Under the current rules, a vehicle in the state of Maryland must be made in 1999 or earlier to qualify as “historic” and get a historic license plate. The problem with that is that as time goes on, the 1999 threshold doesn’t change.
This year, a car would need to be 27 years old to qualify; next year 28, and so on.
Maryland Del. April Fleming Miller is a co-sponsor of a new bill aimed at fixing that.
“What happened last year during the legislative session, there was a drafting change that limited the historic registration eligibility to vehicle models that were 1999 or older. And what that change did is it unintentionally kind of froze the definition of what a historical vehicle could be in time, so that, under the current law, no matter how old a vehicle becomes, if it was manufactured after 1999, then it could never qualify as historic,” she told WTOP.
The new bill sitting on Gov. Wes Moore’s desk changes the requirements for a vehicle to be considered historic. Under the legislation, a car would need to be 25 years old, regardless of what year it was made.
Qualifying as historic is one thing, but qualifying for historic license plates is another. To additionally qualify for historic plates, Miller said, the car “actually can’t be your personal vehicle that you use every day. It is designed to be a vehicle that you’re using in a limited fashion.”
Miller said she understands the significance of historic vehicles and the importance they play in the lives of those who preserve and drive them.
“I have two vehicles in my family that were passed down from both my husband’s father and from my father, and they’re very sentimental to us,” she said. “But we have them registered as historic because we don’t drive them very often. And these historic vehicles, they’re not just about transportation. They’re actually preserved pieces of history.”
WTOP has reached out to Moore’s office for comment.
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