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12 Eerie Abandoned Car Dealership Photos

Updated on Jul. 22, 2025

These haunting abandoned car dealership photos will give you chills

Frozen in time

Abandoned buildings are fascinating because they offer a glimpse of history—one that might be forgotten if the buildings were simply torn down. And while car dealerships might not hold the same allure or mystery as, say, an abandoned castle, the grandeur is there. Abandoned car dealership photos evoke happier times, when people could spend money and drive away in the cars of their dreams.

But economic downturns affect car dealers hard. Without enough customers with cold hard cash (or good credit) to buy these major purchases, car companies have to cut their losses and close up shop. Abandoned car dealership photos open a window to another era, before economic hard times fell. Reader’s Digest put together this list of abandoned car dealership photos, and they are as captivating as they are just plain creepy. Come along and take a peek at these relics of another time.

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Car Dealers Push House Bill To Save Dealerships Cut By GM, Chrysler
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Broken glass

Once a place of possibility and purchase in Nashville, Tennessee, it now evokes a dark history as just another eerie, abandoned site. Who knows what treasures you could find in this building now?

TO GO WITH AFP STORY Picture of a car de
AFP/Getty Images

Boarded up windows and a bullet hole?

This dealership in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, looks like a ghost town. They still have their “new business” streamers up, but had to close after being confronted for not paying their cuota, which is a monthly tax charged by criminal gangs to local businesses.

Weeds have taken over the landscape at the closed Kennedy Cadillac dealership off Camino Real in Sa
Gina Ferazzi/Getty Images

No one’s home

Weeds have overtaken the closed Kennedy Cadillac dealership off Camino Real in San Bernardino, California, making the abandoned building look even eerier.

GM And Chrysler Get First Loan Payment From U.S. Treasury
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Grand opening!

With the “grand opening” sign still hanging proudly in the window, this dealership in Colma, California, was shut down after the 2008 economic downturn. General Motors and Chrysler were forced to close thousands of locations like this one.

Vacant Car Dealer
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No sale

These boarded up windows and the minimalist sign could be the setting for your favorite indie band’s next album cover. Imagine the cars that never got sold here, leading to the painful abandonment of the dealership.

Car Dealers Push House Bill To Save Dealerships Cut By GM, Chrysler
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

No service, either

The dark clouds behind this Nashville service station add a sinister feel to another sad entry in the list of abandoned car dealership photos. If the exterior looks this haunting, who knows what’s inside?

USA - Economy - Urban Decay in Detroit
Timothy Fadek/Getty Images

Dark and gloomy

The decline of the automobile industry is reflected in this Detroit building formerly filled with shiny new cars and eager buyers. Abandoned car dealership photos stand as stark reminders of the failures of this proud industry.

Out Of Business
Anne Hawken/Getty Images

Boarded up and gone

E.A. Miller & Son, a former new and quality used car dealer, looks closed for business in this abandoned car dealership photo from Crewkerne, Somerset, United Kingdom.

Abandoned Auto Lot
chuckbillingsley/Getty Images

Buy, sell, trade

This oddly-shaped building that likely once held a used car dealer looks like thousands of others you could see on a great American road trip.

Daimler Chrysler / Mercedes Benz, Weybridge, United Kingdom, Architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson
View Pictures/Getty Images

Turn off the lights

Some abandoned car dealership photos are less depressing than others. This Daimler Chrysler and Mercedes Benz dealership in the United Kingdom looks like it could be refilled with cars tomorrow.

Car Dealers Push House Bill To Save Dealerships Cut By GM, Chrysler
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A deserted showroom

Another Nashville entry in the abandoned car dealership photos list makes you really feel for the town. Like abandoned hotels, uninhabited dealerships capture the desolation resulting from the mass closing of car dealerships due to the 2008 recession.

Car Dealers Push House Bill To Save Dealerships Cut By GM, Chrysler
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Thank you, Nashville!

As part of a reorganization plan under bankruptcy protection, General Motors and Chrysler had to close approximately 3,000 dealerships around the country in 2008, including this one in Nashville.

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