Flint, Michigan -
Auto World

Sorry to say, but the building is no more. Autoworld was one of the city's largest tourism flops -- the attraction was built in response to the economic crisis in the 1980s. Don't quote me on the specifics, but the the cost of the building was in the tens, even hundreds, of millions, and shut down less than a year after it opened. There were some debates over the use of the structure (we even had a group project in junior high about it!). But sometime in the early 1990s, less than a decade after it was built, the building was demolished (you can see footage of the explosion if you watch the film The Big One by Michael Moore -- it's near the end of the movie). As far as I know - I don't get back to my hometown often -- the site is still used as a parking lot for U. of M. Flint. [monica, 03/15/2004]

[RA: According to the Auto World Parking web site, the parking lot is the "future home of the Professional Studies and Classroom Building."]

I remember visiting this place when I was a kid back in the early-mid '80s. It was an all indoor amusement park around the Flint, MI area dedicated to cars. There were some Disney-style rides where you travelled in a car past various scenes. I remember one ride was kinda like a demolition derby and another had an animatronic donkey as its "star." I also remember an animatronic human you could actually speak to. There were standard amusement park rides, a carousel and bumper cars and stuff like that. It was a really weird but intriguing place. It ended up failing (admission was ridiculous... was actually cheaper to go to Disney World at the time). Don't know if the building still exists. [aimster, 10/28/2003]