Abandoned Ontario BMW Dealership

[Blakewater]

Speculation has been flying around about why this BMW dealership in Ontario has been left abandoned since 1988 with 1980s delivery mileage BMWs in the showroom and possibly lots more locked up in an underground storage facility that no one can see inside. The grounds are kept maintained and a cleaner cleans the windows once a week so, apart from some missing signs, Citation Motors in Oakville is a 1980s time capsule. Some people from Internet blog sites have managed to get very controlled tours of the dealership and take photographs, which are on the site linked to below, but the owner refuses to say why he keeps the dealership preserved and what he plans on doing with it. All anyone knows is the dealer lost the BMW franchise in 1988 and has just kept the dealership preserved in the same state ever since.

http://ca.autoblog.com/2011/08/16/citation-motors-...

Has anyone else seen this or know anything more about it?

[EDLT]

It provided a good place to hide the bodies citation needed.

[PaulB81]

My guess is its a sentimental thing. Maybe it was initially bought and run by a family member who passed away and whoever owns and maintains it does so for that reason.

[Old Gregg]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[rallycross]

There is already one or two long threads about this on PH

[Blakewater]

Checked around but didn't see those. I saw something in Top Gear Magazine about it and Googled it and it's been written about on a few blogs in the last few days.

[Doofus]

Why is it that people on PistonHeads never read anything on PistonHeads?

[Blakewater]

I don't spend my whole life on here so I don't see everything that's posted and then disappears down the listings . I did a search as I thought someone must have posted about it, but must not have used the correct terms.

[AreseV6]

Doofus said:

Why is it that people on PistonHeads never read anything on PistonHeads?

Why do people get so pissy on the internet ?

Anyway thanks OP I for one thank you for bringing it to my attention interesting the mystery of it all .

[Rubin215]

Pearoast...

[ambuletz]

Aug 16th 2011 at 4:01PM

[diddly69]

Very interesting thanks for sharing! That E30 has done a fair few kilometres!

[LuS1fer]

This Plymouth one is in a similar vein but even older:
http://jalopnik.com/5632032/the-mystery-of-flickrs...

[bob1179]

diddly69 said:

Very interesting thanks for sharing! That E30 has done a fair few kilometres!

• cough* E28 *cough*

I would to have a poke around that garage, the 5 and 6 series in parked up like are lovely, shame about the US spec bumpers though, and that white grille, but they could be changed to euro spec easy enough.

[RV8]

There is/was one in Famagusta, 70's era when the city was ambushed, mostly datsuns etc in an underground parking lot. The whole city is a ghost town, evdn the airport with one grounded passenger jet, quite a shame really considering the buildings were all once people's homes and businesses.

[V88Dicky]

A genuine Roscoe P Coltrane Plymouth Fury.

Excellent!

[Blakewater]

The Plymouth one is a bit shabby, the cars are dusty with flat tyres. The Toyota one in Cyprus really is abandoned. The cars are wrecked where the roof of the building has fallen in on them. This BMW dealership is so well preserved I can't help thinking it just lends itself to being used in a film or TV series set in the 1980s. If you worked as a location spotter it would be a godsend for something like that if the owner would agree to it for a reasonable price. Obviously everything down to the decor and posters are authentic.

[Hitch78]

Thanks op - I hadn't seen this either.

[krisdelta]

A bit of intrigue - thanks for posting!

[pistonchris]

RV8 said:

There is/was one in Famagusta, 70's era when the city was ambushed, mostly datsuns etc in an underground parking lot. The whole city is a ghost town, evdn the airport with one grounded passenger jet, quite a shame really considering the buildings were all once people's homes and businesses.

I have just googeled this never heard of it.
What a shame looked a stunning town.
Wish you could walk round it.