Getting Legal

It was time to get legal, and I found some pleasant surprises after a little research.  First, I didn't need to get a safety inspection before getting it titled and registered in Virginia. You can take care of that afterwards.

My plates (kind of). Can you spot the photoshop marks?  Am I overly paranoid?

As you probably know cars older than 25 years are eligible for special antique registration. Antique registration in Virginia and most states saves money on yearly registration fees and taxes, and also removes the requirement for yearly safety inspections except for a self-inspection.  Yes, that means that the oldest and possibly least safe cars on the road are inspected by the owner and no one else, so steer clear of them on the road. However, antique registration limits you to occasional joy rides and I want to commute in this car so I need a "general driving" registration. I did find that Virginia allows you to use vintage plates for general registration if you find a pair from the year your car was manufactured.  Why bother? Frankly they just look cooler on an old car than contemporary plates and don't cost much more.  I was happy to learn that I had my choice between several very affordable options for Virginia tags from the year I needed on Ebay.  There seem to be restrictions on using repainted plates, and it looks like plates in pristine condition bring a premium but I was able to find a pair in reasonable un-retouched condition for about $30 including shipping.

Plates in hand, I headed to the DMV. They were very confused about the combination I'd chosen - general registration with vintage plates but they eventually figured it out after a supervisor was called to help. This is obviously not a common thing for them.  After paying my sales and use tax the MGA was titled & registered for under $500 - no different than any other car of similar value.  In Virginia, we're required to put month/year decals on the plates each year to show you've paid registration fees, but there is no place for them on the vintage plates.  My plan is to keep the stickers in the car, hope I don't get pulled over for not displaying them, and hope they don't get stolen (since there are no locks anywhere on car).  In the unlikely case I am questioned about it by police I plan to point out that the law is self contradictory.  It allows me to use vintage plates, prohibits me from obscuring any details on the plate, and requires me to attach the stickers (which would obscure details on the plate).  My backup plan is to attach some kind of extra piece above the plate and put the stickers there.

My next pleasant surprise was on paying my county personal property tax. As it turns out, our county considers the value of any car older than 25 years old too hard to reliably assess and for tax purposes counts them all as worth $100, and so exempt from tax.  I paid one dollar online to get the property tax window decal and I'm done - saving a couple hundred dollars or so.

Now all I need is a safety inspection and I'm all set - no more sneaking around the neighborhood.