This Was the Last Oldsmobile Dealer in the Michigan City that Made Oldsmobiles

Nearly everyone in America associates Detroit with cars. It is the Motor City, after all. But the car manufacturing radius went well beyond Detroit. Well known in the state and to car enthusiasts but little remembered by the general public, it was Buicks in Flint and Oldsmobiles in Lansing.

Lansing still maintains active GM plants but isn't the one-make town it once was. There are many legacies to the capital city's Olds heritage and one is driven by and likely overlooked every day on Lansing's southside - the last Olds dealer in the town that made Oldsmobiles.

On South Cedar Street sits the former University Oldsmobile. Just off Interstate 96 the car dealer went through a few iterations including Kia and a used car business that hung on to the old name, University Motor Mall. Of late, it's reported the old dealership has been a fireworks outlet.

READ MORE: Michigan's Capital City Appears Set to Vanish Its Remaining Brick-Lined Streets

University Olds was one of two dealerships in the area. That one was in Lansing proper. Another, Story Oldsmobile was in East Lansing - a fact some saw as odd that the dealership named University was not in the same city as Michigan State.

Get our free mobile app

The discussion of the dealership came up on a Facebook group dedicated to old, interesting and abandoned places in Michigan. Many Lansingites remembered car buying experiences there:

We got a 1971 delta 88 there back in the day real nice new car white with blue vinyl top love it

My dad bought an 84 Delta from there.

The Lansing State Journal maintains a photo gallery of former dealers in the area including vintage photos of University Oldsmobile.