The Grand Opening of the all-new McLarty Daniel Ford of Bentonville!

Letting go of the past is always hard. In the case of the old McLarty Daniel Ford dealership at 2609 S. Walton Boulevard, it was especially so given the location’s place in the history of Northwest Arkansas, including being the dealership where Walmart founder Sam Walton bought the now-iconic red-and-white 1979 Ford F-150 pickup he drove until his passing in April 1992.

But with the grand opening of our gleaming new dealership on March 15, the all-new McLarty Daniel Ford of Bentonville is ready for the next 50 years of serving the citizens of Northwest Arkansas. Built from the ground up with the goal of better serving our customers, our new 46,685 square foot facility includes a greatly expanded service area with more than double the number of advisors, a larger waiting area with more comfortable chairs, a larger showroom with dedicated space for Lincoln vehicles, an on-site car wash and much more room on the lot for an even bigger selection of new and pre-owned vehicles. Our hope is that the new McLarty Daniel Ford will serve not only as the premiere place to buy a new Ford or Lincoln vehicle in Northwest Arkansas, but also as a hub for showcasing the great things happening in our community for years to come.

Built by Harco Constructors of North Little Rock on a 10.6-acre site at a cost of over $10 million dollars, the multi-level dealership includes a bright and airy new showroom, lined with scenes of Bentonville, including one shot of Sam Walton’s F-150 parked in front of the original Walmart location downtown. “I commissioned a local guy and he took all the photos for us,” said McLarty Daniel Ford General Manager Jason Hooe. “We had a local print shop print them up. It was important to me to go local with everything. It couldn’t have turned out better. I think we got the right temperament for the store. It ties us to the community. The community is a big deal to me.”

The grand opening on March 15 was packed with state, local and national luminaries, as well as the customers who have shopped with McLarty Daniel Ford in the past. Bentonville Mayor Stephanie Orman, U.S. Representative Steve Womack and U.S. Senator John Boozman were on hand to speak, in addition to a free concert by Nashville recording artist Coffey Anderson.

The grand opening also included an event with Northwest Arkansas charity The Pack Shack, with dozens of volunteers on hand to pack thousands of free meals for the homeless. Hooe said that pairing the dealership’s official launch with a Pack Shack event is not only a great way to help the less fortunate, but also symbolic of the mission he sees for McLarty Daniel Ford of Bentonville in the years to come. “We’re not going to blow our own horn,” he said. “I’d rather have the first act of this business be a service to the community than have it be something where we say: ‘Look at us!'”

Another luminary on hand for the Grand Opening was Brad Bellamy, Marketing Reputation Manager for Ford Motor Company. Surveying the photos of Bentonville that hang in the dealership showroom before the ribbon cutting, Bellamy said: “You look around, and you see the different pictures on the walls. That’s unique to this dealership. And it shows how important the partnership is between Bentonville and McLarty Daniel Ford.”

Come help us celebrate the all-new McLarty Daniel Ford! Stop in today, look around, have some coffee or a bottled water in our beautiful new customer lounge, and let us show you what it means when we say McLarty Daniel Ford of Bentonville wants to be a completely different kind of dealership, and a resource for the people of Northwest Arkansas.

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