I’m 27. I’m not old! You can call me Dennis.
Nearly every state offers some type of tax exemption for an older car.
My home state of Georgia is probably the greatest benefactor of the old car owner.
In Georgia you can skip emissions if a vehicle is 25 years or older. A 1987 Acura Legend or Toyota Celica GT-S can have a nice and toasty oxygen sensor and the government couldn’t care less.
What’s that? You lost your title? Well, if that vehicle is 1985 or older, you don’t need one of those either.
Don’t want to pay ad valorem tax? Starting with vehicles purchased after March 1, 2013, our state will be implementing a one time title tax of 6.5%. After that the ad valorem remains zero until the politicians say otherwise.
So do you pay for anything for a truly old beater? There is a $20 fee for your annual tag decal. Or a $35 fee if you want an antique plate. Plus you are going to have to pay a bit more for replacement parts in certain cases.
Did I mention the issues regarding the crash safety of 30 year old vehicles? A big old Mercedes may solve that one, or even the little Mercedes 190d pictured above. But you would have to pay for all that gas, which also has plenty of taxes added to the cost of ownership.
So you can’t avoid death. You can’t avoid taxes. And unless your name is Chuck Goolsbee, you likely can’t refine a few hundred gallons of biodiesel a year for your personal use.
So where’s the advantage? Well if you don’t drive very much or have engine oil in your veins, an old car may be your best value. I still see plenty of trucks and more than a few old beaters with owners who have enjoyed the perks of true long-term ownership, and a rust free climate.
Is it worth it? Think about the reality of everyday use instead of the fantasy of a ride that never ages. Would it be worth it to keep an older commuter that is completely exempt? If so, what would be your choice du jour?
Please correct me if i’m wrong….
but didn’t some of the older vehicles require LEADED gas?
Some pre-1972 cars required leaded fuel in the US. By 1972, compression ratios were down and valve seats were hardened in preparation for the inevitable end of leaded fuel availability. That leaves a big window for cars that run on unleaded and aren’t taxed or smogged in Georgia, but probably only ones from 1972-1973 and towards the end of the window won’t have their performance compromised by crummy emissions controls. One could build an emissions device free engine for a car from the in-between years, and many people removed the worst of the smog gear even when the cars were almost new.
There are plenty of additives you could sling in the tank to help protect your engine from the perils of unleaded. Google ‘Lead gas substitute’.
Some did, mostly to protect the valve seats. You can get those additives to accomplish the same thing, or just have the heads rebuilt with hardened seats (some vehicles from the lead days had them anyway).
I had a 1972 Mercedes Benz 280 SEL 4.5 for about five years. Colorado collector car plates were under $100 for five years. Haggerty collector car full coverage insurance was $125/year (it cannot be your only daily driver). At 11 MPG, I’m not sure if I saved money or not.
That 4.5 V8 was an example of how our environmentalism has always made life better. The 3.5 liter high compression version used in 1971 made more power and returned about 18 mpg in the 280SE 3.5 coupes and cabriolets. For 1972, it received a capacity increase to make up for smog controls and reduced compression ratio, restoring some performance while the combination of low compression and higher displacement increased fuel consumption by more than 60%.
One could argue that the road to clean cars was a bumpy one and they would be 100% correct. However, those same requirements got us fuel injection, and with it, engines that outlast the car. Not to mention that modern cars don’t stink from unburned hydrocarbons or evaporation of gasoline. Just hit the boatyard for a taste of what our roads would be like if the market was left to clean the air. Modern emission requirements could be hailed as a great example of what happens when science dictates an outcome and the effort is made to stick with it. Did those standards make for crappy running cars in the 70’s? Yup. Did those cars suck gas, stall, and have short lives? Often yes. But once those hurdles were cleared, Americans have been reaping the rewards ever since. And note that Europe joined the fray…and did so after America was the guinea pig. I guess Nixion was good for something after all…
Yes they did, and you can add the lead substitute, but its not really needed. The prevailing logic is that there is enough lead left in the motor to protect the valve seats. Lead from what I have read was used to primarily to raise the octane number, but it did help protect the valve seats to some extent.
Only pre-’75 cars are likely to even be compatible with leaded gas… unleaded gas started rolling out in ’72 or so and a lot of cars were compatible with unleaded by then.
Remember that in most states all these various exemptions kick in at 25 years. 25 years ago today is 1987. You can get an “antique car” according to the law that’s still fully modern in terms of having EFI, a shoulder belt in every outboard seat, power disc brakes, etc.
Also, most of those old cars that are still running after 25 years are usually collector type of cars and are usually well maintained. They are rightfully exempt as the total output of smog from these vehicles rounds to pretty much zero. It makes much more sense to focus on the 8 to 15 year old gross polluter that belches black or oil smoke. And even those are pretty damn rare these days thanks to precise fuel delivery and no more cold start cylinder wash down.
Not an old Corvair, hardened valves from teh factory.
http://carfisheye.blogspot.com/
Not an old Corvair, hardened valves from the factory.
http://carfisheye.blogspot.com/
Don’t get too hopeful on the antique plate being useful. In Virginia it got so bad for people misusing the antique plate (due to no personal property tax, no annual state inspection, etc.) that you now have to prove you have at least one vehicle under modern license and insurance before they’ll issue you a vintage plate for an old vehicle.
Also, bored police in Fairfax County will pull you over if you’re driving an antique-plated car at rush hour, because they’re not supposed to be used for general transportation.
However there are still some minor advantages even if you use a normal registration. The personal property tax is still going to be next to nothing, and the car isn’t subject to emissions inspection. You still have to pass safety, but I wouldn’t want to depend on a daily driver that didn’t.
Hanover County is even better – antique licensed vehicles don’t even appear on the personal property tax rolls. Which gave me the giggle that my 1930 Indian 101 Scout (alone worth more than my two cars and five other motorcycles combined) wasn’t taxed. But my 150k 1996 S-10 was (something like $10.00 a year). I’m toying with moving my ’87 924S to vintage tags, although I like it too much to cut back driving it.
In Mississippi, you get an antique tag for $25.00, and that’s a one time payment. You never have to pay another dime in taxes or fees.
I’ve not noticed anyone being harassed as others above have mentioned either. 6 more years on my truck and it will be eligible, if I decide to go that route.
In Arkansas, I haven’t noticed any harassment of antique plate holders, either.
You simply have to have another, non-antique-plated vehicle registered in the state…but that’s checked at the time you register your vehicles, not the police. And no limit on usage or miles driven, although the vehicle does still show up on your personal property tax assessment.
Here in Savannah, GA, there is a thriving trade in old cars, destined to be ghetto-sleds.
And also, here in Savannah and everywhere in GA outside of certain Metro Atlanta counties, there is no emission inspection at all. Nowhere in the state is there a safety inspection. So you can drive with that cracked windshield (or much worse) all you want.
The new title tax law is a mixed bag. Previously, there was no sales tax on purchases from private sellers. The ad valorem tax on an old beater was so low as to be negligible, and if your car is old enough (say, a ’64 Corvair, just to pick an example not at random), your county tax office will be entirely stumped, and they will accept whatever tax value you give them.
It depends greatly on your state’s tax, inspection, and emission regimes, plus you have to be willing and able to do your own major and minor repairs and keep a second vehicle on hand for those times when your daily beater goes down.
Well, just a year ago I owned 2 much older vehicles, a ’00 Integra and ’95 Miata. Then I traded Integra for a ’12 WRX and sold Miata.
The only major difference is that ad valorem tax has risen from $56 for Integra to over $400 for WRX. Insurance difference is a measly $100 or so between the two since Integra was considered older and high risk. Other than that, it’s all quite similar as far as state taxes are concerned.
The emission cut off is ’96 (OBD II era) so Miata was exempt but it wasn’t a big deal as it would easily pass and cost of the sticker was still the same $29 emissions or not.
Obviously there are factors that make newer car ownership more expensive like maintenance and fuel but that’s (surprisingly) not the state’s fault.
When I bought my last car (a 2004) I was looking at a 98-ish Integra also. My insurance quote some something like $30 more a month for it, despite the newer car being, well, newer and having a supercharged engine and sport suspension. My insurance agent told me the primary factor was the Integra was a higher risk for theft.
The right E28 or E30 would be my choice for a state with such a vehicle code. Alas, in California the only way for someone that isn’t involved in political corruption to have any freedom is with a pre-1976 car.
First, an “antique” now means a car from the 1980’s. That means it’s possible to get fuel injection, power everything, A/C, disk brakes (front at least), decent radio, cruise control, etc. That’s a far far cry from the usual blend on 1950’s to 1960’s style of antique. A 1980’s vehicle can easily be driven daily.
I recently bought a ’89 chevy pickup, 350 V8 and upper trim level package. Had to rebuild the tranny, replace alternator, distributor, and do a little clean up under the hood. Some hassle at first, but now it runs like a top with only 150k miles on it. Not quite antique, but very close to it.
Mileage? It gets 15+ mpg, pretty much the same as some of the brand new chevy’s. How? Cause new ones are so much bigger with so much more power. Safety? Ok, no airbags but then I’ve driven for 30 years without airbags and I’m still alive.
I enjoy no car payments, and the upkeep isn’t much more that any of the more recent used vehicles in my price range. I drive less than 10k per year, most of that is on a motorcycle, so the truck actually only see’s about 5k miles per year. Should last me another decade no problem.
Y’all got weird laws down south…
In Nevada, any car built after 1967 is subject to emissions testing – if you want an ordinary, daily driver plate. If you want any of the various “old car” plates, and your car was built from 1968-1987, you still need to pass a one-time smog check.
But any of the old plates are limited to 5000 miles/year. Cops *will* pop you for driving to work with such a plate.
Three years till my 1991 CRX qualifies for its single Massachusetts antique plate!
190 horsepower, $100 a year for insurance.
1987 Chevrolet Suburban 350 SBC, automatic, 4×4, upper trim package FTW! Its a securure lockable hauler, school bus, snow cat, quiet highway cruiser, all in one vehicle!
Delaware clamps down on classic tags with the restriction you can only go to car shows or repair shops. It’s ridiculous. So you never see any classic tags on old cars.
Our registration is cheap and inspections are free so it’s not a big deal anyway.
Maine is not so bad, the only stipulations on antique plates are that the car has to be 25 years old, and you have to have something else with regular plates. But it only gets you out of the annual safety inspection – you still pay pretty much the same fees for registration and excise tax is exactly the same.
If I was going to use something old as a quasi-daily driver? Volvo, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. I used an ’88 MB 300TE as my daily driver for several years relatively recently, and sold it to a friend who still does so. Fantastic, bulletproof car. Will be antique plate eligible next year. Only problem is because it cost so much new, the excise tax on it in Maine is near $300 a year. An ’87 Volvo 745 would be just as bulletproof and half as much in tax, but not as nice to drive.
My state (AZ) has a progressive license tag scheme in order to “soak the rich”. What it ends up doing is just pushes people like me to keep cars a whole lot longer instead of replacing.
What’s amusing is people in the state that own exotics like Ferraris have plates from Montana (that has something like $25 a year registration), and I honestly don’t blame them one bit for working the system. I’d be doing the same thing before I was paying thousands of dollars a year for a license plate tag.
Regarding yearly emissions, they’ve done numerous studies and it’s a colossal waste of time and money. The smart states have abandoned many of those programs as it costs the state something like $250,000 per violator to test the entire vehicle population and find the 1% of failures.
“My state (AZ) has a progressive license tag scheme in order to “soak the rich.”
So THAT’S why Phoenix has the most beautiful highways I have ever seen…
Highway funding come in large part from the federal gas tax that all 50 states pay into
.
Also, our state is always one of the fastest growing, so our highways tend to be newer as the state expands.
But nice try to justify a ridiculous scheme.
Here in DC the “inspection” for “civilian” vehicles (i.e. not limos and taxis) has been pared down to a biannual plug-in to the OBD-II port. BFD. My 10 year old Saab was throwing a CEL (rich mixture code), and my wife and I figured out that, if I cleared the codes, it took X miles of driving for the memory to be erased and Y miles of driving after that before the CEL came back on. We took the car to be inspected between X and Y miles of driving after I had cleared the codes & passed. So much for that test. Most of the time the car is in Madison, WI anyway, where my daughter goes to college.
I think Uncle Sugar is the force that mandates emissions tests, at least for states that have one or more high smog zones, which includes just about everyone but, probably, Montana and Mississippi.
Did you ever think about how much gas you were wasting driving with a car that has a high fuel trim? You could easily be throwing away a gallon or two per tank. That’s about 8 bucks per tank. That plug in test could save you a lot of fuel….but your logic works for tricky CEL problems…minor evaporation failures can be a bear to find, so resetting the light and filling the tank and driving around with the tank full will not allow that test to be run, thereby getting the sticker….the test will not run with low fuel levels either….
I always prefer a newer vehicle if for nothing else than reliability. An old car just because it’s old has no value unless it would be something really special to me, and in that case, I’d never use it to commute.
Texas has the 25 year limit for smog control but the smog control crap must be intact on the car. I disagree with eggsalad. The southern laws seem to display a lot of common sense.
The Texas antique tag is supposed to be used on weekends etc. You can be busted but I don’t know of anyone that has been. My 1991 S10 has a 4.3 and a 700r4. How well it does on the next smog inspection is going to tell me if it’s worth a three year wait for the smog free era. It sure is rugged. Had smog inspections whipped but the engine on my 87 hardbody froze and I had come to believe that it isn’t worth rebuilding an engine with such fragile head gaskets.
The worst thing that could happen to the S10 is that I make it an organ doner and resurrect my 57 210 as a 20mpg plus car.
I had a friend here in Texas who drove his Model A with antique plates on it to work for about a week while is regular car was in the shop, and he was busted for it. It *can* happen. I was once busted by the DPS for displaying my front plate in the windshield instead of mounted on the bumper (I just got the car a couple of days before, and was waiting for the license plate mounting hardware). I just got a warning ticket for that, however.
I’ve got Classic Car plates, which are basically normal plates for my ’77 Chevelle. I avoided the Antique plates because I do drive it quite a bit. I put about 10,000 miles a year on the Chevelle and about 30,000 miles on it since I got it 3 years ago. It gets 15mpg in town and 21 on the road, so not great, but not horrific. It just needs a safety inspection every year.
Yes its needed some work, but I’m into it for a total of $1200 so far including the $300 purchase price and taxes. It all works, A/C blows cold, and still looks reasonably good. It’s turning out to be more reliable than my well-worn DD 95 Explorer, but the Explorer still passes emissions with flying colors every year.
Assuming I last until about 80, life breaks down like this:
0-16: passenger
16-22: beggar…will drive anything.
23-32: mostly poor, choices limited
33-50: family years, need four doors. Probably commuting.
50-65: knock yourself out
65-75: vision and reflexes decline, don’t go too fast
75+: airbags, ABS and a roll cage, plus an umbrella policy required.
So the answer is that life is too short to drink cheap wine and too damned short to drive an old shit box, unless you really have to. So if you find an old car you really enjoy, great. But saving a few bucks for a miserable ride cuts into your limited car owning lifespan.
No- a 25+ year old car will be less reliable, less comfortable, and less safe (even a big old Mercedes). Those are all terrible qualities in a daily driver, even if it might be a little cheaper.
Been driving a 1982 Mercedes 240d for over two years now as a daily driver, it was in good shape when I bought it, and it’s been good to me. I’ve put a little over 35,000 miles on it, bringing it to 236,500 miles. Maybe it’s less safe, I don’t know, I don’t plan to crash it and find out, but it’s been nothing but reliable and comfortable. My operational cost per mile is approaching that of my personal all-time champion (1991 Honda Accord) at $0.11 per mile.
@carve
An ’87 can be as reliable as any newer car, depending on who or how it was rebuilt, restored or refurbished so there’s really no real reason a 25 year old classic can’t be driven daily. They’re simpler for one.
They may not be as safe as newer, generally speaking, but do what’s best for you and the rest of us will gladly accept a calculated risk for a calculated payoff.
We’re not talking just “a little cheaper”, but 10s of 1000s, but this isn’t the point. You can take an lightweight ’87 M3, MR2, Fierro, Corvette or IROC and turbo the heck out it or otherwise make it your own, the way you would’be designed it. And mostly without the state or government up your tailpipe.
This doesn’t mean you should go hog wild and I would still run a basic catalytic converter, no matter what.
I would combine an ’80s lightweight pony or specialty car with a modern and fuel efficient 400 HP V8 or boosted V6 along its 6-speed, electronics and emissions.
“A 1987 Acura Legend or Toyota Celica GT-S can have a nice and toasty oxygen sensor and the government could care less.”
I hate to be the pedantic one, but I believe the phrase you’re looking for here is “couldn’t care less”. The phrase “could care less” means that there is an option for caring less, which I don’t believe to be the case in this situation (or at least not what you’re trying to imply).
Just because you’ve heard it in pop music of on TV doesn’t make it good English.
Watch out – dare to correct someone’s lousy command of the English language around here and you’ll have some doofus say you should have your keyboard taken away.
Not me. I’ll change it. Spoken English tends to intermingle with written English every once in a while. Thanks for pointing it out.
My first choice would be a W123 240D with a manual transmission; not because I expect a 60hp car to be “sporty”, but because the automatics are more complex. Not much to break with a non-turbo diesel and a four on the floor.
Second choice would be a Fox Mustang. They’re not paragons of durability like an old Benz. But like an old Chevy truck, they sold literally millions of them over two and a half decades if you include the SN95. You could replace every single mechanical/electrical part with something out of the Summit catalog, or pillage Explorers and SN95s for engine and chassis modernizations.
As of next year I’d pick up an ’88 Civic. You get the same endless upgrade/modernization path as the Fox body, plus impeccable fuel economy.
My daughter’s ex-boyfriend drives one of these around Los Angeles. You’re absolutely right. The only failure point is the vacuum system which operates the power locks. The car maxes out at 65 mph, but who can do 65 on the freeway in LA other than at 3:00 a.m.?
Something’s wrong with her 240d if it can only do 65mph, mine will top the speedo at an indicated 85mph. Most likely the accelerator linkage just need adjustment.
IIRC, the speedometer in my 1976 240D went to 100 mph, and the car would indicate close to 95 mph until I read the owner’s manual and found out that maximum engine speed corresponded to 81 mph.
Seems that most European cars tend to have speedos that exaggerate the speed. Not a big deal at 60, but when you get to the top end, 5 mph overread is not unusual. I was told that European regulations stipulate that the car can never under report the speed so they are set up to over read…can’t confirm that 100 percent though….
G2H,
Car and Driver looked into this a couple years ago. I’m not sure it was the case in the mid-70s, but a few years ago it was revealed that the reason it seems like you’re going slower than you are in a German luxury sedan is because you’re going about 10 mph slower than the speedometer indicates. I think they were embarrassed and adjusted US market cars after the article, as the 2012 A6 I drive only indicates a couple MPH below what a GPS shows.
The newest vehicle I own is a thirty-year-old MG Metro 1300. It works great as a daily driver and is well worth it. I run regular plates on everything, including my utterly stock ’37 Plymouth, precisely because I use them as cars instead of as collector’s items.
Now you’re a person I’d really like to meet. Man of my own heart, and definitely beyond my personal mechanical ability. The only way I’m matching you is with my ’69 Triumph Bonneville. British vertical twins I understand. Anything more complex freaks me out.
Syke, just as some people are color blind or tone deaf, I believe some people’s brains can’t understand certain national engineering styles. With experience I’ve learned to work on 60s- early 80s Japanese bikes. But when friends start doing maintenance or repairs on their English bikes (BSA Bantam, Shooting Star or Triumph Trophy Trail or Daytona for example) I juststare in confusion . Everything is in the “wrong” place.
Or you could live in South Carolina like me (just over the border from Savannah) where we have no vehicle inspections.
Also everyone drives like idiots.
Did I mention a 2nd gen RX-7 is about to become my DD? I don’t have a work commute though, phew.
“I’m 27. I’m not old! You can call me Dennis.”
A poorly recalled Monty Python scene I believe.
That would be two Python references for TTAC today.
Yes and no. I know the script said 37. But the car is 27 so… what to do?
Maybe we could have brought it up at the TTAC weekly meeting and see if a compromise could be made, with a two thirds majority in the case of purely internal affairs…
Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
Someone had to move the scene forward.
You can’t expect to hold supreme executive power just because some watery tart lobbed a sword at you!
Absolutely.
Older car + readily available parts + good fuel Mileage = cheap insurance + low costs + money in your pocket @ current mileage reimbursement rate of 55.5¢/mile.
And that’s not even counting any break you get on registration. Save the nice car, with the regular plates, for weekend fun and turn the classic (aged) car into a daily driver.
In Cali, the car has to be made before 1975 to be smog exempt, so the newest of the old is smack dab in the middle of malaise. I could go for a ’68 Eldorado as my daily driver because I’m retired and don’t have to drive daily anyway. I loved that design, and I covet the old GM air conditioning – the AC in my Altima leaves a lot to be desired. As for safety, on a 30 mph trip to Piggly-Wiggly, what could go wrong?
I’m one of those “drive-an-older-model-car-to-save-on-taxes-depreciation-and-insurance” folks. Got the idea from this blog. Thanks a million TTAC!
Found a 12 year old vehicle with less than 40,000 miles from a manufacturer known for reliability. Top of the line model. Smooth and delicious. Quiet as a bank vault. Its been stone cold reliable since I bought it, doubt the previous owner had any problems with it either. Looks like it was just driven off the showroom floor. You don’t have to drive a beater to save on vehicle expenses.
In the jurisdiction where I live, the personal property tax on vheicles (which I think of as a consumption tax (sorry for the econospeak)) is pretty steep. But its largely voluntary. The more expensive vehicle you want to drive, the more tax you pay. This one is actually not so bad, as taxes go. Wanna drive an M5, why not pay more for the distinct pleasure of turning the public roads into your own personal playground?
I budget the $$$ I save on transportation costs for ski vacations in faraway places.
That might work for you in your state but it doesn’t work for most states.
When my oldest son left home to join the service I transferred one of my cars into his name for $1 only to find that when he went to the DMV to get his title, license plate and registration, the state charged him the sales tax on the then-value of the car — I think it was $325 in sales tax, plus registration, title and license plates, at that time $75 for one year.
He was in the Marine Corps, so when he got to Camp Pendleton and had to put California registration and license plates on that same car after a year, California charged him a value tax of around $250 (a sales tax by any other name because there was no sale involved) and around $150 for the registration, title and license plates. Before all that he had to get a $50 smog test done so he could register it in California.
I was there. I slipped him the cash to pay for it all.
Well HDC, I guess things just keep changing. When I was active duty (retired in 1981) there was something called the Soldiers and Sailors relief act of 1939. Among other things it kept draftees from losing homes and it kept us from having to re-register every time we were transferred. I had Kansas tags on all sorts of vehicles in all sorts of places from Ct. to Guam. Just needed someone to do some legwork when renewal time came about.
Btw, give your son a Semper Fi from an old Navy Corpsman. Hope he’s doing well.
When I bought my Saturn from my Dad in 2006 there is/was some kind of sales tax exemption for immediate family here where I didn’t have to pay for anything but the title transfer. I expect California to have no such exception since they are bankrupt ten times over, but AZ I’m surprised.
wstarvingteacher, I enjoyed the days of the Soldiers and Sailors relief act of 1939 as well, at least for some of the time during my 20+ years of active duty in the Air Force (retired 7/85). But there were variations on that theme.
When I bought a new car in Hasting, Nebraska in 1968 while stationed at Hastings AFS and had a CA drivers license, I could not get that new car registered and license plates in Nebraska unless I had a Nebraska license.
It had something to do with a law about operating a vehicle registered in one state and driving on a license of a second state, while being stationed in a third state. It was simpler just to do what they wanted.
In the case of my sons, (all four which eventually served with the Corps, some for twenty-plus, some for less), matters got even more complicated if you marry someone in California, have joint (her) cars registered in California, have a drivers license from New Mexico and try to renew your NM tags or drivers license by mail. And once you retire or get out, that’s all she wrote, and you must have a state drivers license within 30 days of taking up residency.
Anyway, long story short, with the help of the legal office this was resolved with a cover letter presented to the DMV in CA that allowed him to register all his vehicles in CA and get a drivers license there as well, without all the testing that normally goes along with it.
All it took was money for fees, charges and taxes. States will find more ways than we can imagine to part us from our money. I had much of the same crap happen after spending almost 8 years in Europe, and getting to my new assignment.
Of course, when you do go through all this crap, pay the fees and whatever and get that state drivers license, tags, etc., you know what happens, right? You guessed it! JURY DUTY FOR SIX MONTHS.
BTW, my daughter was a NAVY Corpsman and was assigned to serve in the unit that supported the lady Marines at Camp Pendleton’s Hospital, for the four years of her enlistment.
All four of my sons served with 3/7 although over different periods and at different times, and were West Coast Fleet Marines (Infantry MOS), SOI at Eidson Range, Bridgeport, CA, and Twenty-Nine Palms. Their NAVY Corpsman treated them for everything from cuts and bruises to the clap, picked up at Pataya Beach, Thailand.
28-cars-later, what you said about the exemption does apply, in some cases. In my state, NM, that applies only if I provided more than 50% of my son’s support and income (which I did not after he joined the Corps).
Smart move sir, I too enjoy traveling and those experiences are priceless. I’m reading this though and I’m thinking ‘personal property tax on vehicles’ (which I guess we don’t have here in PA) and am just thinking wtf… I (and many others) pay more than my share (single, healthy, no kids, no real estate) and get no clever deductions or get-out-of-tax-free cards, so a pox on them! If I want to go rip roaring in a M3 or Vette after I have met my obligations I wouldn’t be too impressed by having to now pay more because they feel like robbing me on account of my ride.
Washington State goes back to ’87 for smog exemptions, though it may well be ’88 these days, it was ’87 last year but I could be wrong.
At any rate, you can get vintage vehicle plates here, but no more than I think 10K a year at most on those and I can’t recall if you can drive them daily or not to work.
But you can then use old plates for your car’s year if you have them and the costs are less.
Thankfully, a 25 YO car as a daily driver are quite common here as we don’t have rust issues like in some states.
I don’t recall what my tabs were, but I think my ’92 Ranger truck was $85 bucks a year and I think my ’03 Mazda is similar.
Funny thing is, my older ’88 Honda Accord and the truck I previously had before the Mazda both had to have their tabs renewed in Oct, my Mazda is in Nov, go figure.
Had my 95 T-Bird inspected a couple of weeks ago here in NYC. Since it is pre 1996-OBD II they only charged me $21 for the safety inspection. I know the emissions are fine on it because the previous 2 years inspections included the emissions test and all of the pollutants came in well under the norm.
Here in the Netherlands, having a car that is older then 25 years exempts you from annual road taxes that run at a minimum of around 500 euro, and up towards a thousand. You save a bundle. That’s why my buddy just bought a 1986 Audi 100 wagon.
I wouldn’t go out of my way for it – Ontario’s emissions testing is virtually impossible to fail. If I’m dealing with something that can’t pass that, I’m probably already dealing with catastrophic rust.
You’re right, Steve, Georgia is a great place to keep a vintage car on the road. I’m driving a 1988 Legend and a 1980 450SL, both now emissions-exempt. Until about 1997 in GA cars became exempt at 10 years, which allowed many older, gross polluters from the malaise years to stay on the road. I never knew other states require emissions tests for vehicles older than 25 years, since they are already exempted from EPA regulation at that age.
I own 4 vehicles: 1986 Buick Regal T Type, 1985 Buick Regal, 1976 Chevy Silverado 1500 w/454, and 1969 Buick Riviera. The ’85 Regal & ’76 Silverado are my daily drivers, ’86 Regal & ’69 Riviera weekend drivers. Driving older cars is cool, especially when you get a “thumbs up” from other drivers. I do all my own repairs, but if you can`t, it would be too expensive for the average person.