Red River Dips South to Cabot Dealership

Red River Ford's new location in Cabot.

In case you missed it, one local has fulfilled the dream he’s had for over a decade by purchasing Excel Ford of Cabot.

Red River Auto Group of Heber Springs, along with partners John Dobbs of Memphis and Owens Murphy Automotive Group of Little Rock, bought the dealership on Oct. 21 for an undisclosed amount from Excel Ford Lincoln of Carthage, Texas.

Now it’s Red River Ford of Cabot.

“I had the opportunity to buy it 13 years ago, and I passed … so I’ve been on that ever since,” Red River owner Mitch Ward told Whispers. “When the owner decided he was ready to sell it, we were able to seize the opportunity.”

He added that he lives in Cabot, his hometown, and drives by that dealership every day.

“I just always wanted it, always wanted to acquire it,” he said. “Ford has a good product. They offer a few things that we were not able to offer in our other line, like the big Expedition, the Ford Ranger, the new Ford Bronco coming up.”

Ward said plans are to increase the dealership’s inventory and bring local people in to serve as upper-level man-agers to replace the upper-level man-agers who had hours-long commutes.

The new owners were able to retain the service and sales staff.

“Their old philosophy was they sold a few cars and made a lot of money. Our typical philosophy is sell a bunch, make a little,” Ward said. “So we’re going to bring that and still keep the family atmosphere in the store, like we do at our other places.”

Those other places include Red River Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Heber Springs, Red River Dodge of Malvern and City Motors Preowned of Jacksonville.

Ward also said the new location is closer to some existing customers and will allow his business to provide better service to them.

(Correction: In a previous version of this article, one of Ward’s partners was misidentified. We have corrected the error.)