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I've always wondered what the hub-ub was about the black California
plates. I'm originally from Texas and now live in Illinois and they TELL
you what plates you have on your car. You can either have the regular
issue plates that everyone gets or antique plates if your car qualifies.
Here in Illinois, I had my 1965 Crown issued regular plates as the state has
mileage restrictions and such if you decide on antique plates and I personally
couldn't/wouldn't guarantee that I'd follow those rules. Several years
ago, the state of Illinois changed the look of the plates and forced everyone to
get new ones, although, they allowed you to keep the same plate number, if you
so desired (which I did). I still have the old white and blue plates for
my 1983 Volvo stored in the back of the car, but, it's illegal to use them,
although the number is the same, even if I had a current tag on it. For
the Imperial, I had regular, not antique plates, put on it and they look just
fine.
Timothy Callaway
1965 Crown 4-door
Please forgive this topic if you are not in California... The deal with the original black license plates is this--They are still usable, valid and transferable so long as the car is kept currently registered and/or exists in the California DMV computer system. Once it falls out of the system, and their computer returns a "record not on file," they will issue a brand new license plate and will refuse to re-register the existing old black plate, which they are trying to get out of circulation. It doesn't matter whether you have the title and most recent registration in hand. I had this battle with them when I wanted to start using my 63 Buick again after long storage, back before they came up with the "Non-op" program which forces you to pay an annual fee to keep a car in storage registered. The previous series license plates, i.e. the 1956 plates, can be used on 1956-62 vintage cars if you have a set of them, and if that set doesn't use a letter and number combination still in use by a black 1963-present series plate. However, those are part of the "YOM" program ("Year of Manufacture") which is a type of vanity license plate and there is an extra charge for those and you have to find the plates yourself, such as at a flea market or eBay. The black 1963 series plates are ineligible for the YOM program at the present time because they are still a valid standard plate. If a car has been in storage a long time and the registration has lapsed for some years, then per the above, it will get a new license plate when the registration is brought current. Geoff Monterey CA |
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