I caught a story on Jalopnik that I have been following, and just had to share with our readers. It seems through BMW online forums, word got out of an abandoned BMW dealer in Oakville, Ontario. Apparently, the building you see above is the former Citation Motors, who, for some unknown reason, lost their license in 1988, and locked the doors. The business was reopened in Toronto under the name Downtown BMW, which closed in 2002.
Now, for a business that shut its doors twenty three years ago, it would be safe to assume the grounds are completely overgrown, the building falling down, and little to see, right? Wrong. Amazingly, the property has been maintained all this time. Those who found the property claim it looks as if it could open for business tomorrow. But it gets better-there are two cars-an E24 5-series and a 635CSi that were essentially rolled off the car carrier, onto the showroom floor, and have not moved since 1988.
It’s safe to assume both cars have only double digit kilometers on the odometer. It’s incredible to see this pair of cars completely frozen in time. From people who have made the trek to the former Citation Motors, the shop is also full of BMW’s, and apparently a black 635CSi in similar condition to the car in the showroom. There is also an underground level, and I can only imagine what lurks under that still clean showroom floor. Jalopnik reports that the property is now for sale, carrying a price tag of $3.6 million, with the assumption all the buildings contents are included.
I confess, I am an admirer of abandoned buildings of all kinds, but it’s typically for the slow, progressive decay that captivates me. Yet, there is something undeniably curious, and fascinating about a BMW dealer that closed its doors over two decades ago, but has been completely maintained, containing cars built in 1988, yet are essentially factory new and unused. It staggers the imagination.
very cool
A few accurate facts that correct the above.. I worked at Citation BMW in the 80s and a good friend of mine was the Sales Manager at Downtown BMW which is now Toronto BMW. Citation was owned and the building is still owned by Helmut Kramer. He is a wee bit of an oddball and will hang on to those cars that he had when he shut down the dealership. As far as I know he never had his dealer license revoked he had a row with the reps from BMW and they pulled their sign down and took back most of the inventory except for the ones he had already paid for. As for the building sitting empty Helmut is a guy that doesn’t need the money and and if he never sells the remaining cars he has, He just doesn’t care. Now, Downtown BMW always was owned by Dick Hammer who also owned Downtown Acura and several other dealerships and his son Bentley who now owns Whitby Honda.,Dick also owned a bunch of Pizza Hut restaurants. As for Helmut Kramer and the building being empty for all these years, it’s like I said he is a strange guy and this is exactly the kind of thing he does and I am pretty sure there are a bunch of BMWs in the basement because it is very big and he always had cars stored down there. I hope this was informative.
Helmut Kramer never owned Downtown BMW, Dick Hammer always did and it is now BMW Toronto
You are correct on all counts. I too have worked for Dick – Bentley too in fact. The author is an American guy who got his info from another story. This is actually a four year old post!
Hello Mr. Gary Jenkins im a car buff and i remember watching videos about the citation place and i was curious what happened to the cars after the place was sold please email me back thank you.
Bought my first bimmer from Helmut, a very jovial guy, I remember him saying” You guys won the war but now you gotta drive our cars!”
I just did a bit of sleuthing as there was no address given in any posts about this place. The address is 2357 Royal Windsor Dr, Oakville ON. Having a look on google maps it seems that this property is now being used, or is owned by, Clarkson Fine Cars.
I am wondering what happened to those beautiful cars!
Hey I’m also interested in the cars that where in the dealership if u have any information please get back to me at meirc123@hotmail.com thank you very much.