Antique Cars?

[Guest]

What year does a car have to be to ba a antique? I have a 75 Ford and was told it is a antique. That I could get antique plates for it and don't have to have it inspected. Is this true? Thanks for any help.

[Guest]

"antique car" is means different things to different people. In your case your concerned about how to license your vehicle. Youre best bet is to contact your state's motor vehicle registration department. they can give you the specific details. <P>I do know here in arizona it's 25 years or older.<P>Peter

[rocketraider]

In Virginia- a car 25 years old can be registered as an antique car provided it is not used as daily transportation (work, school, errands etc). You may drive the car in car club functions, parades, for testing etc and you may drive it up to 250 miles from your home anytime for pleasure use (say a trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway or something). There are three antique licensing options. The Commonwealth issues two types of antique plates, or you can register a year of manufacture plate to the car- in your case, a 1975 commercial plate since the year must be stamped in the plate to use it. Regular issue plates 1973-later use year validation decals and cannot be used for year of manufacture registration.<P>Antique registration in VA exempts the car from state safety inspection and emissions inspection/testing. If the locality follows the state law as they should, it also exempts the car from personal property and local licensing taxes, though you may have to argue with them. Show 'em the law. They'll back down.<P>Make sure you get a DMV agent who is thoroughly familiar with the antique registration process.

[Guest]

In Kansas, a vehicle must be over 35 years old to qualify for an antique tag. However, we have no restrictions on use (you can use it for your daily driver). When talking about non-automotive antiques, the legal definition is that it must be over 100 years old.

[Dynaflash8]

rocketraider has it mostly correct. There are three different laws that apply. One has to do with antique auto licensing, another has to do with auto inspection, and a third has to do with licensing in general. Some counties charge $25 to $30 a year for local licensing. The law that applies, states that no county may charge more for their license then does the state. The tag fee for an antique auto is now $10 for the life of the car (or I should say it is "Permanent" as long as you own the car. Most counties don't require the sticker or as in the case of Westmoreland Co. where I lived (and reside still part time) they give you the sticker and you're supposed to put it on. In Richmond Co. they charge $1 for the sticker. But, using Richmond Co. as an example, they can't do that legally for more than 10 years. The bottom line is that the Virginia Code stipulates that for the life of the car, the county can't charge over $10, and that is current. If you got your antique tags for $5 twenty years ago, then that's the most the country can charge, and so on.<BR>To avoid the personal property tax the car must be registered as an antque. This was the best we could do. I was personally involved in getting an exemption for registered antique vehicles included into the Virginia code. Prior to that time Co. Commissioners were about to run out and buy the new NADA "old car" book so they could charge way out amounts of taxes on these vehicles. Of course since that time the VA Assembly has reduced personal property tax to be applied on only 30% of the "book value". Nevertheless, that could still be several hundreds of dollars in taxes each year on each antique owned if we didn't have this exemption. By the way, if there are still any counties in Virginia that charge personal property tax on household items (TVs, refidgeraters, sofas) those counties can charge it on an antique car as a registered antique vehicle is defined in the Virginia code as a household item. However, I don't think any such counties have existed for about 40 years. Likewise, to be exempted from yearly inspection the car must be registered as an antique.<P>[ 05-20-2002: Message edited by: Dynaflash8 ]<p>[ 05-20-2002: Message edited by: Dynaflash8 ]

[another old car]

wildchld<BR>I would say that both rocketraider and dynaflash8 are correct on the va law about antiques - but once you put antique plates on your 75 ford , you will have to have another car with va plates to be a daily driver , dmv will check this . also did you check about antique auto insurance (mine saids no drivers under 24 years of age)one more thing dmv will charge a one time fee of $11.40

[rocketraider]

Dynaflash- the City of Danville did just that with the NADA old car pricebook. I had a 1973 Olds convertible that had been valued at $100 for tax purposes for years, and then in 1992 I get a personal property tax bill for nearly $400 on that car- up from $3. A friend had a 1969 Camaro that was little more than a parts car and got socked with a $200 tax bill. When I protested it, the lemmings downtown couldn't explain to me why the tax value of said Olds had increased by 1300% from one year to the next- the actual value sure as hell hadn't! They had valued it at $13000 when the best ones in the country were going for $9-10k. All they could tell me was "VADA set the values for us". That was the year I went on the warpath here, to the point of telling the city treasurer and chief of police that if I got pulled over one more time for antique plates with no city decal, I would turn the state tax department loose on them. Even got Sen. Charles Hawkins involved, and he backed me.<P>Halifax County is trying to avert the local license exemption and charge $10 annually on an antique plate car- they interpret the law as they can't charge more for the decal per year than the Commonwealth charges for the permanent registration. As I am planning to eventually retire to my boyhood home there, I have put the Halifax County treasurer on notice that I consider them to be in blatant violation of the Code of Virginia. I'm waiting on their reply now.<P>By the way- appreciate the efforts you made on the antique plates. Now, if you could just get them to allow a 1976 car to wear Bicentennials as a year of manufacture plate, I'd be eternally grateful. I paid a LOT for an uncirculated set of BC's for my 1976 Olds Regency, and that same year they changed the code to where a YOM plate HAD to have the year permanently stamped into the plate. Seems like a silk-screening should count as permanent.

[Dynaflash8]

One last note rocketraider. In 1988 Westmoreland county charged me $20 for the county sticker on a '40 Pontiac and did it again in 1989. State antique tags were $5 for a permanent tag then. A friend from Bremo Bluff, VA (near Charlottesville) told me about the law and said they couldn't do it. I wrote to Richmond, they agreed and sent me a copy of the law. I copied it and sent it, with a letter to the Westmoreland Co. Supervisors. They refunded me $35 and passed a new ordinance where they give them away. I felt shafted at paying the $5, but let it slide and called a truce. The law is the law, period. Contact your Delegate. It took all 19 AACA Regions and some others of the clubs in Virginia working together to get the personal property exemption in; especially representatives from the Roanoke Valley Region who, like ourselves in the Northern Neck knew somebody in the Assembly who was willing to listen and willing to help. We dodged a bullet for sure. I also worked on the 250 mile radius ruling, along with others, especially from the Roanoke Valley Region. We had to give up the vintage tags to get that, but eventually another group won them back, but with the limits you speak about. I can't help now, because I am now a legal resident of Florida, but that Roanoke Valley Region of AACA has some real leaders; I don't know if any of them could help on that tag issue or not. The State Police were, at the time of the 250-mile radius rule passage, pretty firmly against the vintage tags period. It might be hard to push the bubble at this point, and it might be a good idea to "let the sleeping dog lie."<P>[ 05-20-2002: Message edited by: Dynaflash8 ]<p>[ 05-20-2002: Message edited by: Dynaflash8 ]