Howd, I was hoping some NJ guys might be able to answer some questions I have. I've got a 53 Buick that I hope to have on the road sometime soon. I've got a clean title, but as a I am only 18, I can't get collector plates right? If I register it normally, will I have problems with inspection? what is required of a 53?
someone else asked about an age restriction, i think it was rat_rodder and i couldnt find ANYTHING on the mvc site. i'd just give a call...i WILL tell you though, that if you register normally, like i first did with my van. you run the risk of getting your balls busted if you dont go through inspection (and if you DO go through, you will probably fail) reason being is they usually used to pull me over for a seatbelt ticket, since my plates werent historic, then when they realized the van didnt come with seatbelts, they would find ANYTHING to give you a ticket on and they always defaulted to inspection (or illegally commercial vehicle because i have a website on the back of it!? but thats another story) id just give a call to the 1800 number. if you DO go to trenton, you have to go to the special plates unit, and get there before it opens and youll be in and out. take a few pictures of your car, front/back/sides, and make sure it doesnt look TOO far off stock....if possible get some pictures of a stockish looking 53 and show it to them they just want to check to see if its a "street rod" and then your fucked. they almost gave me a rash of shit about my model A not having a hood. i had to convince the guy "yeha....uh...hoods were...optional..."
I think perhaps, the age restriction applies to special supercheap insurance that you can get for a car registered as a collector car, do they care what motor is in it? from the outside looks more or less stock to the average government employee. I also know a guy who will pass my car, but of course I'm a good citizen and would rather do things legally if possible.
If this is your only car they may NOT allow you to run antique plates. Md. won't. Check before you get your hopes up.
It's not the States that won't allow you to have antique plates. It's Ins Co rules. You gotta be 26 in most cases and the car can not be your daily driver/only vehicle in order to get the special insurance that allows you to have the antique plates. And then those plates often limit your usage of the car to a certain number of miles per year, not to/from work, blah, blah, blah. Besides calling the DMV which can't be any better than it is here in NY, call a local garage and ask them what the inspection covers for a 1953 car. To avoid hassles, read up on the traffic and vehicle laws for NJ and try to abide by them as best as possible. You won't be able to get ins for the value of the car most likely so don't get talked into full boat ins. It'll be like flushing money down the toilet. To an Ins Co a '53 driver anything has very little value and they'll total it almost immediatly in an accident of nearly any kind. So cover yourself with enough insurance in case you cause damage to other's property, but save yourself the money on buying coverage for the car. Check here: http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/cleanair/index.html
Tim, there's a LOT of misconceptions about registration and insurance on antique cars. I do not think there is an age restriction for antique plates. Most likely, there is on insurance. When you first change over your car, they will insist on giving you regular plates. Then you have to put in a written request for antique plates to Trenton. Simple as that. You can run regular insurance on a QQ plated car, or have special insurance on an old car with regular plates. They do not interact with each other, totally separate issues. Also, I never ran into any problems with a modified car not getting QQ's. But then, I always have a custom, not a rod. Street rod plates are kinda like vanity plates. I don't think you have to go to state inspection, as it still is an antique, but they DO recommend you get "street rod inspection". Not sure what that is. Whatever engine, trans, suspension, whatever is in your rod or custom, it does not change the 'year of manufacture'. Your car is still a 53 Buick, whatever drivetrain, or taillights grill, headlights, or side trim it has. That stuff does not affect registration/titling. Drivetrain changes DO affect insurance. The super cheap antique insurers, like J C Taylor, do not like modified engines, drivelines, or suspensions. For those cars, you need to get street tod, or modified insurance, which is a lot higher.
you must be 25 to get QQ plates. inspection is based off the emission laws from when the car was built. I never bother with QQ plates cause cops busted my balls for driving a car all the time with them. In the nj statue it says they are only for going to shows or club functions.
well this is all good info as i plan on doing the same sometime in the near future. thanks for helping clear some of that stuff up for me.
bullshit. just got 3 sets of QQ plates the day before my 24th birthday which was april 14th this year. i went the day before and had no problems. for insurance there MAY be a restriction, but there is NO REASON YOU CANT INSURE A car that was registered as "historic" CAR UNDER REGULAR INSURANCE!!!!!!! they may not give you full coverage though if its that old. I do for mine since i like Geico......i pay a LITTLE more but since i drive my van daily, its worth it and i dont have to follow milage rules or lie about it. as far as inspection, they just told me to go home with my van, and wouldnt even put me through the line said it would never pass and didnt give me a reason. not sure about the emissions laws, but rather than listed to all us guys, just give a call to the 1800 number and take even what they say with a grain of salt. so. go get QQ plates (there may be an age restriction under 23, but i got mine when i was 23) and just get regular insurance for the time being. they just give a quick look at the pictures...so if it looks even "stockish" they wont give you a problem, but if its crazy chopped flamed custom...just get a pick of a stocker. p.s. there is 2 forms of "historic" the regular kind that everyone has...then the collector kind. you dont want the "collector" kind, with milage and so restrictions, there are 2 different forms.
sure does. if its doesnt look stock, they will MAKE you register it as a street rod or just a regular if its past a certain year, they really bust your balls, they did about the motor in my model A sedan. doesnt matter what its titled as if its not stock"ish" (meanint they can tell its been modded) they WILL bust your balls and tell you they cant do it. thats why they want 2 pictures, side view and front view. my father had to show them pictures of a stock 29a because he has fat cheater slicks on the back. and no hood. and a chop. with a SBC in it. its kind of like playing the lottery really, but if they want to they can ABSOLUTELY deny you historic plates for even a motor swap. I just went through all of this 2 weeks ago, took 2 days off of work to get everything i have legal and historic.
the one good thing about historic plates and registration other than not having to go through inspection is its 41$ AND doesnt need to be renewed until 2009!
The thing with QQ plates, is yes, they will bust your balls for driving it... You're best off to not drive it everyday, be sure to have another daily... but at least in the summer, there is a car show or cruise nght just about every day of the week... you can always say you're on the way to or from one of those. Check out www.njcarshow.com to see a list. Also, as far as I know, if you want QQ plates in NJ, you HAVE to have classic ins. I.E., you can't register your car as classic with standard liability. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, most insurance companies will want everyone in your household of driving age, to have a daily LESS than 10 years old. And on another note... NJ also has street rod plates available... here's some info on both: http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/cit_plates/specalh.htm
respectfully, you are wrong, on april 13th, i have a regular geico plan, and registered my cars with QQ plates at the age of 23. there is NO restriction on what insurance you can have other than whats required for any other vehicle. There may be restrictions on drving, but you can drive it whenever you want, I believe, and this i can say im only 80% sure is that it doesnt have to be to a carshow or anything but the limit is a few thousand miles a year. you DONT want to get a street rod plate (besides it only aplies to 49 and below)....as you have to register with street rod accociations, etc. etc. and is a bunch of BS> they first tried to make my father do that with his 29 a. p.s. take it from me they will bust your balls FAR MORE without QQ plates (from experience) ESPECIALLY if you dont have inspection.
My thoughts the US gov't can't tell the homebuilder he or she can't build a vehicle, it goes against the very foundation of our society, freedom of expression, make money off someone else. But what he can do is make it very difficult and he can get something out of it plus in the disguise of helping keep america's roads and environment safe. Don't jump into this, research talk to others, read the jalopy journal and you WILL come up with what you want, at least give it up to the day you take your maiden voyage. BUILDING RODS IS FUN-----POLITICS SUCK---STAY THE COURSE
Oh, absolutely they will bust your balls more. I didn't realize you could do regular insurance with QQ plates. Maybe I have it backwards i.e. classic insurance with regular plates??? The limit on how FAR you can drive, is determined by you and your classic insurance co. You can negotiate whatever mileage you like, for extra cash (nominal in comparison to regular). The usage restrictions come from the state, and it's pretty clear from the mvc website that it's supposed to be for exhibition purposes only, which to me seems open to interpretation. In my area (monmouth county) they seem to be pretty cool, especially if they don't see you on the road too often. Lot's of people like to ride their cars out to the beach on the weekends, and a lot of cops have cars themselves. Are you driving your car daily???
I don't need collision, just liability,so regular insurance is fine; the motor is worth more than I paid for the car(which wasn't much).The car will be driven close to daily, but i only have a 5 min commute. I think I may follow caffiene's lead and get the QQ plates
yeah i drive my van daily, almost 40 miles round trip. thats why i got historic plated because id be pulled over for not having a seatbelt, then when they realized it didnt come with any....they would get pissed and rag on the inspection (i should say its 50/50, some just pull over to see the van) the last straw was when the cop said he was going to tow my vehicle because it had a website on the back and im operating a illegal commercial vehicle (i was in a suit and tie on my way to work at 7am).....along with about 20 other stickers...I asked him if he can then kindly go to my neihlbors house who is 70 and sells mary kay and has a huge decal on her back window obstructing her view and tow her van too. he ended up giving me a ticket for unclear plates (it was day, and he MADE me check to see if the bulb worked and sure as shit it didnt) and inspection. I have regular insurance on it, told them i drive it 15k miles a year or so. i pay 460 a year from geico for JUST liability which is fine, and i love geicos easily accessible website and online payments, i should get collectors for my model a as i wont be driving it as much, but id rather pay 200 or so dollars more a year and have everything in 1 place/payment. all together with all my cars/motorcycles i pay around 2800 a year and my 2002 blazer has full coverage.
if you don't mind me asking, Have you had any accident's lately? I'm just wondering if I could expect a similar rate, I had an accident about two years ago, never gotten a ticket though.
also when i DID try to take it to get inspected, the guy at the DMV said noone can drive a "crazy stickshift thing" (i.e. 3 on the tree) so thats one of the reasons they told me to go home....go figure so lets forget all this and everyone head to englishtown on saturday will ya!
1 accident not my fault. a ticket back in 2000 i think. i think 460 or whatever is the LOWEST price from geico as thats what i pay for my model a too and i put im only goin gto drive that like 4k miles or something too.
i just picked up classic insurance thru american modern. while they don't want you driving the vehicle daily, there are no usage restrictions. this means you can take it to work, just not every day. the only downside is the maximum annual mileage they allow is 6000/yr. for about half of what i was paying geico for liabilty only, i got $300k coverage, no deductables, $12000 agreed value. i did pay a little more than the online quotes i got from american hobbyist, haggerty, etc, but now i don't have to lie about going to a show or somesuch. my two cents, ed ps- i do have a car with "regular" insurance; not sure if that was a requirement tho. pps- i do not have classic or street rod plates... just the normal ones everyone gets. the classic ones clearly state exhibition use only and the street rod ones are only for pre-49 vehicles so neither applied.
I have to miss Englishtown this year! Wedding on saturday, first communion party Sunday. Actually, I can't say I'm too upset about it though... Seems like more and more unless I'm shopping for Chevelle or Camaro parts, I'm shit outta luck! That is, unless I want a body-less car with a VW frame, tractor tires and suspension, a v6 and a toilet for a seat... cuz they have plenty of those. I do like their cruise night though. -B
There's a lot to be said for just plain regular plates, insurance, and registration. NJ inspection is not hard for older heaps--it's gotta stop and all the lights have to come on; if it's hitting on all 8 and you can see the car through its exhaust smoke, you're fine on emissions. I think everything else has restrictions that could get you dumped if you have a wreck on a Tuesday morning when there are no car shows around. On a not very valuable car, insurance isn't worth squat unless you go through getting professional appraisal acceptable to your ins co and pay for the results. Insurance is mostly to allow you to survive if you are blamed and/or sued for an expensive disaster. Unless you have a nearly new car or carefully arranged $erious insurance, it's rarely worth much in fixing your own car. Caffeine, when you were told to go away...was that a pass or a reject?? Did you get a sticker?? I'd like to go in with one of those Ed Roth eleventeen speed shift pattern decals on the knob...or maybe a stock Model T... "Shift lever?? Pattern?? No, see, you pull back on this here, and step on that thing HALF WAY, keep the throttle and spark RIGHT THERE..."
this was when i first got the van, the line was kinda long, and the guy that was coming around giving "tickets" to everyone (in south brunswick) just said to go home it wasnt even worth it. I kinda figured that, eventhough he should have at least tested, the thing i was woried about was I dont have an ebrake on my van and it was hot that day so rather than argue with him i just left. true story, i failed inspection on my 2002 blazer with 40k miles on it.......for what? hrm.....a TORN WINSHIELD WIPER BLADE that WASNT even TORN!!!! my girl takes her car through, heavy tint on the windows, passes. in the same week, the same place. the guy at the DMV 2 weeks ago told me it doesnt matter if your using the car for shows or whatever, you can drive it whenever, but only a limeted number of miles, i think it was 3000 or something? who knows ive been told 6 different things about something at 4 different DMV's so i take everything with a grain of salt anyways. there is also a difference, thats not on the website or anything but there are 2 forms. 1 for antique collectors, and 1 for historic, i think the one for antique collectors is only for parades and car shows. the only reason i know this is because when i went to the FIRST dmv in trenton (on a saturday) they said here are the forms but oyu have to go to the other one around the block..and they are closed today..haha. so....when i went there on monday, they said, you sure you want to register it as antique collectible or do you want to register it was historic, and gave me another form to fill out.
Na, I'm 22 and have 2 cars with QQ plates. And I drove one to work today Before I had QQ I had to have them inspected. Mostly they check basics, visible smoke, brakes, lights, signals, wipers, ect... I had my one car renewed 3 times before I finally got the QQ and I never had a problem with inspection or loud mufflers, but it's nice to not be bothered with it. And cheaper too. (no annual renewal fee)
I know lots of QQ tags running as daily rides. The state only cares about the year. You will need liability ins. The Classic insurance com put all the other rules as age of driver, a daily ride for every one in the house, how many miles a year and more. www.state.nj.us/mvc/cit_plates/specalh.htm
Hmmm, I don't have any credit cards, and I've never bought anything that I didn't have the money for up front. I wonder what my credit rating is?
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