Of course the owner has to maintain a safe vehicle and carry insurance to travel on the roads.Īlso, if the owner were to sell the vehicle the next owner can request to have the antique title transferred to his name actually a new title will be issued in the new owner's name. See your Penn-Dot rules for those requirements.
Now that owner has lifetime registration, no State inspection or emission inspection but the vehicle must comply with certain driving restrictions and light requirements. I say this from experience, as I just did an antique motorcycle. All that it usually takes now is pay the double fee and fill out the application for antique tags.
And with that fee increase the antique registration has doubled but requirements have been relaxed. Of course Penn-Dot increased all motor vehicle fees and title fees, usually double, a short time ago. That the vehicle, was in fact, a good representation of the original vehicle as it came from the manufacturer and not a reconstructed or street-rod vehicle. Personally, I'd try to limit use mainly to weekends with maybe a commute to work a couple of times a month until you get a feel for how truly visible the car is.In my opinion and only my opinion, and coming from PA notary: I would think the antique title is an asset.Īt one time to get a PA antique title the vehicle (what ever it was, automobile, truck, motorcycle,) had to be verified, either by photos or in some instances, not all, by an inspection mechanic. It seems as long as you aren't doing anything wrong, the cops around here have other things to be concerned about than a guy driving around an old car. I live in Lower Bucks, which is quite densely populated suburb of Philly. Otherwise, it's hard to really know how much a particular cop will be a stickler for the rules. I was away from home for most of 2016, so my cars all sat quite a bit. Occasionally, I'll take one out to run local errands after work to give a car some exercise. The most use my cars see at one time is during multi-day club events like when I go out to Carlisle for the import show or trips to classic car events like Watkins Glen or the American British Reliability Run. I've never been hassled about it, but I tend to use my classic cars pretty much as the rules allow. I figured once per week is 52 times per year so two drives a week in July was just using up one from my February allotment. While they say that you can only drive it once per week, I used to drive it whenever I wanted. The permanent registration and not needing state inspections or emissions testing is worth the hassle of the antique plates. I feel pretty safe not getting an appraisal right now and will work on that if I'm ever able to drive it again.
With the rising prices on S30s, I'm certain that I'm insured for less than I could sell the car for but I'm physically disabled and cannot drive the car and it's been sitting in the garage undriven for the past two years. I didn't originally need to have the car appraised when I put it on this policy but now I need to do that if I want to up my stated value. My car is insured through State Farm with an agreed upon value and very high coverage values for $226 per year. My understanding is that it's considered a "modern" antique and while the official wording says no nighttime operation, in actual practice it's permitted. I have driven it many times at night with no issues. I have antique plates on my 1975 Datsun 280Z.