So, the plate observation is a good one and my response got way long, but you may find it interesting. And it drives home how lucky some of us are with registrations and taxes when it comes to old cars.
The state of Minnesota requires normally registered cars to have plates on the front and back. So, my daily driver, my wife's daily driver... They have two plates.
You can register your car as a "Collector Car" if it is 20 years old or older and you get a 'collector' plate. They only require one collector plate to be on the car, on the back, but you can put two on it if you want. So when you're getting collector plates the lady behind the counter says, "do you want one or two plates?" I opted for one, just to keep things cleaner up front.
Also, in order to get the collector plate, again, this just goes for Minnesota, every one of our 50 states and DC do things their own way, you have must own another car, with a regular registration in the state of Minnesota. So at the DMV as you're applying for collector plates they look up your name and on mine the lady said... "And this Mercedes E class is your regular car?" She could see that one registered to me.
Collector plates are considered "restricted use" plates. They cannot be on your only means of transport / on your daily driver. They're meant for specialty vehicles that are for recreational driving, to take to car events and shows, tours, etc.
It's that way because we don't ever have to renew them, we pay no annual fee. They cost about $150, one time when you register the car and they're good forever, no tabs, no renewals, nothing. And THE BEST part? We pay no sales tax or any kind of tax when buying or registering such a vehicle if you put collector plates on it! Yeah, you read that right.
I bought my 250SL from a guy in Seattle, gave him his asking price, shipped it back here, went to the DMV with the title, requested collector plates, I paid them about $150.00 and off I went. If I had requested standard plates, for the car to be a daily driver, I would have had to pay at least 6.5% of the sale price and renewal fees each year.
Price of the car doesn't even matter... Buy that $220,000 280SL from Gooding and Co. At Amelia Island, bring it back to Minnesota and register it with Collector plates and you pay about $150, exactly what I paid for my 250SL (which was considerably cheaper!).
My parents live in Kansas. While they don't require front plates for ANY car, they're a huge state with lots of roads and a small population and he pays, what he considers, insane fees to renew registrations on his cars. Fewer cars and people and lots of miles of roads = much bigger fees in their case.
And if you've ever wondered why it seems like half the big, fancy, expensive cars you see at Concours events all over the country seem to have Montana license plates... Just look up their laws / costs for car registration and taxes! It's a complete tax haven for owners of collector cars, very few fees and rules for residency.
