In many American cities, it’s common for a strip of neighboring new car dealerships to develop. Although they’re in competition, their proximity often is helpful in attracting buyers, so everyone benefits. One such Automobile Row happened to come to be in Kaka‘ako along both sides of Ala Moana Boulevard between Coral Street and Ward Avenue.
The first auto dealer to be built in this area was Volkswagen Hawai‘i, which opened on May 16, 1958 at 800 Ala Moana, on the corner of Kō‘ula Street. It had moved here from its previous location at 1774 Kapi‘olani, facing the busy intersection of Kalākaua Avenue and Kapi‘olani Boulevard, in a small building which (somewhat amazingly) still stands today as Micronesia Mart.
This new site was a big step up for the business, which had first started offering VW Beetles in 1954 from Pier 13 in Honolulu Harbor. Volkswagens initially were not necessarily an easy sell, with their outdated 1930s styling, cramped interiors (by the standards of contemporary American cars) and underpowered engines (again, by American standards). Yet, as many still know today, the Beetle became the largest-selling car in history internationally and won over countless people through time in Hawai‘i.
The main part of the Volkswagen Hawai‘i combination of showroom and repair facility was what was called a Butler Building, a kit provided by a manufacturer consisting of steel girders and metal roofing. To this was added walls of stacked hollow cement blocks, which kept the structure’s total cost low at $200,000 (about $2.3 million in 2026 dollars). It was designed by architects Fisk & Chapman and was 21,500 square feet in size, standing on a lot of 56,000 square feet. The showroom interior’s appearance followed the rules for dealerships that were set by Volkswagen, which by the late 1950s was working to insure its outlets in the USA were projecting the standardized professional image the corporation wanted as it built up its system in America.
Volkswagen Hawai‘i was eventually renamed Volkswagen Pacific as other VW dealers opened in the Hawaiian Islands, and the building was subsequently used by other car brands before it was demolished in 2023. Meanwhile, a variety of other car dealerships, both new and used, opened and closed on both sides of Ala Moana in this same stretch, creating the aforementioned Automobile Row. At this time of this article, however, the former density of dealers has diminished since most of the ones that were functioning on the mauka side of the street have been forced to leave as their sites are slated for more Kaka‘ako towers to be built. Whether this Automobile Row survives here at all will only be seen in the future.
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