by HoTWire
5. March 2008 05:10
It can often seem now days that car manufacturers are not as proud of their history as we think they should be. However it is great to know that some manufacturers value their history enough to keep their own collections of important vehicles. Some of these are open to the public, but some are only bought out for special events.
In no particular order here are some worthy of note.
Citroen "Conservatoire"
Citroen's facility is a new building, having been opened in 2001. It has a huge range of vehicles including a large selection of their racing history, as expected from this occasionally eccentric manufacturer there are some unusual cars in there as well.
Here are some photos from a visit in 2006
Sadly it is not open to the public.
Nissan Zama Facility
The Zama facility is another private collection of cars and Nissan are very reticent about allowing people, particularly after some parts went missing a few years ago. However they do allow people in on occasion, recently this series of photos caused a bit of a stir on the internet.
Nissan themselves has the complete catalogue of cars to view on their website
Wolfsburg Museum
One company that is very keen to get the public in to see what they have been doing over the life time of the company is Volkswagen. Their museum at Wolfsburg is open to the public and has a very high quality collection of cars ranging through VW, Porsche, coach built specials, super cars and international market cars like the VW SP2 sports coupe from Brazil.
Alfa Romeo Museum
They have a lot of history to shout about at Alfa Romeo and have had a museum since 1976. This, like the VW museum, contains a wide range of vehicles from prototypes and dream cars to standard production vehicles. It also contains a racing history and a glimpse into their work in aviation. You can see some of the examples they have in their collection here . To get some more information on the museum check the "History" section of Alfa Romeo's Alfaworld
I'm sure we'll be visiting the subject of corporate collections and manufacturer’s museums again as there are many more out there.
Remember, if you have to buy a modern car make sure it is from a manufacturer who is proud of their past.
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