Well, I guess I just had to do it. The Hagerty insurance was up for renewal this week, and yet again it has risen. I decided that I had to do something to lower the cost of ownership here, so I had to go and change the registration on my car from standard Michigan license plates to historic plates, which do carry some restrictions but really not enough to cause me concern. In fact, the roads across Michigan now, after this horrific winter resemble those in Kosovo, Beirut, Kabul, and Aleppo after respective wars. No fooling. I don't think I'll be able to do a whole lot of driving.
The historic plate is a 10-year registration at a flat $30; this is as opposed to $44 per year for standard plates.
This also allows me to change the insurance; even though I have collector car insurance, I don't have
historical collector car insurance with a standard plate. With the historical plate, I do. This drops the annual MCCA assessment from $184 per year, to $32 per year. The MCCA assessment is a fee charged to every insured road vehicle in Michigan to pay for the limitless catastrophic no-fault claims, once the primary insurance (usually something like $500,000) is exhausted.
So, this change will provide a bit of relief…but I tell you they are coming at me from all sides these days. Don't even get me started on homeowner's insurance...