Ownership changes at Ford store

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

Cody Haiar has purchased Harry K Ford. The purchase was effective Feb. 25. He also purchased the paint and body shop. The NAPA store will remain independent.

Haiar is also the owner of Frontier Motors of Winner.

The Ford business will be known as Frontier Motors Ford and Frontier Motors Paint and Body will be the new name of the body shop.

The hours for the sales staff will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

The service hours will  be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Haiar explained all 18 employees of the Ford store and body shop were retained.

The three salesmen for the  Ford store will be Roger Farley, Kirk Bainter, sales manager and Aaron Torres who comes to Winner from Vern Eide in Mitchell.

“Winner will be stronger if we have two separate dealerships,” said Haiar .

The owner explained he was surprised when Doug Knust called and asked if Haiar would look at buying him and his minority partner. Knust was the previous owner of what was then Harry H Ford. 

“We met and were able to get an agreement,” said Haiar.

“I am excited about owning the Ford store here. It is a great brand and Ford is engrained in American culture,” said Haiar.

The owner of the car dealership came to Winner in November 2010 and started working for Darrel Kaiser at Frontier Motors. On Dec. 1, 2015, Haiar purchased Frontier Motors.

The staff at Frontier Motors totals 30.

One of the changes at Frontier Motors is they brought in Jared Dewaard who was an executive manager at Vern Eide in Mitchell.

Dewaard will be the general sales manager at Frontier Motors. Haiar says Dewaard will help the business grow and expand its footprint.

“We hope folks in Winner and the area will give us a chance if they are looking to buy a vehicle. We will never make them pay more to buy locally. We want an opportunity to service them at the highest level,” he said.