Last month, we wrote about an abandoned Ford dealership in Germany that contained six cars from the 1980s that were in showroom condition. Now, the YouTube channel that first posted about the dealership, has followed it up with a new video tracing the history of the dealership. It turns out, the legend is even more interesting than we first thought.
The dealership in question was formerly known as Auto-Stock Ford, and never really had it easy. Established in the mid-60s, the dealership faced tough competition from the start because of its location: Ingolstadt.
If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because that’s Audi’s home, and, as you can imagine, being a Ford dealer in an Audi town was hard work. The difficult competition meant that Mr. Stock couldn’t sell every car that passed through his dealership, and since Ford wouldn’t buy back unsold vehicles, he ended just sitting on the cars, and storing them in a nearby parking garage.
More: Brand-New 1980s Fords Found After Nearly 40 Years In Abandoned Showroom
By the mid-’80s, Ford decided to pull the plug on the dealership, and stopped providing Stock with new vehicles, forcing him to become an independent dealer. Unfortunately, just a decade later, he passed away, leaving a collection of around 300 vehicles behind, almost half of which were showroom quality Fords.
It was at that point that Mr. Stock’s widow and son shut the business down, and started selling off the assets, including the collection of cars. As you can imagine, this caught the attention of many collectors, who flocked to the dealership for the brand-new classic Fords.
However, Mrs. Stock had an interesting pricing plan, and she stuck a 400 percent premium on the list price of every undriven classic. That meant that the older cars became much more desirable. Not only were they more likely to be sought after, they were more likely to be a bargain.
As to the six vehicles that found their way back into the dealership, they were hand-picked by Mrs. Stock. Little information exists on why she chose those ones in particular (a green Ford Sierra five-door hatchback, a red Sierra 1.6-liter five-door hatchback, a blue Sierra Estate, a Fiesta S Mk2, an Escort 1.1 Laser Mk3, and an Orion 1.6-liter diesel), but she loved them enough to keep them looking clean and fresh.
Unfortunately, age has come for Mrs. Stock, who is no longer able to keep an eye on the Fords. What will come of them when she passes is not entirely clear, but it’s nice that she was able to preserve them for as long as she did.