Northampton Ford dealership changes hands, name

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - After 24 years of being locally owned and operated, Northampton Ford was sold Monday to the Sarat family, owners of a similar car dealership in Agawam for more than 80 years.

Jack Sarat Jr. purchased both the dealership and all existing inventory from Roger Jourdain, and announced that the transaction wouldn't result in any layoffs. He also said Jourdain would continue to work at the Damon Road dealer.

"Roger is a great guy and he has a lot of customers who will continue coming here to do business with him," Sarat said. "I think he is going to make a great addition to our team."

Sarat, who also owns Family Ford in Enfield, Conn., said he and Jourdain had agreed to a deal in May, but it took several months to work out all the paperwork that went along with the purchase. The dealership, he said, will be changing its name from Northampton Ford to Ford of Northampton.

Sarat said owning two other dealerships would allow him and his three sons, Jeff, Chris and Scott, to offer a much larger selection to local car buyers than was previously available.

"There will be a much better selection than what they've had here over the last couple of years," Sarat said. "Owning two other Ford dealerships will allow us to increase our inventory by about 500 vehicles."

Unlike his Agawam dealership, Sarat said, there are no plans to add a body shop to the dealership, but he does hope to increase sales by offering rentals.

"We are planning on having a car rental department out there for short-term rentals, meaning passenger vehicles, pickup trucks, 15-passenger people movers and cargo vans," Sarat said.

He said the main thing that attracted him to Northampton was the location.

"Northampton has a fantastic market and it is a great community," Sarat said. "I think the consumer today knows that Ford is a top-value product and I think being right in a college town will be a real opportunity for us."

Jourdain, who also declined to reveal the sale price of the dealership, said he was glad to know the Sarats would keep all his current employees.

"All of our staff is staying with us," Jourdain said. "Several of the people here have been here since the beginning. We'll be adding people because we had some folks choose to retire, but no one lost their position."

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com