Petersen Automotive Museum Is An Amazing Car Museum

Visiting The Petersen Automotive Museum

Having visited Los Angeles, California, several times over the past few years, I tried to find something new to explore this time. I had seen the Petersen Automotive Museum several times but had never visited. A weekday visit was perfect for me, as it was not busy at all. There were maybe 200 visitors.

The architecture within the building added to the design of the museum. It was simple but refined much like a lot of the cars in the collection.

The Exterior Design Of The Building

This is a large rectangular building that would be unassuming without its exoskeleton. I honestly have no idea how this eclectic design of the exterior has anything to do with cars. It is well done and not cheesy or campy at all. Check out the photos below. It is easily one of the most recognizable buildings I have ever seen.

Parking At The Museum

Parking at the museum was incredibly easy. The museum has a covered parking garage attached to it. Of course, visitors have to pay to park, but the price was very reasonable. As I walked through the garage’s ground floor, I enjoyed museum exhibits displayed right there in the garage. This cool touch immediately got me excited for the museum.

The Cars Of The Museum

The cars of the museum were of course the highlight. I am not a “car guy.” I can appreciate the artistry and power of automobiles. At the museum you can see priceless cars, trucks, one-of-a-kind vehicles, motorcycles, and famous cars. The famous screen-used vehicles were my favorite. Being a huge fan of movies and how they are made, the cars really spoke to me.

There were three that meant a lot to me. First was Bella’s pick up truck from the Twilight movies. While not my favorite movies, these are nice to have on time and time again. Second was the Delorean from Back to The Future. While we have all seen replicas, it was amazing to see one of the real ones. The coolest car to me is Ferrari from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This move was one of my favorites as a kid and had the first amazing car I remember seeing.

For extra credit, I wanted to say the white Lamborghini immediately took me back to being a kid. I remember having a toy car just like this, and I had not thought about it in 30 years. So that was really cool that have that feeling again.

My hotel is in Manhattan Beach about 10 minutes south of LAX. The automotive museum is about a 40 minute drive from the hotel but well worth it!