Just for fyi I just got some MD Historic plates today. As of October 1st 2006 as long as your vehicle is 20 years or older you can get these plates or even the Hot Rod plates. So if you have a 1987 or older vehicle then you are good. No more EMISSIONS testing for me! Now it is time to look for another FB Woohoo!

 

I thought you had to be 25 to be historic
Im going to have to look into this, as I had to get a waver for emissions in 06.

How do you go about getting historic plates? Just go up to the DMV and request them?

 

jersey its 25 and you can only drive a certain amount of miles

 

I decided to do a little looking and found some info on the Maryland MVA site

The vehicle is between 20 and 24 model years old and is a make that the manufacturer no longer produces, as verified by the manufacturer (supporting documentation required). It is not substantially altered, remodeled or remanufactured from it original construction.

however there is also this

Vehicles classified as historic or street rod certify the vehicle will be maintained for use in exhibitions, club activities, parades, tours, occasional transportation and similar uses. The vehicle owner further certifies the vehicle will not be used for general daily transportation or primarily for the transportation of passengers or property on highways.

 

Hey I got my plates this morning and that form that you get off their website is the old style form. It will be a while till they update their forms online. The MVA person will automatically mark the first box on the form that says 25 calendars years or something like that. Well I have a 1985 RX-7 with historic plates on it and I will be daily driving it. How many cops go around looking for historic plates to pull over? No emissions and 51 dollars every 2 years is cool with me. Oh yeah just go up to the counter and request historic plates because your vehicle is 20 years or older.

 

I think Ill wait
by the time I'm due for another emissions inspection maybe Ill have a second car already...

 

I tried this a while back as well. At the time I was told 25 years and you were limited to 500miles a year or some ****. It seemed like a pita. So instead I just changed my mailing adress to Saint Mary's county which does not have any emissions tests to pass. So without having to worry about how old my car is. I now have both my 1985 Jeep and my 1993 RX7 on the road without passing emissions.

 

To each his own I guess. Just fyi for the peeps who want the plates.

 

Correct. The law changed this year, JUST went into effect, and I personally know someone who got historic tags for a 1985 Monte Carlo yesterday.

 

how do they know whether you are going to drive it daily or not? without emission, MVA can't tell how many miles you drive, right?

 

I just did this today too, I got historic tags for the 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS, and my 1986 RX7 GXL.

The law changed from 25 years to 20 years and went into effect today.

In addition, I found the annotated code of Maryland:

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache...&ct=clnk&cd=25

In section 13-936, item (h):

(h) Exemption from inspection requirements. -- A vehicle registered under this section is exempt from any statute that requires periodic vehicle inspections or that requires the use and inspection of emission controls.

So definitely no emissions!

Ken

 

Maryland law on this is very vague... if a particular police officer notices a pattern, meaning if he sees you every day daily-driving the car, he can ticket you. Mileage has nothing to do with it, none of the laws having to do with this say anything about mileage.

 

can we get a regular tag, but without the emission for 20 years or older car? I have a cop live nearby. not good at all.

 

but you still need the safety inspection, which can be trouble for some of our rusty rx7s.

 

you can't get a regular tag and still get out of emissions... You can get a waiver if you have failed a certain number of times, and you want to go spend a certain amount of money on emissions-related parts, and then have a mechanic sign the form saying you did that. With historic tags, you also don't need safety inspection; I have never had my rx7 safety inspected.

Ken

 

no safety inspection at all? that is pretty risky law, but we all like it, except the mileage regulation.

 

Muythaibxr how did you get MD plates without the safety inspection? Just curious. I get the hookups with these inspections but they was always needed to get the full 2 year registration. You must got your RX-7 from a relative?

 

Here's the way not to worry about getting stopped for historic tags. They make two types of tags Street Rod and Historic. Street Rod are for altered vehicles and Historic are for original unaltered vehicles. Cost the same and street rod you can ride the **** out of them with no problems. Same form just check street rod block. I'm going tomorrow to get my '86 chevy some street rod tags.

 

I got historic tags. Historic cars are exempt from any kind of inspection. Period.

 

wtf can we do this in jersey? b/c i have gotten so many inspection tickets

 

again, according to the law I read, there IS no mileage regulation... you just agree not to drive it as your primary car. The only place I saw a hard limit was on emissions exemption for drivers over a certain age who drive less than 5000 miles a year. It's possible I could've missed it though.

Ken

 

The only time you have to get a vehicle inspected is if it switches ownership. Now if a cop pulls you over and your hood is missing, or your bumper is falling off, well you are just a dumbass for driving a car on the road like that.

 

yeah, I had never had the rx7 inspected since I bought it from tofuball.

I never will as long as I keep the historic tags on it.

Ken

 

Now if you live in Virginia, you are fucked for safety inspections, but they are not as strict for emissions as Maryland is. Aside from NOVA, I hate that ******* place!

But it don't matter, I don't live in the Northeast anymore, hiya Midwest!

 

If you can't get your car to pass Virginia's annual safety, that car shouldn't be on the road to begin with. VA's safety is terribly lax...

1/8th inch of play in ball joints and tie rods?! Yep. That'll pass. I've had a car that was inspected RIGHT IN FRONT OF A VA STATE TROOPER and passed, fall apart on the way home. Ball joint just dropped out in the driveway. Car landed right on the control arm.

Brake linings ant tires at least 1/16th of an inch thick... Yep. Bald *** tires will pass ya. They don't even check if the brakes actually work per each wheel. I've seen cars with frozen calipers and rusted hardware pass. They also only look at one front and one rear wheel. If you're really lucky, the use a flahslight and look through the wheel rather than remove it.

There's a whole BOOK on the rules of windshield cracks... If it's more than 6 inches long, it can't connect to two edges or have more than three spider branches, blah blah blah...

Lights work, horn works, defrost blows, wiper blades not falling apart, e-brake holds the car so that you can't push it...

Floorboards moderately intact. My father got around this with a sheet of ductwork and a rivet gun... Previously he could Flintstones the car.

Exhaust exits somewhere after the passenger compartment...


That's about it. $15 for 15 minutes of work.