Say you have a 32' ford roadster and want to run a vintage plate. Run the year of the car or the year of the era you are trying to relive? 32 plates are big bucks but say 49' plates are cheap as hell. What is your opinion?
It depends on the state. I suspect most states are like California's "Year-Of-Manufacture" program which only allows plates that match the year on your car's ***le. This means you can't run 56 plates on your duece coupe and pretend you are Milner from American Grafitti.
By definition, the Year-of-Manufacture plate program only allows a plate that was issued the same year as the car was manufactured. A '32 car will have to run a '32 plate and a '49 plate can only be displayed on a '49 car. That's valid for Indiana, but not necessarily the same in all states.
In KY, if you're running historical plates, the law states you can run year of manufacture or "a facsimile thereof". With that law I can run 32 tags that say HOTROD. Many places on the internet sell them.
Ditto for Texas too. DPS will run the number to make sure it hasn't been accidentally issued on a newer plate, will pull out an identification book to make sure the numbers/letters on the plate were actually used on your plate that year (not your intials stamped in your garage), will inspect to make sure the plate was not stamped in your garage, will verify the color combination is correct for the year, and will make sure the plate is either in NOS condition, or has been restored back to a NOS look. Sounds nasty, but it's really not. Buy a set of NOS plates that are legit and in the correct colors... be outta there in 20 minutes depending on the line. They won't p*** rusty or banged up plates. Beware when you're purchasing them off eBay or some other online site. -Chris
Maryland is the same way but I know of a 31 high boy roadster with 1958 Md. plates. It was the era that he wanted to emulate. I asked him how he got away with it and he said that he kept his mouth shut and the lady at the tag counter never caught it. In Md you need to renew your historic plates when ever they are due but they issue you a separate registration for the YOM plates only once when you apply for it. You are required to keep the current historic plates and the YOM registration card in the car. I got stopped once for 35 in a 25 about 25 years ago. I had the historic plates and the renewal stickers in the car but the stickers were not installed. He made me put the stickers on the tags right then and there. It might not work for you but you can always plead stupidity.
Here's one way to do it: My Zipper is registered as a 2000 homebuilt. I got personalized plates to match the same numbers on the 1927 Colorado. The 1927 plates have the current year stickers. I know that it is not a problem as I picked up a parking ticket with my name and address tied back to the numbers on the 1927 plate. I do have the correct plates under the seat just in case.
All states that have a vintage plate/tag program, specify that it MUST be the year of MANUFACTURE, period. I know what you want to do, but you can not do this legally.
Some (rare) states will allow a plate of the same year, but of a different state as a YOM plate. But I've never heard of a state that allows a year different than the car's manufacturing year.
I don't know if they do it like this where your from, but from what I've found out I can register my car as the year/make it most closely ressembles.. or register it w/ the year/make of the engine... So my '22 Dodge could be a 1960 Ford if I wanted it to be.. which would meen '60 Plates too...
No state will allow you to register a tag from another state IN that state. For example, I can NOT legally take a Colorado tag to the Oklahoma Tax Commission and ask to use that as my registration. NO state will allow that.
If they are not too far gone Texas will p*** a YOM plate as long as the colors are right and the digits are legible. Ive got some old plates with some rust and a piece missing. They p***ed em no problem. They will be restored in the near future, this is just an FYI
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