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The following article was published on page 21 of the Plant City Courier on October 16, 2003.

O’Connor Back in Town

 OPENS SHOP ON STATE ROAD 39

 By GEORGE H. NEWMAN 

Bill O’Connor has been shopping around for a business to call his own ever since he left a local auto dealership in May 2001.

           And now he has found it.

           After leaving Plant City Motors, formerly B.M. Smith Motors, and going to work in Winter Haven, O’Connor never cut ties with his customers and friends in the Plant City area.

“I worked for Mac and Marian Smith for 12 years and built a strong reputation that helped carry me through 18 months of long days and hard work,” O’Connor said, referring to his time in Winter Haven.  “I did well there but the commute every day would have to wear on you and I always knew I would make it back to Plant City.”

 O’Connor opened Bill O’Connor Automotive at 5211 James L. Redman Parkway last November.  But the big news is that O’Connor, who leases the Redman Parkway location, has purchased 1.5 acres just to the south and that he will move the business to the new location by spring.

 O’Connor, who graduated from Tampa’s Chamberlain High in 1968, said moving has been a big part of his life.  As part of a military family he crisscrossed the country eight times by the time he was 15.

“After attending the University of South Florida for several years I started in sales for an Alcoa distributor.  One lean month got me into the automobile business in 1968 with King Motor Center in Tampa,” he said.

From there O’Connor became the leasing manager, then assistant store manager and during the gas crunch in 1973-74 transferred within the company to another Tampa store.  He then moved to Largo and then Fort Myers.  From there he transferred to Spartanburg, S.C., with Joe King Oldsmobile as a new car salesman.

“In 1982 I took a big risk and went on my own by opening Dodge City in Spartanburg.  After 10 years I sold the dealership to Chrysler and realized that I still had Florida sand in my shoes,” he said.  “Debby (his wife of 33 years) and I decided to come back home.  That is when I met Mac and Marian Smith.”

“Bill never had a chance to get with any other dealer,” Mac Smith said.  “I met a man in St. Petersburg at a dealership convention.  I needed a man to help run the business and I was introduced to Bill.  He fit our image at B.M. Smith perfectly.  He was clean cut, a family man, active in his community and a real hard worker.

People need a reputable businessman to deal with and Bill fits that category perfectly.  Marian and I are indebted to the way Bill treated us and our dealership.”

O’Connor is a member and past president of the local Lions Club, and a member of the Optimist Club and St. Clement Catholic Church.  He and Debby have three grown children who still live in the area.

At his new store, which opened in November,  Bill and Debby work as a team to provide quality used cars at an affordable price.

“Debby works as a fulltime, unpaid volunteer, to keep our overhead costs down,” Bill said, without laughing.  “we also hired a fulltime salesman to help with an increasing volume.  We work hard to turn cars quickly, so we keep the costs down and try to acquire vehicles that fit our market.”