So, what do you think of the AMG Navigator that has been added to the Automotive Museum Guide? 

I’ll keep trying to make it better, but even right now, I’m excited about how cool and helpful it is. You can ask it any relevant questions about finding automotive museums. 

If you want to know information about hours and admission without searching for a particular museum’s page to find the information. Just ask the AMG Navigator. 

I believe one of the most natural progressions to eventually create a car museum is for the owner of a car dealership to open a museum. Interestingly enough, it’s not very common.

Of course, if you use the word “museum” in place of “private collection”, all of a sudden almost every successful car dealership has a museum. However, that is not what I’m referring to when I use the word, museum.

If I was a betting man, I would bet if I asked everyone to name a car dealership owner who started a car museum, 95% or more of the people, if they could name anyone, would say Rick Henrick.

Rick Hendrick has had an uber-successful career, and you can visit the Hendrick Motorsports Museum in North Carolina. Rick has gone above and beyond his peers by having massive success in the racing industry as well, which is evident when you visit his museum.

I do recommend Hendrick Motorsports Museum, but that one was a bonus this week. I want to tell you about Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear Museum.

This is a fantastic, free museum with six decades of automotive history on display. The museum is located on the property of one of the dealerships the Swope’s family owns, and they sell nine new makes, across six different locations.

Another dealership with its own museum which is open to the public is Shively Motors Mopar Museum. Shively sells new Mopar and their museum has many vehicles on display that were originally sold at their dealership and recovered at some point to be shared with visitors. You’ll see over 80 years of automotive history on display at this museum.

The last museum I want to share with you a bit of a curveball. The Jaxs Sports Car Museum was not created by a dealership, but it is located inside the original USA Lamborghini headquarters in Deerwood Castle.

This museum has manual sports cars on display from 1960 to modern day. There is a catch though. Jaxs Sports Car Museum is only open to the public during special events.

Unfortunately, you cannot plan your own trip to visit Jaxs Sports Car Museum, but if you follow the museum or get on their mailing list, you’ll be notified of times when you can visit.

I leave museums like this off the map intentionally since they teeter the line of truly being accessible to the public. Ultimately, I add museums like this to the guide, because there are opportunities for you to visit, they may just be limited.

There are more museums than I listed here that originated from dealerships. There are over 600 automotive museums worldwide that you can learn about in the Automotive Museum Guide or on the AMG Instagram, Facebook or Facebook Group. 

Have a great week!

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.

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.