MTFCA Forum

I would like to hear from anyone in California that has a1925 Pickup registered in California. I just got my DMV registration and it's $174! That's
crazy for a 100 year old vehicle. Let me hear from you.

Larry,
Someone has to pay for the DMV's Christmas party!
I'm sure you'll get a thank card.

I just paid $159 for my 27 Tudor with YOM Plates. Are they charging you a weight fee?

Yous guys don’t have a lifetime tag. We pay one time and never again. Dan

Larry , I believe that the minimum fee in California for vehicle registration is around $150.00 , last year when I renewed my 1925 speedster , that I have sense sold after 25 years, the value tax was $1.00 but the registration renewal was $151.00. I just had to pay $275.00 to renew my 1951 Mercury 4 door , and my 1926 T coupe was renewed last May for $154.00. Remember that in California unless you are using it in a business, any pre 1936 truck only needs passenger car plates, so you should not have commercial plates and pay a weight fee on a 1925 T roadster pickup or even on a 1925 TT truck for that matter.

Original Smith wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 12:06 pm

I would like to hear from anyone in California that has a1925 Pickup registered in California. I just got my DMV registration and it's $174! That's
crazy for a 100 year old vehicle. Let me hear from you.

I took a look at CA.DMV
There is a fee for a Title as well as a fee for license plates
New Title is based on purchase price

The fee for license plates depends on what you specified
Horseless Carriage License Plates are issued to two types of motor vehicles:
With an engine size of 16 or more cylinders manufactured prior to 1965.
Manufactured in 1922 or before.
Historical Vehicle License Plates are issued to motor vehicles or trailers that are:
Manufactured after 1922.
At least 25 years old.
Of historic interest.
This is about various fees you may have been charged https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-r ... tion-fees/
This is just about license plates https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/ ... se-plates/

Dan , Many years ago California did that with the red hourse less carriage plates for pre 1923 cars, a one time fee. But the ever money grabbing California politicians took that away making you renew every year. To top that off if you have a personalized plate or a YOM or late or ever a retro black plate on your car, and you need to go to the non-opp status because you won’t driving it , you have to pay a renew fee every year instead of a one time non-opp fee.
Yes this is now Cap-A-Fornia as I call it ,after living here most of my life , the political people have done a big $$ number on the California that I once enjoyed living in.

Sacrademento racketeers....

kmatt2 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 1:33 pm

Dan , Many years ago California did that with the red hourse less carriage plates for pre 1923 cars, a one time fee. But the ever money grabbing California politicians took that away making you renew every year. To top that off if you have a personalized plate or a YOM or late or ever a retro black plate on your car, and you need to go to the non-opp status because you won’t driving it , you have to pay a renew fee every year instead of a one time non-opp fee.
Yes this is now Cap-A-Fornia as I call it ,after living here most of my life , the political people have done a big $$ number on the California that I once enjoyed living in.

From https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-r ... tion-fees/

Vehicle License Fee (VLF) – 0.65% of purchase price/value of vehicle
For most vehicles, you will need to pay a vehicle license fee instead of the fee being included in your property tax. You can deduct this fee from your income tax. Vehicle license fees are based on the purchase price or value of your vehicle and the fees go to fund cities/counties.
The following groups do not have to pay a vehicle license fee:
Disabled veterans with a 100% service-related disability rating.
Non-resident military personnel stationed in California (and their non-resident spouses).
California Native American tribes and tribal members.
Federally-recognized Native American tribes.
Specialized transportation vehicles.
Historical vehicles/horseless carriage.

Note The VLF for historical vehicles or horseless carriages is $2.

Thank God for Florida, Horseless Carraige tag is lifetime free.

But considering what my brothers say they pay for their regular cars in CA, 174 is cheap.

Larry, In Arizona, any Model T costs $25 to obtain a license for a year. That includes the lieu tax and all other fees! My 1966 Shelby GT 350 also costs $25 for the license! I guess there are some benefits to living in Arizona after all!! Russ Furstnow

I would be interested is hearing from anyone that lives in the State of Maryland. I saw a news story last week that said that Maryland taxes residents every year on the value of any automobile that has registered in Maryland, and that value of said vehicles are determined by the State of Maryland not the market value. This one person a copy of the tax on her automobile and it was $2500.00 for the year. That is definitely worse than California’s method of taxation because you only pay a California tax if your are driving the automobile n public roads. In the Maryland method just having the automobile gets you taxed every year.

-
All "pickup trucks" in California, no matter their size, are registered as Commercial Vehicles. Commercial Vehicle registration fees are higher than passenger vehicles. My friend Jim suggests, to save fees, that you put a temporary camper box on the bed and register it as an RV Camper.
-

As a Maryland resident for my entire life and having registered vehicles of many different years at many different times I am curious as to where that information came from.
In Maryland when you pay to transfer the title into your name you have to pay the Md sales tax in the value of the car as determined by the state and or from a bill of sale. They use NADA values for newer cars if they are higher than your bill of sale if they decide that is more "accurate".
Plus there are other transfer etc. fees on top of the sales taxes.

If you do a title only (while you are working on it) the fees stop there.
If you buy a car out of state and then within a short period of time (I don't remember what that is) and transfer it to a Maryland address you owe taxes or additional taxes based on a formula I don't remember.

When you apply for tags the fees begin again.
If the vehicle is older than 60 years you can get a lifetime registration. You get a black sticker, pay once, as long as you keep your insurance active that is all you owe to Maryland.
If the vehicle is between 1999 and 60 years old a regular yearly registration fee applies.
These cars get historic tags and it is a yearly registration / plate fee
If the vehicle is 2000 and newer it requires a "regular" tag and has a yearly registration / plate fee.

Our governor in 2024 has decided that he wants more money and car fees need to be increased massively.
To him, having a car means you are rich and he has to dispose of your money since you are not spending it correctly.
See
https://mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/Pages ... yland.aspx
and
https://wjla.com/news/local/new-marylan ... gistration

There might be something new that I don't know about, yet.
Virginia has yearly auto taxes with registration but I don't know about it

NorthSouth wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:11 pm

-
All "pickup trucks" in California, no matter their size, are registered as Commercial Vehicles. Commercial Vehicle registration fees are higher than passenger vehicles. My friend Jim suggests, to save fees, that you put a temporary camper box on the bed and register it as an RV Camper.
-

In California 1936 and older commercial vehicles are exempt from commercial fees.
Most DMV employees don't know this so you really have to push them to look it up!

pete eastwood wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:56 pm

NorthSouth wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:11 pm

-
All "pickup trucks" in California, no matter their size, are registered as Commercial Vehicles. Commercial Vehicle registration fees are higher than passenger vehicles. My friend Jim suggests, to save fees, that you put a temporary camper box on the bed and register it as an RV Camper.
-

In California 1936 and older commercial vehicles are exempt from commercial fees.
Most DMV employees don't know this so you really have to push them to look it up!

Thank you Pete,
In October of this year I registered my 1926 Ford Pickup at the AAA office here in Pasadena, CA. The clerk there was the source of the "all pickups are commercial vehicles" information. I will now go back and hopefully correct this mistake and overcharge.

I’m with Dan Hatch on this one.

When I bought the early ‘14 SWT Runabout from Dan last year, my YOM Alabama tag cost me the one time registration fee of $16 plus a $10 fee.

The interesting thing is that the registration shows an expiration date of December 31, 9999, giving me about the next 7,974 years of happy motoring.

Ron
Huntsville, new home of US Space Force Headquarters at Redstone Arsenal

kmatt2 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 1:33 pm

Dan , Many years ago California did that with the red horse less carriage plates for pre 1923 cars, a one time fee. But the ever money grabbing California politicians took that away making you renew every year. To top that off if you have a personalized plate or a YOM or late or ever a retro black plate on your car, and you need to go to the non-opp status because you won’t driving it , you have to pay a renew fee every year instead of a one time non-opp fee.
Yes this is now Cap-A-Fornia as I call it ,after living here most of my life , the political people have done a big $$ number on the California that I once enjoyed living in.

Back when the California Horseless Carriage plates were only $25.00, There was no "Pink Slip" issued. Only a registration Card. It was a one time fee. About 1970 many cities and counties saw a loop hole to charge a personal property tax on our horseless carriage licensed vehicles, based on appraisals, since the state was not. Taxes were high. Many of us changed our horseless carriage plates back to regular plates to avoid this high tax and get a "pink slip". In the early 1970's a group of early car owners put together a bill to change the Horseless Carriage plate to an annual registration and of course fees.

Thank you John for clarifying why the State of California started charging a annual registration fee on hourseless carriage plates

My first $13.00 plate from 1975.

Needless to say, DMV rejected me reusing it later.

In Alabama we have never had a “Pink Slip” for any ModelT. For that matter no kind of Slip for anything till 1975.