Joe Dominguez washes a GMC Sierra pickup at Jax Car Wash in Hillsdale on Wednesday.

Josh Newhook | Collegian

Hillsdale GMC sold its franchise and will take on the name Southern Michigan Motors later this year.

“We were approached by someone to sell the company,” said Hillsdale GMC owner Ken Joswiak. “We never expected this to happen, and we were not planning on selling because we knew that we did not want to leave Hillsdale.”

Together, Joswiak and his wife Stacy, own Hillsdale GMC as well as the recreational vehicle dealership across the street, Southern Michigan RV.

“This was a good opportunity that would allow us to remain in Hillsdale and continue operating the business as normal,” he said.

Joswiak has owned the dealership since 2016. Before then, it belonged to the Leutheuser family since its founding in 1950.

“I sold the dealership to Ken Joswiak over five years ago,” said former owner Eric Leutheuser. “I was serving as a state representative at the time, and he became the owner-operator. He has been the dealer since then.”

Both the GMC dealership and the RV dealership will continue their normal operations despite the change.

“We will still retain our normal service department, including RV repair, which is a unique element for a dealership our size to have.”

Joswiak said the dealership has a new body shop that they will continue to use despite company changes.

“It might not seem like it from the outside, but the inside of our body shop has brand-new, state-of-the-art machinery that allows us to do very unique kinds of work for a dealership our size,” he said.

The only major change coming is that the dealership will stop performing warranty work, Joswiak said.

“This change just means that we will no longer do warranty work on vehicles,” he said. “We will still sell cars and RVs like normal.”

Joswiak said the change made the most sense considering the current state of the car industry.

“With the car industry these days, no one knows what will happen,” he said. “COVID has really changed the game, and we as an industry are down millions of cars that should be out being purchased, being used, but are not.”

Leutheuser said he understands why the change was necessary for the company.

“I know Ken has had great support from the community while marketing Buicks and GMCs,” he said. “But also, the factory allocation system has not been kind to smaller, rural markets like ours.”

John Miller, customer of Hillsdale GMC, said he also understands the need for change in the company.

“I’m sad to see the changes, even though they make sense for the owner,” he said. “The shop offers great service, and I’m glad to know that will continue.”

The change will be officially installed later this year, but Joswiak wants the Hillsdale community to know he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “We will stay here and continue to do the same things we’ve been doing.”