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I traded in my Tacoma on this van. The dealership told me I could use the license plates from my truck on this van. So I've been using my trucks previous vanity plates on this van. I go to get the plates registered over to my van today. The Ohio DMV says I have to register this van as a bus, since it can haul over 9 passengers. So I can't use my old vanity plates on this van. I have to get new plates. The registration costs more ($131 a year) and I now have to get it renewed every May, instead of my birthday (December).
Is this correct? Is a 12 passenger van classified as a bus?
i don't believe it is here, but you should check your laws there in ohio. around here, the state patrol website has links to all manner of vehicle requirements (lighting, safety equipment, classifications, etc), and i would expect you to have a similar resource available with your local laws.
if you didn't plan to use it for passengers, you could remove the rear row(s) of seats and go register it as a cargo van
Yeah I thought about that. I actually already removed a row of seats, but I might want to reinstall the seat later. I searched the Ohio DMV website. Nothing.
I'm also in Ohio and in the 3rd year ownership of an '00 E250 raised roof formerly wheelchair lift equipped cargo van, no windows apart from the rear area hinged doors. Seems to me first two license plates weren't anything different from normal passenger vehicles but this year I'm classifed as a non-commercial truck, adding about $15 in fees etc.
Most likely even us private owners will be hit with higher highway use taxes and fees like bigger commercial trucks---anything to make up for declining revenues everywhere else. I wouldn't mind the higher fees IF they fixed the fricking roads along with them!
I have an extended club wagon but with only 1 row of seats behind the driver. I use it to tow my car trailer and cargo inside. It was reg. by the PO as a passenger van so it got car plates! I pay the same as someone with a Honda Civic! Sweet! In Ill. that's $99.
My 2011 door jamb plate still has that same designation - "Bus - not school."
In TN both of my 12 passenger vans have been registered as regular vehicles. However, when I lived in FL I had to register it as a bus because it was high occupancy. I was told if I registered it as a regular passenger vehicle I wouldn't be permitted to legally carry more than 7 people in it (and that had insurance implications as well).
I have a 95 E250 Bus, that was a 15 pass vehicle, that thing costs me $300 a year for registering here in Florida. I'm converting it in to a class B RV and have to play the Fla DMV game of recertifing it. As I was told by FLA DMV, any vehicle over 9 person capacity, must be classified as a bus.
Here in Ontario the ambulance that i bought in Michigan to use as a tool truck is listed as a MPV, so guess what, a cop stops me and wants to know why I have passenger plates on my van, "talk to the DMV about" I told him.
He let me go with a shrug.