Spot the vintage on roads

RTA announces new rules for registration of classic cars

By Ali Zafar

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Published: Mon 4 Jun 2012, 9:37 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 2:31 PM

Promoting classic cars in Dubai was a reason behind creating new rules for registering the vintage vehicles, said an official from the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE).

“The culture of classic vehicles has been here in Dubai. It’s encouraging for people who have these cars and instead of keeping them in their garage they can bring them outside,” said Mohammed bin Sulayem, the president of the ATCUAE and a renowned rally car driver.

He was among the officials who announced on Sunday that the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) in collaboration with the ATCUAE will issue new rules for registering vehicles over 30 years old. Currently, classic vehicles are issued the same licence plates as new cars. With the new set of rules, a vintage vehicle will be issued a brown licence plate with ‘classic’ written on it in both English and Arabic. The vehicles will undergo two tests to determine whether they are fit to be registered as a classic, said Ahmed Bahrozyan, the CEO of the RTA Licensing Agency.

“The initial test will look at the visual aspect of the car, if the car passes the initial test it will be required to take a more detailed inspection that will take at least one hour. Once the car passes the final test, it will be certified to be registered as a classic car,” Bahrozyan said, adding that the secondary test will look at how safe and environment-friendly the vehicle is.

The testing will take place at a garage in Al Qusais Industrial Area 3, near Al Nahda Station.

The cost for the inspection and registration will be Dh850. Additionally, the vehicles will be placed in specific categories depending on how they do during the inspection, Bahrozyan said. Vehicles with a limited speed will be placed in a category that allows them to be driven only on internal or service roads. Certain vehicles will have a yearly mileage cap of either 10,000 or 5,000 kilometres depending on what year they were made, Bahrozyan added.

Separately, 63 classic-vehicle licence plates will be auctioned off on June 14 and the price they’re sold at will determine the future price of the classic-licence plates for different categories. The location for the auction hasn’t been determined yet and will be announced next week.

alizafar@khaleejtimes.com