In a celebration of history, Georgia's highway code § 40-2-41.1 allows antique motor vehicles manufactured for 1989 and earlier model years to display an authentic historical Georgia license plate that has been verified and approved by the Department of Driver Services through Form T-244.

Subsequently, Georgia defines an antique vehicle as a vehicle that is at least 25 years old. Today, that includes vehicles manufactured up to the 1999 model year. 

In the current language of the code, legal antique vehicles produced from 1990 onward are excluded from the benefit of displaying historical Georgia tags although they may be registered and formally recognized under state-issued Hobby Antique HA tags. 

As Georgia residents and car enthusiasts, we formally petition the State of Georgia to revise Code § 40-2-41.1 to allow all registered antique motor vehicles to be eligible to display authentic historical Georgia license plates, without model year limitation. 

Enthusiast and collector vehicles from 1990 onward are growing rapidly in popularity. Hagerty Insurance, America's largest collector car insurance provider and a full-time employer to Georgia residents, actively promotes hobby use of vehicles newer than 1989 through special events, media coverage, and insurance products.

By expanding the code to allow newer, legal antique vehicles to participate in the program, Georgia would benefit from thousands of dollars annually in additional registration revenue through expanded utilization of the Hobby Antique tag and its associated registration fees. Each calendar year, thousands of additional motor vehicles would become eligible to participate, encouraging further use of the Hobby Antique registration. It would also eliminate the need for future amendments to the code, such as the last revision made by the State in 2018.

Similar laws are in place across the United States, such as Texas and Tennessee. Tennessee Code Ann. § 55-4-111 allows the registration of authentic Tennessee license plates for any legal antique vehicle without limitation to model year. The same logic is applied in Texas through VTR-54.

We look forward to celebrating Georgia and automotive history through a more robust use of authentic historical Georgia license plates.