Sioux City Toyota franchise in new hands
SIOUX CITY — Rick Collins has deep ties in Pocatello, Idaho, where he was born and raised and sold cars for more than three decades. Nobody in his immediate family had ever left the southeast Idaho community, nestled in the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains. So, he raised more than a few eyebrows back home when he recently bought a Toyota dealership in Sioux City, Iowa. “It was a big shock to my family and the community.
I’ve been in the car business all my life in Idaho,” says Collins, owner of the new Rick Collins Toyota-Scion, 3131 Singing Hills Blvd. “It’s a major deal to move 1,200 miles, where you don’t know anybody.” In a short time, Collins, 51, says he has fallen in love with Siouxland, which he says reminds him in many ways of his hometown. “I really like the town. I thought it would be a good place to bring my family,” he said. “It’s twice the size of the city where I came from.
It’s exciting because there will be more to do and there are four times as many restaurants.” Collins, who started selling cars right out of high school in Pocatello, operated a Chevrolet franchise in Pocatello for 15 years. Three years ago, he sold that business and opened a local Mitsubishi dealership. The transaction was part of a broader long-range plan to get his financial affairs in order to purchase a Toyota dealership. Toyota’s product line and fast growth appealed to Collins.
In 2007, Toyota Motor Corp. soared past Ford Motor Co. to become the No. 2 car company in the United States. This year, the Japanese manufacturer is posed to pass General Motors Corp. to become the world’s largest automaker. Last May, a broker led Collins to Art Silva Toyota-Scion in Sioux City. After he finished talking with Silva, the broker went out in the parking lot and called Collins on his cell phone. “I hopped on a plane three to four days later and came to Sioux City,” Collins recalled.