Maryland Registration

[comegetjoe]

Early Cobalts are now over 20yrs old. Maybe consider cutting out the VIN on firewall and mounting somewhere inside the Goblin and registering it as a Cobalt under historic registration? This avoids any inspection, as there is now no safety or emissions inspection for historic. The car never gets looked at by anyone at MVA. I've gotten pulled over many times for speeding or not having a front tag in historic cars, and the police don't care at all about it being historic. I have used historic for commuter vehicles for a really long time, like two decades. In baltimore city people use it as a cheap way of owning an old car. Does the Goblin meet the requirements of historic: NO. But as long as it has lights and doesn't have anything else wrong with it, I think police will ignore.

Why? Just go through Montana and be done and legal. Why bite your nails everytime you pass a cop in the hopes that your he doesn't pull you over just to see what your car is and then find out it's registered as a cobalt. I dont know if youve noticed, but these things are absolute attention magnets. No thanks.

 

[Markm]

Early Cobalts are now over 20yrs old. Maybe consider cutting out the VIN on firewall and mounting somewhere inside the Goblin and registering it as a Cobalt under historic registration? This avoids any inspection, as there is now no safety or emissions inspection for historic. The car never gets looked at by anyone at MVA. I've gotten pulled over many times for speeding or not having a front tag in historic cars, and the police don't care at all about it being historic. I have used historic for commuter vehicles for a really long time, like two decades. In baltimore city people use it as a cheap way of owning an old car. Does the Goblin meet the requirements of historic: NO. But as long as it has lights and doesn't have anything else wrong with it, I think police will ignore.

I used to live in the people’s republic of Md and there’s no way I would chance being arrested for swapping a vin plate.

 

[chris_columbia]

I think "swapping" is a strong word. It's the VIN from the donor car, so I think it's a defendable position to use it. If Montana registration is currently working, that's great. I'm definitely not claiming this is a better option, just another idea to consider.

Since Covid, I've not encountered any police officer who had much of any interest in looking for extra work to do. Four months ago I got pulled over for a burned out license plate bulb at 2am. I thought it was some kind of profiling, but I did check and he was right, both bulbs were out. I accidently gave him the registration for the wrong car(it's a long and unrelated story as to why that registration was in the glovebox). He wrote up a warning with wrong tag, vehicle type(pickup vs sedan), make, model, etc. I don't think he cared at all.

 

[comegetjoe]

I think "swapping" is a strong word. It's the VIN from the donor car, so I think it's a defendable position to use it. If Montana registration is currently working, that's great. I'm definitely not claiming this is a better option, just another idea to consider.

Since Covid, I've not encountered any police officer who had much of any interest in looking for extra work to do. Four months ago I got pulled over for a burned out license plate bulb at 2am. I thought it was some kind of profiling, but I did check and he was right, both bulbs were out. I accidently gave him the registration for the wrong car(it's a long and unrelated story as to why that registration was in the glovebox). He wrote up a warning with wrong tag, vehicle type(pickup vs sedan), make, model, etc. I don't think he cared at all.

Good luck with your good luck.

Using the cobalts VIN plate and registration is just not worth the potential tow, impound, court, time and all fees associated, let alone missed work during the week to take care of it all if you run across Officer I and Sargent T who wants to be dotted and crossed.

 

[Gtstorey]

And I doubt insurance will pay even a liability claim on a Goblin that is registered as a Cobalt. And I would be surprised if any honest discussion of insurance would go well of trying to get insurance on a kit car that has a Cobalt VIN.

 

[chris_columbia]

Moot point now. Maryland has changed their historic car registration as of July 1, 2025. A Cobalt is no longer eligible. They have a hard date of 1999 and earlier for historic. If you currently have a 2000-2005 car registered as historic, you must now get it inspected and register it as a regular car. Pretty harsh, since this means you will be paying to register twice for the same car. I would have thought they'd at least grandfather existing 00-05 cars registered historic. Apparently this is to help fund the current state deficit as regular registration is considerably more expensive.

 

[noddaz]

What what is the latest trick to register a Goblin in Maryland?

 

[chris_columbia]

As others have said, probably Montana LLC. If you want to be completely sketchy, you could get a VIN from some 99 or earlier car and register as a street rod or historic, but now that it's not based on a Cobalt at all, it would be completely un-defendable if you get caught. There's also a few other states that are more favorable to historic and street rods if you want to register out of state, but in that case, hard to beat Montana.

As far as the mention of insurance above, I have had absolutely no insurance problems registering modified or historic cars but not following MD rules. For historic, I tell them I will drive X thousands of miles to work and where ever else. They don't seem to care that I am lying to the state of MD, as long as I tell them the truth.

 

[ah.b.normal]

As others have said, probably Montana LLC. If you want to be completely sketchy, you could get a VIN from some 99 or earlier car and register as a street rod or historic, but now that it's not based on a Cobalt at all, it would be completely un-defendable if you get caught.

I believe the Eco-Tec engines did not come in American cars until ~01 to 03, probably Saturns and Cavaliers. Though they may have been used in Opels in Europe before then? The Eco-Tec engine line originated with Opel cars in Germany, the F35 trans mentions Gothenburg, Sweden as it's birth place, born about 2001? This engine and trans combo came in a SAAB. It got around some, Opel was sold to Stellantis who used a turbo Eco-Tec in an Alfa Romeo. It was also used in something Polaris built(slingshot?) and in the Ariel Atom, a Lotus with cousins Opel/Vauxhall GT. All virtually useless information unless you need to baffle someone with your amazing B/S.