Sounds like the dealership was a mob front to launder money.
LOL
Back in the '70's my brothers and I used to frequent a cafe that was situated next to a used car lot. I might never have even noticed the car lot except that they didn't have much for customer parking (no on-street parking) and consequently their customers used the cafe's lot which led to occasional encounters with some really peculiar people.
So we would sit in the cafe and drink coffee and shoot the shyt and watch the world going by about 3-4 times a week. And over time my attention was drawn gain and again to the little car lot that was packed to the gunnels with jalopies and had no shortage of patrons.....but never seemed to actually sell any cars.
The inventory never varied. Yes, they would occasionally reposition the merchandise but it was always the same cars. Once I had taken note of this fact I found myself eavesdropping on their business on every visit. This went on for over a year.
And then one morning I showed up as the cafe are was amazed to see an empty lot next door. All of the cars were gone. The office was vacant and stripped of furnishings. They left behind four or five hulks that should have been sent to the scrappers long ago.
No Internet in those days so I watched the paper for some clue as to what became of them but there was never a whisper. I called the town newspaper and inquired but got the "I don't know nothing" response from an incurious staffer.
I always figured that it was a front for drugs or money laundering but I never got any satisfactory explanation.