San Diego Automotive Museum

The Automotive Museum located in Balboa Park is small, yet offers so much to see. I recently came here for an event since the space can be rented out after hours. For those who rent this space, TV screens can be set up for slideshows and music can be played over the speakers. There is a large selection of motorcycles with Steve McQueen memorabilia and Indian motorcycles. Some of the cars have seen better days, and there is a barn car (a forgotten Studebaker that was left in a barn for years). Louie Mattar’s Fabulous $ 75,000 car is probably one of the most interesting cars in the museum, but i also thought the 2000 Ford concept car was pretty cool since Ford had basically envisioned apps on the dashboard before apps were really a thing.

This museum was just OKAY for me. Some of the cars and motorcycles were interesting and I really liked the red Lamborghini. This museum is small and we were in and out in 10 minutes. If you’re really into cars, this is a nice place to visit. Other than, if you’re spending the entire day at Balboa Park, I would definitely come here last.

My husband and I recently went to the San Diego Automotive Museum and of course we had to pick one of the hottest days of the year.
I had a Groupon of which I paid $ 5 admission for 2. I was really excited until I entered the building and realized there was no air conditioning.
There were several cars that were really interesting however the museum was fairly small and we were finished within 1 hour.
The museum had enough to peak my interest however not enough for me to pay over $ 5 per person. I expected more for a museum in Balboa Park.

Checked out the museum and thought it was fun! I find all matter of details interesting about these cars and respect for people who made them! The 1947 Cadillac was awesome. I mean really, a kitchen sink too?! Go check it out if you appreciate cars!

This place was decent. Love the selection of cars, lots to see. They need to stock there gift store more! There was a lot of empty spaces very few things.

My opinion of this museum and the three others I visited is that they are not worth wasting a day in San Diego on. There are far better museums in in other Cities than what are in Balboa Park. Harrahs, Tacoma, and Henry Ford museum come to mind,
I say go to Balboa park, walk around and enjoy the architecture and grounds but skip at least the A&S museum, San Diego history Museum, Auto Museum and the photography museum. None are worth the time spent.
Visited September 2015

A must see attraction in Balboa Park. If you are into classic cars and motorcycles this is the right place! My favorite car here is the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner! Awesome car!

Buy the groupon!
I went with my brother and we got in for 4 dollars each. At that low price, it was a great time. It was pretty warm inside the museum but all of the cars were in amazing condition. Don’t expect to leave with a cool souvenir as the gift shop is pretty damn sad.
Standout cars include a roadrunner, a rad impala and a delorean! There is a cool amount of motorcycles as well.
You may be underwhelmed if you pay full price, but when you can get two tickets for less than the price of one, this is a fun way to spend a few hours.

As far as auto museums go, this is pretty darn lame. Very small space in the Balboa Park area, so there aren’t many cars to see. A few interesting items, but truly a disappointment.
The most interesting item was the $ 75,000 Cadillac that holds the recording for nonstop travel from CA to NYC and back. Cool story, but not worth the price of admission. (Google it and you’ll get the story.)

this is not even the 12^th best automotive museum I’ve ever been to.
Skip

Sd automotive museum Turned us away, we drove very far, had kids and wife with us. Closed 1 hour early because they Had a random private event they had not told anyone about Guy at counter was very rude. One of our kids said «we made it!» And with a smirk and rude remark, he said «haha no you didn’t» and closed the door. I asked why and he said they were closing an hour early for a special private event. We checked the website and Facebook and there were no notices.

For my site seeing of balboa, this was the only one I didn’t think worth the money. I’ve seen more cooler cars for less money. But we were killing time (& money) it looks bigger from the outside. Was disappointed. Will know next time.

The automobile museum was fun. As with many of the other museums in Balboa, I didn’t know much about the items on display but I was still entertained. I suggest, as always, go to these museums on the «free Tuesday» listed online as to save $$.
My favorite exhibits were the sports cars and the motorcycles. The Delorean was awesome… McFly baby! So many Italian names here, it’s hard to remember them all. The Ducati was pretty awesome if you’re into contemporary racing bikes.
The «special» exhibit costs an extra couple bucks and the cars in there were no more impressive than the other regular exhibits.
It was rather small, but for someone with little automobile knowledge, I thought this museum was rather informative and entertaining.

A fantastic collection of autos, motorbikes and wartime vehicles from bygone eras.
Feast your eyes on the well preserved racing cars and armed WW2 troop carriers that were donated by local collectors.
Sit down and watch the video documentaries displayed at several exhibits, thoroughly explaining the history of these automotive treasure pieces.
Say hi to Pandora (like the music app), the museums curator and manager, walking around and getting visitor feedback.
She mentioned that the museum will continue to expand due to additional vehicles being donated.
This museum is a car historian’s treat that’s worth many return visits.

My son loves vintage cars so we had to check out the Automotive Museum on our last visit to Balboa Park.
This is not the largest museum, but it does have a good selection of cars here. My son and I enjoyed wandering around this museum, reading up on each of these lovely old cars.
My son had lots of questions though. When we asked if they did tours here, one of the volunteers (I think his name was Tom) mentioned that he could show us around. He gave us some great information about each of the cars here and answered all of our questions. He was so knowledge and made this exhibit really interesting.
Besides cars, this museum had a unique selection of motorcycles and even some bicycles too. My son even got to have a photo taken in one of these beautiful cars.
This is a great museum, and the wonderful volunteer made it even more fun. We look forward to going back and seeing what new cars will be shown here!

I would say that it’s totally worthwhile if you’re into these three specific things: military vehicles, motorcycles and/​or older cars.

One of the nice things about Balboa Park is Free Museum Tuesdays — for the first four Tuesdays of the month, San Diego County residents can get into various museums for free. The museums rotate each week, and so I found myself checking off something from my SD bucket list this past week — the San Diego Automotive Museum.
This place is essentially loaded wall to wall with classic rides and their histories — highlights include the tribute to Indian motorcycles, seeing Steve McQueen’s motorcycle racing gear, a couple of Packards, a Hudson Hornet (people who’ve seen Cars may recognize this as the late Paul Newman’s character model for Doc Hudson), and (my personal highlight) a DeLorean.
One of the main attractions of the museum is Louis Mattar’s Fabulous Car — it’s a vintage Caddy outfitted with a washing machine, ironing board, hookah pipe, water fountain, and other amenities that would put Speed Racer’s Mach 5 to shame. There’s even a video playing that shows the car’s crew changing a tire… while it’s in motion!
I was surprised at how much time I spent in the museum taking pictures and perusing the exhibits… it’s a small place that looks like a converted hanger, but I ended up spending a couple of hours here. And for the price ($ 8.50 when it’s not Free Museum Day at Balboa Park), not too bad. Car enthusiasts and gearheads will have a great time here.

I was wandering around Balboa Park, and decided to check out this place. I can appreciate old cars. Old cars are cool. The Craftsmanship just seems to be more intricate than today’s mass produced vehicles. Especially on the hood ornaments. I’d love a hood ornament on my car as large and flashy as the ones displayed on most of the vehicles here.
This place consists of a single large room, assorted cars, motorcycles and other assorted vehicles from over the years are displayed here. There were several interesting cars of note displayed, «Louis Mattar’s Fabulous Car» was quite the modern spectacle for its time. They’ve also got a DMC Delorian set up on a neat lightning/​time travelling background. Several older sports cars are also included and displayed in their collection.
There and also several subject relevant videos playing. One such video exhibit was discussing an old ‘plank road’ that lead across the desert with a really young Huell Howser. In the Kids area, they were playing CARS. I sat and watched Lightning McQueen help out Radiator springs for a little while after I circled the room a few times.
They also had a motorcycle exhibit featuring the actor Steve McQueen. Apparently he was a big motorcycle guy, not only in his films, but also in real life. Many bikes were there that were featured in his movies or in his personal racing career are on display here.
So, it’s definitely an interesting walk around, they’ve got lots of cool cars, and it’s just $ 8.50 to get in; but if you’ve got a choice and/​or timetable to work with, I’d personally pick the air & space museum next door.

Balboa Park is pretty huge and it can get pretty overwhelming on what places to see during a short amount of time. I strongly recommend you to come here if you want to kill time, learn about cars, and just take pictures of cars. As a car enthusiast, I had a blast in here and had fun learning more new things about some cars in there!
It’s definitely worth checking out if you are at Balboa Park!
PS — They have discount coupons for admission online, so be sure to print them out!

I had just visited the Air & Space museum, this museum is right next door so I decided to take a look. Once inside I saw that the museum is fairly small, in fact you can stand in one spot and see the whole thing from end to end.
The museum is divided into two main display areas and one smaller area along the back wall. You will enter at what is called the Current Exhibit area where what is on display changes from time to time. There was a Steampunk exhibit here when I was visiting. I found it somewhat interesting. This section of the museum takes up almost 2/​3rds of the museum leaving ¹⁄₃^rd for the permanent collection. That leaves the section along the back wall which is dedicated to motorcycles. I actually found the motorcycle display to be the most interesting.
There really isn’t a whole lot going on here and I wouldn’t come just to see this museum but if you just visited the Air & Space museum and need to kill a little time it may be worth the $ 8.00 entry fee.