Audrain Auto Museum — Attraction in Newport

"Questionable value" is the theme of this review. Each year for family vacation, we visit a different part of the country with the goal of visiting every state. We always include car museums in our plans. The Audrain was surprisingly disappointing because of the cost per person, the small quantity of cars on display, the small size of the museum, and the exhibit items. When we walked in to the area to pay--an area surrounded by glass, I glanced around to see the cars in what I thought was the initial area of the museum. With that quick scan, I saw all of the vehicles...I just didn't realize that as I handed over the debit card. After paying and entering the initial area, we learned that this was the only area to the museum, and those cars were it. We were done with the museum in 20 minutes.

Many of the cars on display are what we see at our typical Cars & Coffee gathering. The photos we had seen online of this museum led us to believe there was a larger collection and more depth to the exhibits, but as it turns out, the collection is rotated so the photos are of cars from previous rotations. In addition to the museum entrance fee, there is also a parking fee...unless you can find one of the few...

Not enough good things to say about this spot. My girlfriend and I stopped in during our first trip to Newport and it was the highlight of my trip.

Tickets were very reasonable with the student discount, and the curators did an incredible job with the Porsche exhibit they had on display.

The real highlight was the staff. Though we didn’t get a chance to chat with her much, the woman who signed us in was kind and gave us a solid rundown of the museum itself and the exhibit on display. Once inside, Dom was incredibly friendly, greeting us when we arrived and offering us a photo with one of the cars on the way out. Not to mention him being incredibly knowledgeable. We also chatted extensively with Josh, a summer intern at the museum who was awesome. He went above and beyond answering our every question with the most enthralling details and fun facts. He is an incredibly bright kid and his passion for automotive history made the exhibit all that much more engaging.

My girlfriend and I will most definitely be back to see more of Audrain’s rotating exhibits. Huge thanks to Dom and Josh for their time,...

The museum is very good. I visited there some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits. Their car sales department is overall a professional organization. However, they left me a little upset with the information provided on a car that I purchased from them. The photographs and the advertisement for the sale of the car showed two keys. I had a right to expect that the car would come with those two keys. In fact, the car only came with one key. During the auction of the car I asked “Are there any operating systems/components that a Mercedes-Benz dealer would recommend repair or replacement?“ Their response was “ The car would need to be inspected at the dealer. Nothing is inoperable to our knowledge.” In fact, there was in the owners possession a post purchase inspection from a Mercedes dealer obtained when he purchased the car showing all recommended repairs and replacements, including six major items that were not routine maintenance. The owner provided that inspection report and the single key after I purchased the car. None of the 17 items on the post purchase inspection report had been corrected...