The Petersen Automotive Museum is dedicated to the exploration and presentation of the automobile and its impact on American life and culture using Los Angeles as the prime example. Encompassing more than 300,000 square feet, its exhibits and lifelike dioramas feature more than 150 rare and classic cars, trucks and motorcycles.

The museum features permanent exhibits that trace the history of the automobile. Visitors are invited to walk through, not by, exhibits and dioramas and experience settings of early Los Angeles where the world's first shopping district was designed. There are five rotating galleries with state-of-the-art displays of racecars, classic cars, vintage motorcycles, concept cars, celebrity and movie cars, and auto design and technology. The Discovery Center is designed to spark interest in science by way of the automobile, the 6,500 square-foot, interactive hands-on learning center teaches children basic scientific principles by explaining the fundamental functions of a car.