nothing about the fact that it was the middle of a work week.
2. Insurance company didn't care. I tell them I drive 7 days a week, and put 3K miles on the car per year. So, the insurance covers the car for that useage. They specifically told me it doesn't matter to them how I register it.
3. Registration is I believe $52/2yrs vs ~$170 for normal registration. This cost isn't a big deal to me. The lack of emissions inspection is what I care about. I hated letting those idiots drive the car. I can't tell you how many times they have damaged the car I take in there. It's like a 33% damage rate when I go to VIEP station.
4. DON"T THINK TWICE. GET THE HISTORIC TAGS. THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE.

 

Texas Historic plates have a FORD on them!!!

You knew that, right????? LOL!

Not worth the effort, IMO.....and they are intended to be show car use only, 2500 miles a year, which does match light Fcar usage...

 

In WI. we use collector plates. No limit on driving except, I think for two months in the winter. No big deal with that. Not here in the snow and salt. It keeps you away from smog testing which is always a pain. Those people don't know how to drive these cars and run them on rollers up to 55 mph. I would cringe every time I had to go. Tuff on the clutch and trans if you don't know what you are doing. If you can get plates that keep you away emission tests go for it.

 

Historical plates here in Michigan are $30 for 10 years--a really good deal. The car can technically only be driven to and in shows, parades, etc. The "etc." is the escape clause.

 

I've never heard of anyone in Maryland getting any trouble form the police about historic tags. I've been using them for 25 years.
Tom B

 

you may also drive the car to the repair shop anytime. get the tags.

 

You have a lot of answers about other states which are different from Maryland. Maryland Historic tags are fine to drive anywhere (ie. California and back). Again, no emissions inspections. No insurance hassles or mileage checkups. Maryland police don't care about Historic tags vs. regular tags. As you know the state is full of specialty cars, and the police usually leave everyone alone. Occassionally I hear about a $50 fine for the front license tag missing, but I never had a problem. I've been in traffic many times with police behind me, or slowly passing by them when they direct traffic. Maryland Historic tags are no problemo

 

I have 4 cars on historic plates. Thirty five dollars for life is a pretty good deal.

 

Still not Maryland but in VA about the only time the cops give grief on antique tags is when they are on a car that obviously would not pass inspection and it is obviously being used for other than the permitted shows, parades, service, testing, pleasure driving etc. The restriction is that it cannot be used for regular transportation to and from work but occasional trips have been ruled to be ok--so just not every day this week and you have to have another vehicle that has standard registration. Most often a rusted out pickup with loud muffler that has a ladder rack with tools in back or being used commercially as trash pickup is the one that gets pulled.

That said, anytime I am driving the Ferrari it is a pleasure.

 

Ditto.

 

You're bringing it to the shop on the way home
A friend at work is helping change the oil at lunch time
On your way to/from car show
Taking it for a test drive
etc etc Get the tags

 

This may seem surprising, and somewhat twisted and, frankly, it is.... But, in some US states if the driver of a car involved in an accident is found to have been violating some law associated with the operation of the vehicle then that can affect the finding of fault, even where the specific violation had nothing to do with the presumed cause of the accident. It's sort of like saying "you're the type that breaks the law, so, as between you and another driver (who wasn't breaking the law) then you're more likely to be the one at fault" I don't know if there has been a case yet on record, or reported in court reports, involving violation of historic plate rules and an accident situation, but you can be sure that at some point some ingenius personal injury lawyer somewhere will try it.

Probably a very low risk, but worth mentioning.

 

I've had one of those on my car since ~'93. I drive the car very infrequently, and I've never had a prob, but it does weigh on me, and I would rather have a good old "regular" plate.

Can you switch back if it becomes an issue?

 

Cliff has a point and I think the other factor is insurance. If the state has a limit on number of miles per year then this can and will be checked by the insurance company if you are in an accident. Your milage is recorded at inspection time if you have an inspection in your state. Then again you can claim your speedo is broken but that will be on record when you sell the car. This could cause the insurance company to not pay out the policy based on false information. As to the police they do not bother with cars showing historic plates. Most of them appreciate the cars and don't care about the plates as long as you have them.

 

You don't need no stinking plate!!!

...it's a Ferrari!!!

...it's already a historie!!!

(must speak this like an Italian)

BTW, here in GA, our antique plate has a jalopey (model T, maybe)...so I have to side with Big Tex on this one.

 

Smart move! Congrats

 

I guess as far as that goes Its good to be in a no fault state.
But I hate no fault insurance it sucks, especially when it comes to injury coverage I have to pay a personal protection insurance on top of regular insurance, I was looking at getting historic plates in michigan but the state rules for the plate are worse than the collector car insurance policys.
im still pondering this myself.