I’ve been updating the Automotive Museum Guide now for 266 weeks in a row by doing this. Believe me, I did not create the Automotive Museum Guide with the intention of updating at least three museums every single week.

Not including museums outside the USA, it takes about 3 years to get through all the museums. The three museums I’m sharing this week were last updated in 2023, which seems like forever ago.

It’s always best if the museums send me their updates so they are as accurate as possible, but more often than not, the museum’s listings are not updated until I feature them again, or a visitor gives me the heads-up. 

Use the Automotive Museum Guide as a resource to easily find automotive museums to visit, but then it is always highly recommended to reach out to the museums you want to visit directly. Verify their admission, hours, make sure they haven’t shut down for good, although I usually catch those pretty quickly.

There are usually 1 of 4 potential updates I need to make for most museums. The most common is admission change. Over the years, I’ve increased the admission to most museums.

I know this doesn’t sound ideal, but since I am also the founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum, I know firsthand how important it is to generate as much revenue as possible, while still keeping admission as low as possible for visitors.

Too high admission and visitation can drop and expectations can be a challenge. Too low admission and the museum may not have enough money to operate effectively.

The second most common update is hours. A nimble museum is going to be able to evaluate what hours make sense for them and adjust. It costs a lot of money to keep the doors open for the public. It may be unfortunate you can’t visit a museum on Monday, but if closing on Monday, keeps the museum open on Saturday, that’s a good thing. 

The third type of update is surprisingly low. This is where museums send me updates about their museums. It could be that instead of 150 cars on display, they now have 200. Or they’ve added a 4th building. Usually, they are very positive updates that I am always happy to make.

The fourth type of update is the absolute worst, and that is marking the museum as permanently closed. You can see all the museums I’ve had to mark closed HERE. There are over 50, which makes me sad, especially since only the Sarasota Classic Car Museum lives on at Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. They donated 4 cars when they closed instead of auctioning everything away.

VanHorn’s Western & Antique Auto Museum isn’t closing. In fact, the update I had to make for this museum was to change the verbiage from a 4th building opening soon, to a museum that features 4 large buildings.

Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center does the best they can with the resources they have. They have cars and aircraft on display in a building without HVAC. For this reason, they adjust their hours so they are only open when it is not miserable for visitors, staff and volunteers. 

The last museum I’m going to share is one I wish I had more time to visit when I drove a donated car from California to Georgia a few years ago. The Blackhawk Museum has beautiful cars on display, but it is so much more than a car museum.

All three of the museums this week are more than just car museums, they’re museums with cars. 

If you want to see more, visit the Weekly 3.

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.