Wichita car salesman makes 25,000th sale: ‘It’s like doing business with your grandfather’

A lot of people can look back over their careers with pride at what they accomplished, but Bill Rosenboom can put an actual number to his successes: 25,000.

That’s how many cars he’s sold since he started selling them in 1963 at the Rusty Eck Ford store in Haven.

“I feel like I’ve bought all 25,000 of them,” joked Mark Hutton, whose family and construction company have been buying from Rosenboom for decades.

The number they’ve purchased probably is closer to 250, but Hutton said there’s a reason they keep going back.

“It’s like doing business with your grandfather,” he said.

“When you think about . . . people you want to deal with in business, Bill would be the poster child for that. Never have to worry about a darn thing. Just a man of gold.”

Rosenboom, who is turning 87 in March, is the fleet sales manager at the Rusty Eck Ford headquarters on East Kellogg.

He said he prefers to do business the old way.

“I know the internet’s good now, but I’ll tell you back then . . . it was more on a personal basis.”

Hutton noted that Rosenboom is “probably the only one in Wichita who still uses fax.”

“When he’s going to e-mail me something, he has to have somebody else scan it in for him,” Hutton said. “But it doesn’t slow him down any. He’s as organized as anybody.”

Rosenboom said repeat business and referrals are what help him sell vehicles.

“That’s the whole secret.”

He said the Huttons are good people, but Rosenboom said, “I try to give everybody 110% like they’re my only customer.”

If you’re up front with people and give them an honest deal, he said, “They’re going to come back to you.”

Rosenboom said the world has changed, though.

“Some people just don’t treat people good anymore.”

Rosenboom’s late wife, Joan, was a one-time bookkeeper for Innes Department Store. Rosenboom approached Rusty Eck and said he needed a job closer to his Wichita home, and Eck helped him get one at the then much-larger Turner Ford on Douglas near Pattie.

Rosenboom was used to having 10 to 15 cars on the Haven lot. At Turner Ford, there were more like 200. So he approached the sales manager, J.D. Rickman, to ask about selling them.

“I said, Mr. Rickman, what are we going to do with all those cars?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Son, every seat has an a** for it.’

“I will never never forget that.”

While Rosenboom enjoys selling cars, there are more practical reasons he still works.

“I tell ya, it keeps my mind going.”

Also, he lost his wife to cancer in 2008, so it gives him something to do.

Rosenboom wakes up most days between 4:30 and 5 a.m.

For the first two and a half years after his wife died, he went to visit her daily at the cemetery.

Now, he goes to either Mass or adoration at church to spend time praying for her and others before he gets to work a little after 7 a.m. each weekday.

“It just gives me peace of mind.”

Then Rosenboom works a full day, not leaving his job until 4 or 4:30 p.m.

That sounds like a lot for an octogenarian. Surely there’s a sofa at the dealership where he can grab a quick nap, right?

“Oh, no, I don’t take no naps.”

Rosenboom said the Eck family has been wonderful, and he feels like both his wife and Rusty Eck were looking down on him last week as he celebrated his 25,000th sale. Hutton was the buyer.

“We were thrilled to be part of that celebration for him,” Hutton said. “We knew how much it meant to him.”

Rosenboom said 25,000 was a longtime goal for him. Within a week of reaching it, he’d already sold four more vehicles.

A longtime customer suggested 50,000 would be a good new goal.

“Well, I’d be 200 years old if I hit 50,000,” Rosenboom said.

Even if he could sell that many, he said he doesn’t need to.

“I’ve had a blessed life.”

He said he appreciates his customers, family and friends — and his job.

“I’m not going to retire. I’m going to stay right at it.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 10:04 AM.