The 1980s were great for Ford in Europe. The brand had strong sellers like the Fiesta and the Escort, and they were joined by solid new products like the Sierra and Scorpio in the upper echelon. The company had hundreds of dealerships around the entire continent with Germany being one of its most important markets. For one German dealer, however, things didn’t go well in the middle of the 1980s.
This Ford showroom in Germany is located in the city of Ingolstadt and recently, the folks behind the Auto Retro channel on YouTube embarked on a 1,000-mile trip from the United Kingdom to try and find the abandoned dealership. The team located the place through Google Maps and a Street View image showed the cars were still there at the time the photos were taken. However, that was more than a decade ago meaning there’s no guarantee the situation hasn’t changed in the last few years.
Without going into too many details of how the exact location was discovered, the video takes us to the abandoned Ford dealership and it turns out everything inside remains unchanged. This means the cars are still there and while not particularly special, these are all brand-new cars that were produced around the middle of the 1980s. You won’t see any GT40s or RS200s here but this is an impressive sight nevertheless.
According to the available information, the original owner of the dealership died and his widow had the cars and the showroom cleaned regularly up until a few years ago. That lady is now apparently in a care home and has been unable to keep taking care of the showroom. Our colleagues from Motor1.com Germany told us the cars had been kept by the widow for their grandchildren but they can't be driven on public roads anymore because they have never been registered. As you can see for yourself in the video, the cars are dusty but unsurprisingly, they all look mint.
What can you see behind the windows? There are at least three Ford Sierras – one five-door hatch in base spec, a red Sierra 1.6L, and a blue Sierra wagon. Next to them is a Ford Fiesta S, as well as an Escort 1.1. That beige sedan is the sedan version of the Escort, known at the time as the Orion.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the fate of these Fords. As it seems, they are going to sit in this abandoned showroom for the years to come but hopefully, one day they will finally hit the road. And before you ask – no, we don’t know if you can buy them.
Join Motor1's Rambling About Cars podcast and chat live about this old dealership and other automotive topics. The show begins today at 7:30 PM Eastern, available below on YouTube.
