The Virginia Antique License Bill is closer to completion. The items below are the way the amended bill is "leaning" at this time.


"Compromise legislation offered by the House Transportation Committee leadership after hours upon hours of discussion will NOT include annual fees or inspections. However, it will increase the one time fee to $50.00, which is still cheaper than most states. It also requires a retroactive self administered safety certification, the criteria for which will be put together on a checklist style form by DMV. I am told it will be based upon very basic safety equipment found on most vehicles.
However, it does increase the one time fee to 50.00, which is still cheaper than most states. It also requires a retroactive self administered safety certification, the criteria for which will be put together on a checklist style form by DMV. I am told it will be based upon very basic safety equipment found on most vehicles."

The milage factor has been struck out, as of now!

Stay tuned for more updates as they may occur.

Wayne

Good work. If we can keep them away from the personal property tax exemption we'll be home free until some do-gooder tries another attack. That and keep some self-impressed hardheaded young cop from nailing us on a burned out light bulb...

Also- will the $50 registration fee be retroactive, or are current VALID antique plates grandfathered?

Glenn, earlier in these group meetings there was talk of giving a grace period of one year, then everyone would have to "renew" their old tags. I'm thinking they will probably want everyone to sign that "inspection form" before renewing, just a guess on the matter, pure speculation on my part.

Wayne

Hmm- so they'll still get their money, which is what a lot of this is about anyway. One of mine has carried a YOM plate since 1989, another since 1994. Unfortunately the burden of proof of a modern daily driver will now be on me as a hobbyist. Never mind DMV has access to ALL of that information in their database.

It still chaps my hide that DMV didn't do their job properly and issued plates to basically any 25+ year old car that came across the counter. The day I have to take off work to go straighten out my four antique plates, is the day the Danville DMV manager will know beyond any doubt what I think. After the plates are updated and issued of course. If I get there by opening time, I might be out by lunchtime.

Shouldn't grump. This thing could have turned out like NC's antique plate situation. They get no breaks at all.

Glenn, I am confused. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

While there might be other things that I would like to see, I don't mind paying an extra $10 per year for an antique plate (that I don't have to put on the car, just in the car, while I display my year of manufacture plate) and then laugh when I pay my taxes on the car, as in NC a car with the antique plate can only be charged property taxes for a maximum taxable value of $500.

PS... In NC, No vehicle inspection is required on Antiques either.....

Our antique plates are one-time fee permanent plates and a YOM can be registered to the car instead of paying for an annual plate and having to keep that plate in the car while displaying a YOM. Antique plates are exempt from state inspection, emissions inspection and local license and personal property taxes (see why the privilege gets abused?). I believe y'all just got the inspection exemption a year or so ago; isn't that basically on any car 35 yrs or older registered as antique or not? So that's why I consider y'all get no real breaks by running antique plates compared to what we have in VA, and would like to keep.

While VA has a better deal than NC, I just took exception to the quote of "They get no breaks at all, referring to my state." It might not be as good as VA, but it is a lot better deal than other residents of NC get.

As a law enforcement officer, I would actually prefer to have to register the YOM plate to the vehicle like you do in your state. I am not really worried about those in the old car hobby violating the law, but the cop in me doesn't like seeing a car and not being able to identify the owner by the plate.

MC, what do you think of Virginia putting the "inspection game" on the officer?

As I understand it, the hobbyist in Virginia is to sign a DMV form that says his antique vehicle is safe to drive on the highways, but it's up to the trooper to determine whether a vehicle he is following is actually safe. Strange that the powers that be thought that the inspection stations couldn't understand an antique vehicle, but now the troopers can? <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Of course this is all perliminary and may change again before it's over.

Wayne

no benefit to antique plates in NY except you can use a YOM instead.

Wayne, vehicle inspection has always seemed to be sort of a lame idea anyway. For years, most inspection stations seemed to only inspect if you could pay the fee and if they could scrape off the old sticker and put on a new one. That was always an adequate inspection for me, as I check everything before going to get the car inspected anyway. It is cheaper and easier to fix something myself than have to pay an inflated fee for a bulb installation or something similar. It really does not make much sense to have some less than reputable inspector sign off that everything is OK, when 5 minutes later you could find a brake light out on the car.

For modern cars, it is sort of neat to see a wireless device plugged into the onboard diagnostic port, communicating with a PC that is networked to DMV in Raleigh and actually having the car's emissions system accurately checked before a sticker can be issued. The central control now prohibits a mechanic from issuing a sticker if the car does not actually pass the emissions testing.

I guess eventually, we will have better air quality as a result of this system, but they can't do too much with my Model A with the new system, so I guess it is probably better that they exempted our Antiques from Inspection.

I am not sure exactly what VA is proposing, but if you are expecting a law enforcement officer to inspect a vehicle, about all you are going to catch are burned out light bulbs. It doesn't sound like it will be too comprehensive, but if you are talking about legitimate Antique Collector cars, I don't think it will be too much of a problem.

MC, that's what another club member said today. The troopers in Virginia already have all they can do.

Wayne

A Virginia State Trooper is supposed to be able to perform the complete vehicle safety inspection procedure, but it's not the State Police you'll have to worry about. It's gung-ho local cops fresh out of the Academy who don't have a clue about the antique statutes other than they can pull that antique plate over and bug the owner over something as insignificant as a burned out bulb (when there are probably 3 or more still burning on that end of the vehicle). Plus a lot of young cops are into imports and are automatically prejudiced against an older car.

My blue Starfire was the first YOM plate issued by the Danville DMV branch, and they had to call Richmond to do it right- I knew more about the process than they did. Then every time the car went out, it would pick up a LE tail which usually ended up with a stop for illegal plates, no inspection or no city decal. I got to where I kept a copy of the statute in the cars at all times because I got tired of explaining the car's unique licensing situation. One rookie even told me he didn't give a damn what that paper said because I could have made it up. Judge didn't see it that way when it went to court...

MC, the local Olds and Pontiac clubs were pretty tight with Nelson Cole when he still had his Olds/Pontiac store in Reidsville. Nelson was on the NC House Transportation Committee and was an old car enthusiast. He worked to model the NC old car statutes after Virginia's but was never able to get them out of committee. I have also wondered about NC's practice of allowing a YOM plate to be displayed, but the number can't be traced to car or owner. Never made sense to me.

http://legis.state.va.us/

This is the Virginia General Assembly website. Go to Legislative Information System tab and you can track any bill that has been introduced this term. Search HB 1927 for "our" bill; HB 2465 for Delegate Marshall's misguided legislation.

Thanks Glenn!
W.