Laws Turning Against Old Cars

My old 1985 Ford Econoline E-150

There are those that say the United States is a car culture.  America Loves Their Cars, so the saying goes.  But I wonder if this is still true today.  With the existence of vehicles like the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris and whole hosts of other cars with tiny wheels, no suspension to speak of and no compelling driving experience, in many ways people are treating cars like appliances; just something to get a task done.

That's ok, really.  Not everyone is bitten by the car bug and truly loves to drive and there are still plenty of cars out there for those of us who relish our time behind the steering wheel.  But this condition seems to be leading to some uncomfortable legal situations, such as this report about thieves stealing cars just by calling tow trucks.  It seems these days a car over ten years old doesn't need to have a title, just a hand written bill of sale will do, and those are rather easy to forge.  So the car thieves call for a tow truck with a forged bill of sale, then have the car delivered to a junk yard that buys it for scrap.

The punishment for receiving stolen goods?  The junk yards and towing companies are being told to be more diligent before towing or purchasing a vehicle.  That's a deterrent, uh huh.  No punishment at all for receiving the stolen goods.  One hopes that the thieves (if caught) would be punished.  Maybe if they catch one, we'll find out.

Other disturbing laws are coming to the forefront as well.  In Wisconsin there is an effort being made by the state DOT to ban certain "non-standard" vehicles from being driven as daily drivers.  Ok, sure, if you want to use an old WWII Sherman tank as a daily driver, I can see why they might want to ban that; but what about an old Mazda Miata?  Does the law specifically ban such a vehicle?  No, not so specifically, but the wording is rather open for interpretation.

This animosity towards older vehicles is becoming more of a trend too.  In many places you can't have more than a specific number of cars on a single property, and there are expectations regarding condition.  Ok, sure, having more than one car on blocks is a bad thing, but it's not at all out of the question for a true enthusiast to have one on blocks, two or three collectible cars and a daily driver or two.  What defines too many cars?

One thing that seems clear is that the auto manufacturing lobby plays a part in this.  Fixing older cars and driving them every day doesn't line their pockets; they need people buying new cars on a regular basis to stay solvent.  We've already endured one "welfare for the auto manufacturers" in this country, do we need to have our old cars outlawed as well?

There are plenty of people out there for whom cars are merely something they use to drive from point A to point B and they will always be looking to have something reliable and, IMO, mind alteringly boring.  They will continue to buy cars regularly.  They don't need to create problems for those of us who prefer older cars.