History
Over the years, with the help of our employees, we have been able to help thousands of customers with their transportation needs. Our volume has reached levels never thought possible in 1969 and we continue to grow.
1969
It all began on May 5, 1969. Joe Machens moved from St. Louis to Columbia and purchased the Ford franchise from Tom Allton, who owned Allton Motor Company. The dealership was located downtown in the building that is now The Fieldhouse bar at 1107 East Broadway. With some imagination, you can picture the garage doors at both ends of the side facing Broadway along with the showroom glass in front of what is now an outdoor patio. The service doors can be spotted on the back side of the building. The body shop was on the other side of Walnut in what is now Central Missouri Computer.
1972
The dealership moved to its present location at 1911 West Worley, in what was then considered to be the far west side of Columbia. Virtually none of the buildings in the area existed at that time. The building was considerably larger than the downtown location and much larger than it needed to be. There were no desks on the showroom, only display vehicles. The body shop was in the main building. The washbays were located in the service department.
1977
The Body Shop building at 600 Bernadette was completed. The detail shop then moved into its present location. The showroom area of the new building has had a number of uses since 1977: storage of a classic Thunderbird collection, a Leasing Company, BMW sales, the Rental Department, the Import Center and now the Ford Truck Center.
1989
The Honda dealership was purchased from Lee Thornton Honda in Jefferson City. A few months later, the Toyota dealership was purchased from Legend Automotive Group on Vandiver in Columbia.
1997
The Ford building on West Worley, the Ford Truck Center on Bernadette and the Toyota-BMW-Isuzu building on Bernadette were remodeled to give a cleaner, more modern exterior appearance. The Honda dealership in Jefferson City was sold to give us an opportunity to focus on our larger dealerships in Columbia. On October 15, Joe Machens passed away after a long illness, leaving his partners Gary Drewing and son Dave Machens to continue the organization’s record of growth.
