Event Coverage MN Hambers State Bill to restrict use to weekends

NEVER EVER get specialized plates for ANY old car! Even if the car is not running and setting in your garage or shop, keep it registered with required insurance and you shouldn't have any problems. It all
depends how you value the car and whether it's worth the expense. When you register any old car with
a specialized plate all it does is draw attention to you and the car by your states DMV and law enforcement.

 

Here is the proposed bill.
https://legiscan.com/MN/text/HF3865/id/3381187
Go through and read it. Then read through it again.
It's being discussed all over social media sites and I will bet 98 percent of the responses are from people who have not read or understand the content of the bill.
Big deal.? Little deal? No deal?
Read through it to know the facts and make your own decision.

 

@partsdawg thanks for posting the link to the actual bill.
I commented even though I don't live near there with what I hope was a valid point. PM me and I'll remove it if it's out of line.

 

In Michigan, the fee is $35 for a Year of Manufacturer Plate. Plate is good for as long as you own the car with no yearly fee, but becomes invalid if you don't keep the insurance on the car. It would cost me about $150 PER YEAR for a regular plate.

 

Subd. 5. Vehicle operation. A person may operate a vehicle registered in the collector 6.11 cl*** undersubdivision 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, or 1h, or undersection 168.105,solely as a collector's 6.12 item and not for general transportation purposes. Operation as a collector's item includes: 6.13 (1) transportation for a collector vehicle club activity, exhibition, tour, parade, or similar 6.14 use; and (2) operation on Saturday and Sunday from sunrise to sunset.

Seems like pretty standard usage rules for specialty collector plates. If you want to use your car as a regular driver then plate it as such. Simple. Pretty ridiculous IMO to say you want to use your car like a regular car but don't want to pay the same fees as regular vehicles are charged just because it is old.

 

I'm no lawyer but as I understand it the "and" in between (1) and (2) means that the conditions in both sentences have to be met to be in compliance with the law. So it does look like you are restricted to Saturday and Sunday sunrise to sunset, and be engaged in a club type event.

Phil

 

They aren't for the most part looking for HAMB friendly cars. I can pretty well guarentee that if Moriarity is driving down the street in the middle of the week with the driver of the day out of his collection and some clown with a "my car is old enough to be a cl***ic" with a just barely old enough sedan pulls up beside him at a light with collector plates the cop will wave at Moriarity and pull the just over the age car over and write a ticket with that law in place. It's 30 years old to get collector plates here meaning that a 1996 car or pickup now qualifies for collector plates in this state. I see 80's and early 90's rigs running collector plates around here all the time that are daily driver work cars. The state (Washington ) has cracked down in one respect and you have to have a licensed and insured vehicle regular plates if you have one with collector plates.

I'd imagine that that is what has happened in Michigan is that there are too many daily drivers belonging to people who are not even close to being car people with collector plates. The guys who never show up at cars and coffee or the local burger joint cruise night and never show up at local shows even as spectators but figure that they found a way to beat the system and save some money because that roached out daily driver is "old enough" to be a cl***ic now.

Funny thing is that in my region of the statem, Central/Eastern Washington Front engine Corvette drivers with 30 year old Corvettes normally only drive them when the sun is shining and they can't see a cloud in the sky and normally only on "special occasions". Get over to Seattle and Tacoma and the same model Corvette is often the owners only vehicle and a 365 daily driver.

 

The new "club" I'm starting meets Monday through Friday each week.........Just sayin"

 

Ours is 19.50 per year. A regular tag is like 21.50 so…..

 

40-50 years ago Easyrider magazine had a "fiction" story about outlawing motorcycles...

 

So it looks like they're after the guys who cl***ic plate their 20+ year old daily drivers to get the cheaper fee. Here in Washinton state, that came up a few years ago. Here the vehicle has to be 30+ years old and the concern was the rather large numbers of 'qualified' vehicles still on the road as daily drivers. At the end of the day, the state did nothing. I haven't noticed any increase in the number of cl***ic plates I see so it's apparently a non-issue.

And given the weather in Minnesota, I seriously doubt many motorcycles are year-round daily drivers.

Personally, I think the moving age requirement will be self-correcting in the long term. From the mid '80s (even the mid '70s) on up the quan***ies of 'aging out' plastic and specialized electronics found on these vehicles will become increasingly difficult or impossible to find for the majority of them. There will be a few that have enough collector interest for the aftermarket to step up with restoration parts, but most won't.

 

I have 5 cars registered with collector YOM plates in Washington State. No annual fees, very nice. The nice people in Olympia at the Capitol did just send me 5 letters in the mail, one for each car, that basically said that if I don’t have a daily driver with current, regular plates on it, I would have to surrender the collector plates and pay annually to register each car.

So at the moment, I round filed the letters (as I am in compliance) and it’s business as usual. Or is it?

 

Yeah, I forgot about that. And like you, I ignored the letter as I have several cars with 'regular' plates.

 

When I moved back from Texas to Washington in 1977 the "antique" plates with the then l20 year cut off was just getting on a roll but a 20 year old car was a 57 Chevy and even then 57 Chevys were thought of as "enthusiast cars" far more than as 20 year old daily drivers.
Here in the Yakima valley I see several that are obvious daily drivers and had a mid 60's Chevy C 10 with cl***ic plates back in beside me at the dump the other day with a load of trash in the back.

 

It's still $25

 

I'm more concerned about insurance companies and the malarkey they shovel out. They are more likely to create a headache than the DMV or law enforcement.

 

No yearly charge here in Ontario for any car.All you have to do is go online and register your vehicle(s) once a year.

 

In Illinois, we have Antique plates, $25 every 2 years with lots of restrictions.

Then we have extended antique (EA plates) plates, $45 annual, car must be 25 years old, must be insured, only for driving to repair shop or club events Dec1- Feb1, the rest of the year, only the 25 year old vehicle and insurance restrictions exist.

Regular car & truck (B plate under 8,000 lbs) plates are $161/year, insurance required.
Pretty big difference in those prices.

I see a lot of 25 year old, barely running, rusty piles they call vehicles, with EA plates on them! It sure seems like a lot of people taking advantage of the price break that maybe shouldn't be. The state finally started ticketing those vehicles in Dec & Jan, this winter. But if those vehicles are insured, there isn't much then can do between Fed 1st and Dec1st.

My Plymouth coupe got EA plates a couple years ago since the possibilities of driving it through the winder months doesn't exist these days. My 49 Dodge pickup has regular truck plates, I drive it year around.

 

Nevada added a requirement that the owner of a collector plate vehicle now has to have insurance with a collector insurance policy. The abuse of the various specialty plates had really become ridiculous, mostly to get around smog testing. I have always run regular plates as my rides are pre-‘68 smog exempt.

 

I threw my letter away also but I kind of remember something about you have to have a licensed vehicle with regular plates and proof of insurance on that vehicle.

 

From @K13
Subd. 5. Vehicle operation. A person may operate a vehicle registered in the collector 6.11 cl*** undersubdivision 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, or 1h, or undersection 168.105,solely as a collector's 6.12 item and not for general transportation purposes. Operation as a collector's item includes: 6.13 (1) transportation for a collector vehicle club activity, exhibition, tour, parade, or similar 6.14 use; and (2) operation on Saturday and Sunday from sunrise to sunset.

According to what I read (I'm not a lawyer), I can drive it anywhere/any time I want. Because EVERY time I drive it, it's an "exhibition" or I'm on a "tour." I'm showing it off. All of these ambiguously worded laws are left to the interpretation of the police officer, and I think that ****s.

 

I need to add to my previous post about Michigan. The law now allows one to drive a car with Year of Manufacturer plates at anytime and for any purpose between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The original restrictions apply during the rest of the year.

 

Agree with much that has been said, however as much as we value our vehicles, we tend to be a bit defensive when I would hope the true by-law intent is to prevent those that infringe on the hard- fought efforts by hobby lobbyists & local & state authorities to get the y.o.m. plates, & tax breaks for our occasional use collector vehicles, not the daily drivers trying to beat the system.

 

Are burnouts an "exhibition"? LOL

 

I would tend to agree especially if the plate you display has a limited use factor and you drive it regularly on off days. I know we like to think we can get by with bending the rules but that’s how we lose the special plates. Plates for the old cars don’t costs much anyhow maybe we can get a special plate that gives full driving time but still has the right look.

 

To be fair, it was blowing up on the local FB pages a couple of days before MSRA responded.

I do see the plates abused in my area. The late-model sequoia with a collector plate on the rear and a two-years out of date normal plate on the front that gets driven to work daily for one. There are other similar as well. That made me decide to run them on my car, and I try to drive that as much as I can.

 

You make an excellent point, in and around the metro area there's at least one cruise-in or collector car event every day of the week and multiple events every weekend of Minnesota's too short cruising season.

An online search of the bill number doesn't produce much information other than this overview:

The official text of the bill does little to clarify things. While it doesn't mention daylight hours on weekends it does say that owners must file an affidavit and pay a fee for special interest vehicle registrations.

HF 3865 Introduction - 94th Legislature (2025 - 2026)

I poked around the MSRA website but didn't find anything pertaining to the bill. I'm sure the MSRA legislative committee will be all over this, if they aren't already.