The man behind the ghost BMW dealership

What kind of man turns his BMW dealership into a ghost store of never-sold cars for a decade, maintaining the building like it could open at a moment's notice? A car guy, or so he says.

After the dustup created by yesterday's original story on the ghost BMW dealership in Ontario, the Endras BMW folks went over to the dealership for a look themselves.

They found signs of a maid service, junked BMWs out back — and met the owner, a man in his late 60s to early 70s, driving a light-blue 733i, who didn't seem to answer any in-depth questions.

Here's what they found out:

He was firm but not entirely impolite. He did verify that he is indeed the owner, but furthermore did not want to clear up any rumors or for that matter set the record straight. He told us "you have to be crazy about cars, like you and I, to enjoy owning a place like this". And lastly he told us to "let the rumors fly, I don't care."

The rumors are that the former Citation BMW was closed in 1988 either in a BMW cutback in Canada or for exporting cars, and that the owner kept the place in shape in hopes of one day restarting the business.

But at this point, the building is more intriguing as a time capsule than a place of commerce.

And not all of its mysteries have been surrendered; in addition to the cars on the showroom floor and the additional vehicles in the service bay, there's an underground level which can only be entered from outside. Given how the rest of the building serves as a monument to mid-1980s BMWs, it's not far fetched to wonder what else our fellow traveler has attempted to hide from time.