I have a 25-year-old Suzuki Every van that I will be registering in Vermont, tomorrow. I just bought the vehicle, and I'm still learning about owning one of these vehicles here in the U.S. My concern is, that mini trucks are considered illegal in many states, including Maryland, which is where my vehicle currently is, at the Port of Baltimore. I imported it directly from Japan. I'm wondering if it would be wise to register the vehicle as an antique, so the van can be driven in most states? I'm flying down to Baltimore on Tuesday to drive the van home. I really don't want to be stopped by the police for driving an illegal vehicle. I will stay off the interstates, as all 50 states ban mini trucks from them. Any advice would be welcome.
All states are required to honor the registration and plates from the other states. There is a gal here in town who has her Acty registered in Montana.
The VT DMV gave me regular plates, and a standard registration. I'm good to go, without restrictions!
It's all up to you. Antique in Vermont afaik does 2 things for you. It makes it inspection exempt, and it's a cheaper fee but otherwise unrestricted, but either way you can drive it unrestricted as VT does not restrict the usage.. My Jimny had an antique VT plate registered in NY and the local LEO's knew I lived local but really did not care And FWIW, Federal DOT allows the trucks into the USA via the 25 year exemption and considers them a regular motor vehicle at that point. Federal DOT governs the Interstates and thus mini trucks that are registered as regular motor vehicles are actually legal on interstate highways, however I would only buzz down a couple exit's or something to get where your going
Thanks for the reply, Matt. I got plates for my van last Monday, and registered it as a regular motor vehicle. The fact that it's a minivan didn't even come up with the DMV. While I can legally take it on the interstates, I won't unless I can get more power out of the engine. On secondary roads, going as fast as 55-mph really ran the three cylinder F6A hard. I'm wondering if adding a turbo might help squeeze a few more horses out of it? The stock F6A is rated at only 42HP.
Yeah, turbocharged variations make 60-70hp.. My Jimny would run 70mph without any trouble at all, but it was geared different than a Carry/ Every, but with the turbo engine it was 63hp and above 2k RPM it was like a normal car. I had a Carry truck too, and it was like driving an old Detroit Diesel. you just kept your foot into it and kept shifting
