This shocking turn of events destroyed a family Ford dealer after 80 years!

Purchasing a new F150 FX4 from Chris at Lucini when he was about 19 remains one of the best car buying experiences I have had. Chris your grandfather would be so proud of what you have accomplished.

It just shows how important family and role models are. His grandfather must have been a great man.

I've owned a couple dealerships, it's a hard business, going to auctions, repairing vehicles, getting people financed, taking in trades, I enjoyed it but tons of work and time went into it.

This story really hit home for me. A very similar thing happened to my grandfathers Buick dealership in the early 70s. Buick pulled my family’s franchise and gave it to someone else pretty much overnight. My grandfather never financially recovered and ended up dying a couple years later.

That was a very dark time in the dealership world and unfortunately this type of thing happened far too often.

Whilst a tough story, I liked listening to him tell it. He comes across as a much nicer character than some of the smug and condescending regulars. Hope he comes back with more stories.

I know the feeling. I worked for Ford for 12 years. Not a dealership, the motor company. Then I got sick, had trouble keeping up with my job, and knew I wasn't going to be able to keep doing it for much longer. However, before I had the chance to look for another job within the company, I was let go. And still, despite putting a bad taste in my mouth, I continued to drive Ford vehicles for nearly ten years after that. Today, I have four vehicles, and three of them are Fords. My personal daily driver, though, is a Hyundai.

Losing the Patriarch of a family like that is tough; losing the family business because of it is a double kick in the teeth. You have a great attitude for going through all that. I think Ford was insensitive in how they handled it, but the reality of the big 3 at that time was pure survival and Ford weathered it better than the other two and is better for it today. It is however a damn shame there is no Lucini Ford today just the same

Man - this guy has the winning attitude. You are an inspiration. Thank you.

I admire your ability to forgive and not have any animosity against Ford. If I were in your place I'm sot sure I would have the fortitude to hold your position.

The Chevy dealer in my hometown had his dealership yanked out from under him in ‘08 despite being one of the top dealers for over 30 years. I knew people who drove 50-60 miles to buy from him because he was honest and didn’t try to screw you over, when I washed cars for him when I was in high school I remember he always said “I’m not trying to a million dollars on every sale, I can make a million dollars in a lifetime of sales.” The dealer who got his dealership built a mega showroom and immediately jacked up prices and making good deals was not their motto so needless to say their business sells just enough new vehicles to get by.

This was a great story, wish we could have more of these. My family ran a tire shop since the 40’s that was opened by my great grandfather and it closed around 2005 when my great uncle retired when I was only 7-8 years old. Fast forward all these years and I’m a big car and motorcycle enthusiast and I would have killed to have had our family tire shop still and to be able to help keep that tradition open.

I knew this dealership and competed with them for years and then as a vendor... Great people and a team... The day they lost the Oval was a huge shock to the area... Still pass by and think about the history...

This story strikes me . I went to Northwood ( Institute) ,as it was called when I graduated in 1973 ,with the same intention. My father had an investment company but I wanted to be a car dealer. Unfortunately, when I graduated a great many dealerships were going down the tubes, much as you described. As a result, I ended up working for my father instead. As I expected , that did not work out . My father and I had diametrically opposed ideas on how to run the company and he made it clear he was going to be in charge till he died. I went on to start a few other businesses but I always wished things had worked out in the automotive world.

WOW. Now I know what happened to Lucini Ford. I grew up in West Bridgewater ( now I'm 74 yo) and still continue to drive by your old location and think of those days. I know your house was for sale and also had an oil leak prior. I see it recently sold which will be nice to see people living there but I wish it was still Lucini. Interesting and heartfelt video. Thanks for sharing.

This happened with my Grandfather's Kubota Tractor dealership in the early 2000's. We were forced to close for a few months because the state was going to put a road through our building. In the mean time Kubota decided to push him out. We've reopened since '06 and are now eating up market share with a competitor brand. It pays to have history!

The Ford dealer in our town was taken out in the early 2000s for theft by the dealer. I worked in the real estate firm that handled the forced sale of his very large house in the settlement. Even after they got almost everything he had owned, he still owed something like 2 million dollars. It was wild.

A long-time family run Ford dealer similar to yours here in Cincinnati suffered the same fate at the same time, and it was good to hear that perspective about what happened.

Chris tells stories extremely well. It is a tragic story and Ford treated you and your dealership terribly after selling their cars for so long.

I remember when they were shutting down all those dealerships back in 2009. I was working for a small family owned dealership which was hard enough to compete against the big corporations to begin with, but we pulled out the other end. I don't think they actually told you if they were going to keep you, you just kind of waited to get a notice saying that you were being closed. We never got anything and survived that. The dealership went on another 10 11 years or so before finally selling out to a bigger company