The oldest Toyota dealership in Canada, Fort Erie business has new owner

There’s someone new in the driver’s seat at a Fort Erie business that was a pioneer in Canada and has been part of the community since 1965.

The first and oldest Toyota dealership in the country, Bill’s Toyota on Garrison Road was taken over on September 3 by Northern Roads Auto Group, which operates Cardinal Kia in Niagara Falls, as well as a Kia dealership in Lindsay and a Chrysler dealership in Belleville.

Northern Roads chief operating officer Moe Eftekhari said it’s important to keep Bill’s in the name of the dealership, noting it will now be called Bill’s Fort Erie Toyota.

“We want to continue the legacy,” he said, referring to the family business Bill Pasincky started 60 years ago.

“The brand was a huge attraction,” he said when asked about what drew Northern Roads to the Fort Erie dealership.

He said 14 employees continue to work under new bosses, and that a “fantastic” response has been received by the community.

“It’s been a lot better than expected,” he said, adding the Pasincky family was interested in handing the keys over to a new operator with ties to Niagara.

Eftekhari said Pasincky and Joe Butera, Cardinal Kia president and Northern Roads chairman, have known each other for many years.

Asked about how the auto industry has been affected by ongoing ups and downs and uncertainty related to U.S. tariffs, Eftekhari said things “haven’t slowed down at all.”

He said although Toyota is a Japanese product, many people on this side of the globe appreciate that many of its parts and vehicles are assembled in North America.

The Toyota RAV4 is primarily built in Woodstock, Ont.

“It’s great to have a manufacturer that supports the Canadian people,” he said.

Niagara This Week has been unable to reach a member of the previous ownership, but in 2017 Bill Pasincky Sr. was the keynote speaker at the 25-year anniversary celebration of Fort Erie Multicultural Centre, where he shared his story about getting started.

He told the crowd he had 87 cents in his pocket when he arrived in Fort Erie from Europe.

After living through the Second World War and escaping the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Hungary, his home country, Pasincky lived on the streets of France for a month until a generous taxi service allowed him and some fellow immigrants to stay in its garage to keep warm at night.

The population of Fort Erie was 6,700 when he arrived, and he didn’t speak a word of English, but he learned quickly through night courses at Fort Erie Secondary School.

Pasincky worked at a Sunoco station on Garrison Road before opening his own service station on Jarvis Street, where he began to sell Toyotas. About six years later, he relocated to Central Avenue and Wintemute Street, where he stayed for 25 years, before moving to the current location at Garrison and Kraft roads more than 15 years ago.

Starting a car dealership wasn’t easy, especially as a recent immigrant who was selling foreign vehicles and not models from one of the three major North American manufacturers.

“Here was a newcomer selling Japanese cars, but I was bound and determined and we stuck it out,” he said in his 2017 speech.

Pasincky later operated the dealership with his sons Bill Jr. and Michael.

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