Historic Vehicle Plates: Pros/Cons in Ontario, Canada

[Jack Innes]

David,

A motor vehicle in Ontario needs to have the lights & equipment that it was built with to pass the safety inspection needed to obtain plates.

If something safety related is added it needs to be in working condition.

[david moore]

Yes, but you need to pass the safety anyway even to get historic plates - I was talking about getting regular plates.

[Jack Innes]

David,

I was talking about any plates as well.

Here is a quote from the MOT site regarding seat belts;

"No seatbelts needed

Seatbelts are not required in the following vehicles:
•buses (including school buses)
•other large commercial vehicles (over 4,536 kg) that don't require seatbelts to be installed in rear seating positions at the time of manufacture
•vehicles that were manufactured in or imported into Canada before January 1, 1974
•vehicles manufactured without seatbelt assemblies for each seating position"

Turn signals, air bags, 5 mph bumpers, etc. are treated similarly with regard to plating a vehicle in general.

The Ontario Safety Standards Certificate - (form 5) makes no mention of what class of plate that can be issued for the vehicle.

[Robin Craig]

David,

the words "not fitted at time of manufacture" is all that needs to be satisfied.

I agree with Jack's post and infact have gone through the circus when a testing mechanic does not know the rules.

There are times when I have been wrong, once was when I had to fit a windshield and wipers and wash bottle to pass a safety. Remember there is no requirement to operate with that windshield only to have it at the time of the safety.

It is a bit of a jungle out there.

A number of the Land Rovers I register have no reversing light fitted at time of manufacture.

[Barry Churcher]

Just as a warning, anyone needing a safety in Ontario should get it done at the earliest opportunity. There are new, much more stringent regulations coming in to effect in July.
Barry

[Grant Bowker]

Thank you for the warning Barry.
Without going into nauseating detail, can you give an idea of the types of changes we can anticipate? And, do you know of a web link we can go to in order to educate ourselves?

[Barry Churcher]

Grant, Janet says I go into nauseating detail every time I tell a story. If you go to the link below and scroll half way down the page you will see "Summary of Changes Effective July 1, 2016". That will give you a quickie on some of the changes. Dirty battery cables is one where we will get grief from customers. We have people who argue about a tire that is so thin we can see the air in it. A mandatory road test will be difficult in an uninsured, unplated vehicle. Previous we could do it in our driveway. We must record and provide the customer with tread depth measurements and brake component measurements, including the emergency brake. Extra costs with drum emergency brakes. There will be problems with the vehicles with the emergency shoes that are inside the rotor. By the time I get the rusty old rotor hammered off the emergency brake falls out on the floor. I encourage my customers to bring in any potential purchase BEFORE buying,
for a free look over. It is amazing the number of vehicles we condemn without even getting up on a hoist. I think our biggest issue will be rusty brake lines. A judgement call at best but a mechanic was recently criminally charged after a vehicle was in an accident 30 days after the inspection. We are not allowed to hammer the brake pedal down. See Grant I am doing it again.
Cheers,
Barry

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/tru...ons.shtml#form


View the draft proposed changes here. This will likely be the new standaeds.
http://www.ontariocanada.com/registr...chmentId=27411