For those of us who eat tires for breakfast, transmissions for lunch and Haldex AWD systems for dinner, I bring you bad tidings.
This is especially true if you lust after old German cars that were stored in a safe-deposit box for 20 years. Late last summer, Endras BMW published a two-part story on Citation BMW, I can only assume a once- proud dealer of brand new BMW cars.
I and a few others at the office were salivating at the thought of seeing this place, experiencing the mystery and pointlessly trying to guess what lay hidden below the relatively small building. The pictures taken by UltimateBlogger show a glimpse of what the garage held but it’s the ramp going down on one side of the building that really got our speculator-y juices flowing.
Other car media such as Jalopnik, BMWBlog, AutoGuide, and more also published the story, further fuelling our desire to go.
Finally, this past January, on a road trip to Toronto to look at a few cars (more on that later), a friend, a work colleague and I made our way to the now-for-sale dealership in Oakville. What a letdown.
Unfortunately, the showroom was empty. The precious and priceless 635CSi and 535i that graced the white-tiled showroom floor have disappeared. Oh, how I longed to gape at the pristine BBS wheels and, for gee whiz, everything else about the cars!
By the side of the building, the two E28 5-Series and the E39 540i wagon were still there, however, the wagon at least, has moved around. Furthermore, a recent fence looked to have been erected around a Honda dealer's nearby stock. Things have changed, but not for the better.
As we cursed and swore at the fact that we had waited far too long to come to the Mecca of old-new BMWs, a green late-’90s Toyota 4RUNNER (the one that was in the shop pictures?) with dealer plates showed up and its driver promptly began to yell at us, rightfully telling us that this was private property. We now assume that it was the owner who, incidentally, still holds a valid dealer license. We gathered ourselves, jumped in the car and drove to the nearest Tim Horton's for a letdown coffee.
In a flash, after getting our hands on a medium double-double, we jumped back in the car and drove to Academy Stone, the adjoining business, thinking we might ask a question or two to those working. Unfortunately, it was half-past quitting time.
Poo, very poo.
I can only hope that whomever purchases this place is a carnut, as we are, and makes the contents of Citation available for show if only to a few select media (hint-hint, wink-wink). I promise that if this happens, I'll take thousands of pictures and post them all for you to see.
If we're lucky, there may be another sequel to this story.
This is especially true if you lust after old German cars that were stored in a safe-deposit box for 20 years. Late last summer, Endras BMW published a two-part story on Citation BMW, I can only assume a once- proud dealer of brand new BMW cars.
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| Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre/Auto123.com |
I and a few others at the office were salivating at the thought of seeing this place, experiencing the mystery and pointlessly trying to guess what lay hidden below the relatively small building. The pictures taken by UltimateBlogger show a glimpse of what the garage held but it’s the ramp going down on one side of the building that really got our speculator-y juices flowing.
Other car media such as Jalopnik, BMWBlog, AutoGuide, and more also published the story, further fuelling our desire to go.
Finally, this past January, on a road trip to Toronto to look at a few cars (more on that later), a friend, a work colleague and I made our way to the now-for-sale dealership in Oakville. What a letdown.
Unfortunately, the showroom was empty. The precious and priceless 635CSi and 535i that graced the white-tiled showroom floor have disappeared. Oh, how I longed to gape at the pristine BBS wheels and, for gee whiz, everything else about the cars!
By the side of the building, the two E28 5-Series and the E39 540i wagon were still there, however, the wagon at least, has moved around. Furthermore, a recent fence looked to have been erected around a Honda dealer's nearby stock. Things have changed, but not for the better.
As we cursed and swore at the fact that we had waited far too long to come to the Mecca of old-new BMWs, a green late-’90s Toyota 4RUNNER (the one that was in the shop pictures?) with dealer plates showed up and its driver promptly began to yell at us, rightfully telling us that this was private property. We now assume that it was the owner who, incidentally, still holds a valid dealer license. We gathered ourselves, jumped in the car and drove to the nearest Tim Horton's for a letdown coffee.
In a flash, after getting our hands on a medium double-double, we jumped back in the car and drove to Academy Stone, the adjoining business, thinking we might ask a question or two to those working. Unfortunately, it was half-past quitting time.
Poo, very poo.
I can only hope that whomever purchases this place is a carnut, as we are, and makes the contents of Citation available for show if only to a few select media (hint-hint, wink-wink). I promise that if this happens, I'll take thousands of pictures and post them all for you to see.
If we're lucky, there may be another sequel to this story.
 |
| Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre/Auto123.com |