Well, it is a rare day on which we can report good news about the California DMV, but somehow, something positive has actually happened. LBCs with their original black/yellow CA license plates have always been considered desirable. Now, the state has passed legislation creating a legacy license plate program. Car owners will, for the price of a personalized plate, be able to order yellow/black, black/yellow, or blue/yellow license plates to match the eras of their cars. Although owners of true original plates might be bummed, on balance it’s a pretty cool deal.
Details here:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/legacyplates/index.htm
'California Legacy Plates' have 9 comments
January 3, 2013 @ 4:22 pm Scott McGrath
I don’t know if I like it or not. On the one hand, if I had a 50’s, 60’s or 70’s car and lived in Cal, I’d want a yellow, black or blue plate, but on the other, as someone who does not live in California, I look upon one of these cars (an original plated special) as having spent its life continually in California and therefore worth a bit more as it (most likely) has not been exposed to a lot of road salt or northern winters.
I have to wonder how much money will be made by importing cars into California and reselling them with a respray and new plate.
-Scott
January 3, 2013 @ 6:11 pm rgoldman
Yep, I pretty much agree with you. Having grown up in CA, I also consider the black plates part of my heritage, and a car with black plates garners more respect from me. It’s important to realize, however, your second point is moot. Folks have been playing license plate games with CA cars ever since anyone started to care about them.
The big change is we now get a simple legal avenue to have old style plates. Out here, cops are lenient if they’re cool with you. Piss em off and they will absolutely pay attention to the legality of your plates…among other things. That reminds me of a good missing front plate story. I’ll have to work that into a MM piece.
Robert
January 4, 2013 @ 3:24 pm Mike Hennessey
There won’t be confusion between these newly issues plates and originals. The new plates will be “reflectorized,” as are current newly issues plates. They will still look cool, especially from a short distance, but up close you will be able to discern that they are not from the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s. All the same, I sent in my order!
January 30, 2013 @ 2:09 pm STEFEN SCHWARTZ
UNFORTUNATELY, ANY ORDER PLACED TODAY WILL NOT BE HONORED UNTIL 2015, WHICH HAS A MINIMUM STATE-WIDE ORDER TARGET.
ORDERING 2 YEARS IN ADVANCE IS RISKY AT BEST.
March 6, 2013 @ 2:09 pm ricky riola
i have a !956 cheve belair that all orignal.in & out. but the motor& trans.are brand new. every where we go people take ,,PICTURE>>of the car. with the <>.that i order more people will take a double take of my chevy. i think the new<> on any classic cars.will give more attention then any of the new cars on the road today. waiting for my new <<lagecy plates.
March 7, 2013 @ 1:10 pm Pat King
I could swear i saw a later model vehicle with black/yellow plates. I assumed they were available, but checked and find that they won’t be issued until 7500 orders are placed, there are about 3,000 placed so far. Issue wont be until 2015.
July 26, 2013 @ 7:52 am mike kramer
The blue plate that came with my TR6 has a wonderful patina that cant be duplicated by the new plates.
July 26, 2013 @ 7:58 am George Wright
The legacy plates will go into operation as soon as 7,500 pre-orders are received and paid for. However, the applicants will not receive them until their existing plates are up for renewal (9 to 12 months after implementation per the DMV FAQ). So, if you purchased your car in November, and the DMV receives the required 7,500 pre-orders in December 2014, you won’t get your legacy plates until November 2015 (11 months later). Not a truly bad deal, but you will have to be patient.
July 22, 2014 @ 1:35 pm Dave Destler
I’m not a fan of the “new” old-style plates. Seeing a genuine “black-plate California car” or even a later “Blue plate special” has been a mark of high interest, respect and provenance. It spoke volumes about that particular car and its history. Now these “repop” black or blue plates will diminish the “specialness” of these rare survivors, and make every one on the road questionable. “Is it a genuine black plate…or one of those pretenders?” Without close inspection, it won’t be readily apparent.
I’m sure that those of us with genuine black plate California cars will not gladly welcome these faux interlopers, as the significance and immediate historical recognition of a black plate then becomes essentially mitigated, if not meaningless.