The official car brand museum and factory tours to check out

The biggest and most adored car brands around the world have museums at their head offices which as well as including the usual marketing spin and visions of futuristic motoring, these museums also showcase the best of the past and present and give a little more insight into the story of how that particular car ended up on your driveway. In some cases a behind the scenes tour of the factory is also available. Here is a list of car museum and factory tours you should definitely add to your overseas to see list.

In the immediate vicinity of the BMW Group headquarters in Munich you will find a world of past, present and future BMW masterpieces as well as an inside look into the development and production of one of the world's favourite luxury marques.

The BMW Museum opened in 1973 and has since become one of Germany's most visited museums. The 5000 sqm museum is filled to the brim with around 120 original exhibits featuring key cars, motorbikes and engines from the brands 100 year history.

You can also take a guided tour of BMW’s main factory and take a closer look at the press plant, body shop, paint shop and assembly line which have put together some very coveted cars over the years.

The 2 hour factory tour will set you back €12 ($19 AUD).

Read more: What it’s like visiting the BMW Museum for a first timer

If you are a die hard Ferrari fan, a visit to the The Ferrari Museum in Maranello is a must. Take a look into the Prancing Horse’s heritage through its famous and successful F1 cars, prototypes, GTs, and the road cars the world has come to love and adore.

In the museum, you'll also get the chance to sit into a semi-professional Formula 1 simulator and get a taste of the kind of exhilarating driving that F1 drivers experience during grand prix races. If you've ever wanted to be part of a F1 pit crew, try your hand at a tyre change test on a real Formula 1 single-seater car. The tyre change is timed and photographed so you can show it to all your jealous mates.

The Ferrari Museum offers a shuttle bus tour to the Fiorano track and along the Viale Enzo Ferrari boulevard in the factory complex. On this guided tour you will go through the various parts of the Ferrari test track where all competition and road car testing has taken place since 1972. You'll also get to look through the Ferrari Campus to see where all of the vehicles are carefully crafted.

The tour goes for around 45 minutes with tickets starting from €15 ($24 AUD).

If you happen to be in Dearborn, Michigan and are a fan of big Ford pick up trucks, well do we have an automotive cultural experience for you. The Ford Rouge Factory which is a stones throw from the blue ovals head office is home to the brands iconic pick up truck, the Ford F-150.

The walking tour of the factory is on a half kilometre elevated walkway, which gives a unique bird’s-eye view of the plant’s final assembly line where workers build a truck per minute at full line speeds.

You can also check out the Legacy Gallery which is a showcase of some of the most famous Ford vehicles that have been made at the factory over the years. They include the 1929 Model A, 1932 Ford V8, 1955 Ford Thunderbird and 1965 Ford Mustang.

The tour goes for around 45 minutes with tickets starting from $18 USD ($26 AUD).

Australians love their Mazdas so next time you're in Japan, why not check out the birthplace of the brand that brought such cars like the MX-5, 121 Bubble and CX-5 to the world. Enter the museum at the head office in Hiroshima and you will be welcomed by some of the brands newest and most historic vehicles through its almost 100 year history.

As well as individual vehicles, learn more about the famed rotary engine technology and the racing heritage as well as the manufacturing process that brings to life the family staple that is the CX-5.

As part of the museum is a glimpse into the Mazda factory which gives visitors a look into the assembly line process.

Admission is free with the tour going for about 90 minutes.

Read more: Mazda museum never gets old

Known as the company who invented the OG modern automobile back in 1886, Mercedes-Benz has a rich history of on road and on track car manufacturing which is all on show at their museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

The museum celebrates Carl Benz and tells the brand's story through technology, day-to-day life, social history and pop culture. There are more than 160 vehicles on show covering all aspects of the brand's history from the oldest automobiles ever built, legendary race cars right through to futuristic concept cars.

The engine factory tour details the process of how the luxury marque goes from raw materials and transforms them into finished components for their much revered engines, hybrid and fuel cell systems.

The 100 minute walking tour of the factory will set you back €16 ($25 AUD).

The "Musée de l’Aventure Peugeot" or The Adventure Peugeot Museum is located at the home of the lion brand in the town of Sochaux, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.

The museum was founded in 1982 by Pierre Peugeot, the company’s president at the time, as a way of bringing all of the brand’s products together in one place and to celebrate the company’s contribution. Today, around 60,000 visitors a year go through the museum doors which has a collection of 130 vehicles, 50 cycles and motorcycles as well as 500 items bearing the Lion logo including grinders, radios and even sewing machines.

A museum visit can be paired with a guided tour of the Groupe PSA industrial site of Sochaux, where former factory workers guide you through the car production plant where vehicles such as the Peugeot 3008 SUV and 308 hatch are produced.

The tour goes for 2 hours and will set you back €22 ($35 AUD).

Walk into the Toyota Kaikan Museum in Toyota city, Nagoya and you will be greeted by a Toyota Partner Robot who will serenade you on the violin. This is the start of a futuristic look into the products on display at the home of Toyota, Australia’s favourite car brand.

In the museum, you will be able to get up close and personal with a range of past, current and concept models as well as gaining insights into the production process and features of the cars themselves.

Factory tours are available at the Motomachi Plant, Takaoka Plant and Tsutsumi Plant, which depart by bus from the Toyota Kaikan Museum. On these tours, you’ll get to see vehicles such as the Corolla, Camry and RAV4 go through the stamping, welding, painting and assembly process.

Including travel time, the free factory tour will take around 2 and half hours.

For Volkswagen fans, this is the ultimate way of connecting with the brand by taking a look into the past, the present and into the future of the brand and its products at the company's headquarters in Germany.

The Volkswagen factory tour covers the main elements of car production including pressing, bodywork and the final vehicle assembly. And how do you get around one of Europe's largest car manufacturing plants that is the same size as Monaco? In an open Golf train of course. The vehicles accommodate up to 30 people and give you the best view of what is happening on the production lines.

You can also get married at the Volkswagen factory! After a cocktail reception, the Volkswagen factory workers will whisk the happy couple and guests into the plant for a once in a lifetime tour. And to top it off, the newly married couple will travel in a flower-filled Golf.

The 90 minute tour of Volkswagen's Wolfsburg factory and costs €10 ($16 AUD).

The Volvo museum and factory tour is exactly what you'd expect from a proud Scandinavian company. Unique style and design, history and somewhere fun to occupy the kids.

Located just outside the Swedish city of Gothenburg, the Volvo Museum takes you through the history and heritage of the brand from its passenger cars, buses, trucks, marine engines and construction equipment. The museum has been around since 1955 and has built up a comprehensive archive and exhibits showcasing the unique history of one of Sweden's biggest exports.

You can take a tour of the Volvo Cars plant too, getting a behind-the-scenes look of how the Swedes do car production. Around 20,000 people a year visit the factory where you can see how rolls of sheet metal transform into a finished car.

Tours through the factory go for an hour and cost 100 SEK ($15 AUD).

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