What are the Best Automotive Museums in the US?
When you create an automotive museum in the way I did, it is tough to fathom ever being able to be ranked among the best automotive museums in the world. Understandably, when all I had was one inherited car and access to an old Ford dealership, it hardly qualifies as a museum.
Despite having to deal with nothing but obstacles, somehow Miles Through Time Automotive Museum grew from one car in 2017 to 135 today. The museum grew from an 8,000-square-foot space to 30,000, which is supported by the 17,000-square-foot Vintage Garage Antiques Shop.
Miles Through Time Automotive Museum has grown substantially, and it has all been thanks to regular people wanting to get involved in one way or another. Now, we are at the point where we need significant financial assistance to be able to move the museum into a forever home.
As I work on ways to try to find assistance, I can’t help but notice all the “Top” and “Best” lists for car museums. These lists are usually 5 to 15 different car museums throughout the country.
Every museum on these lists is amazing and has every reason to be listed as one of the best. The problem I have with these “lists” is that they are the same 15 to 20 museums everytime.
Rarely, have I ever seen the ability to vote for your favorite automotive museum, but I can almost guarantee, voting wouldn’t change much, because the museums on those lists are also the most well known.
If I was to ask you to name as many automotive museums as possible off the top of your head, I’m willing to bet most people would name the same 15 to 20 museums.
Again, I want to emphasize that these museums are amazing, and they are hard to compete with financially. There are a lot of variables that can skyrocket popularity, location (city), building (big and impressive), collection (number and quality), financial assistance (marketing ability) just to name a few.
The problem is, these lists only represent about 6% of the automotive museums you can visit in North America. If you change the list to global, the percentage goes down even more.
This means there are a lot of automotive museums that are amazing in their own right, that will never make a “Top” or “Best” list and never have an opportunity to be discovered.
Of course, I’ve loved all the big museums I have visited that are constantly listed, but some of my favorite museums are smaller and more personal. They may not have massive curated exhibits on display, but they’ve got something that hooked me and piqued my interest enough to want to learn more.
This week I want to share three examples of completely different museums.
Old Cranks Motorcar Museum is a collection of over 70 antique vehicles. The museum doesn’t have a website and there really isn’t much information about it, but if you happen to stay at the RV Park it is located in, you’d be in for a big surprise.
There are Harley Davidson shops all over the country. If you’re a Harley fan, chances are you’ve been to many of them. Buddy Stubbs Harley Davidson is also home to the Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum, which is free to visit.
The Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum is the most traditional “car museum” this week. The museum was founded by Rick Lorenzen in December 2019 and preserves automotive history in their 100,000 square foot facility.
I want you to do me a favor.
Tell me what your favorite automotive museum is. The parameters for what makes the museum your favorite is entirely up to you.
Then, tell me what museum you want to visit most. This will be a museum you’ve never been to, but for whatever reason, it has captured your interest, and you’d love to visit.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’ll ever be able to actually visit the museum, but if you could, you would. You can use the MAP if you need to, or search by STATE.
Next week, I will tell you what the top museums are based on people actually visiting the museums. And the more interesting list, in my opinion, will be the top museums people would like to visit. Possibly because they discovered it through the Automotive Museum Guide.
Here’s a bonus: Peoria Riverfront Museum is not an automotive museum. However, between 2/1 and 4/27 you can see their latest exhibit, BUILT: American Custom Car Culture.
Have a great week!
SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.
WHICH AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM WILL YOU VISIT NEXT?
Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum
Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum
P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.
Explore Automotive Museums in
VIRGINIA

Old Cranks Motorcar Museum
Old Cranks Motorcar Museum is an eclectic collection of over 70 antique vehicles from 1906 Orient Buckboard to the 1980s.
Explore Automotive Museums in
ARIZONA

Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum
The collection spans the history of Harley-Davidson® and also features rare models from AJS, BMW, BSA, Triumph®, Zundapp, Indian Motorcycle®, and more.
Explore Automotive Museums in
CALIFORNIA

Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum
The Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum was founded in December 2019 by Southern California businessman and car enthusiast Rick Lorenzen.
Check out Past Newsletters
And the Top Automotive Museums are…
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