The mystery of a ghost BMW dealership

[Driftit 2078]

Found this on Jalopnik.com this morn. Quite cool.

Full story and pics here

http://jalopnik.com/5829911/the-mystery-of...-bmw-dealership

The mystery of a ghost BMW dealership

In the small town of Oakville, Ontario there sits a BMW dealership, abandoned for almost a decade. Inside the doors sit, frozen in time, two 20-year-old BMWs in seemingly mint condition. What happened?

There's something about abandoned car dealerships that fascinate us as car enthusiasts. With over 1,500 car dealerships closing their doors since the Carpocalypse, abandoned dealerships have become a modern version of the decades-old barn find fantasy.

All car guys fervently hope to one day find our car of our dreams secretly sitting somewhere — hidden away from prying eyes, safe from weather and time, just waiting for us to save it and make it our own. And it is dealerships like this one that help make us believe this secret car fantasy can someday become a reality.

The folks at Endras BMW have sifted through the five years of posts on the MaxBimmer BMW forum. There, the dedicated membership has carefully attempted to track down exactly what happened to this abandoned Canadian car dealership.

The mystery of a ghost BMW dealershipWhat they — and Endras BMW — have been able to put together is that in 1988 the dealer, operating under the name "Citation Motors," had its license revoked for unknown reasons. They then moved to Toronto under the name "Downtown BMW" which in 2002 closed up shop.

The owner, apparently a well-off business man, seemed to have no interest in selling the place, or even the inventory, as everything seems to have been left behind intact. One hundred percent frozen in time is the only description that seems fitting when describing this ultimately interesting place.

The mystery of a ghost BMW dealershipIn the showroom you'll find an E24 and 635csi BMW in absolute mint condition. Well, mint may be the wrong word to use as the rubbers have probably given away and the gasoline has made a mess of things inside the mechanical bits. ‘Unused' may be a better word to describe these twenty-three year old cars. Especially the 635csi, which apparently only has double digit kilometers on the odometer. Also note the typical 1980's showroom interior furnishings, architecture, and design.

But that's not the only interesting find in the building.

The mystery of a ghost BMW dealershipAround the back you'll find the shop, which, same as the showroom, has remained completely untouched. Frozen in time and packed with BMWs. From one BMW forumite's account who's had the privilege of visiting the dealership we can conclude with a certain degree of confidence that another mint black 635csi rests inside.

MaxBimmer forum member "WhadUpp" managed to beat the window reflections to get some amazing pictures of the dealership from the outside. We've included a few of them in this post, but I strongly recommend visiting the thread here to see the rest.

[Greg111 13]

Plain awsome!

[Jacko 2156]

Bi-Winning.

[hotwire 352]

E24 & an old E12. Looks quite sureal in there

[KwS 2425]

That jalopnik article is a bit average.

The real story and pictures are on the forum link, its a pretty interesting read.

http://maxbimmer.com/forums/showthread.php...light=abandoned

[Docile 64]

^ im getting database error clicking that link??

[KwS 2425]

works fine for me...?

[chippies 0]

im very close to here, maybe i should go check it out

[Greg111 13]

im very close to here, maybe i should go check it out

Do it, take some photos and post back here.

[DrphTa 5]

Wow that is so awesome