History

James G. Pritchard arrived in Ithaca from England in the late 1800’s as a craftsman of fine custom carriages. His carriages were well built and quite popular. In order to establish his business in America, James opened a manufacturing facility and sales office right here in Ithaca. Specializing in carriages, buggies, sleighs and wagons. Working with his two sons, one of which was William T. Pritchard, he began selling the new ‘automobiles’ after 1910.

The Dodge franchise was acquired in 1915, less than 12 months after Horace and John Dodge built the first Dodge automobile, “Old Betsy”. The Dodge brothers had worked for Henry Ford for 12 years, designing and building most of the parts for the Ford autos, and decided it was time to build their own vehicles.

William T. Pritchard then built the present dealership on South Cayuga Street in 1921 to better service and sell new vehicles. There it has remained, as a family-owned and operated business for five generations.

In 2004, we acquired the Chrysler Jeep franchise to round out the vehicles we offer. In 2009 Pritchard parted ways with chrysler.com. Today we pride ourselves on being one of the oldest family-owned and operated automobile and truck dealerships in North America.

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