Welcome to Court Street Ford

Our Story

Though Court Street Ford didn't open its doors until 1983, our story goes back much further. And it didn't even start with Ford!

Our founder, Jeff Chiero, got his start as an apprentice technician at one of the country's largest Chevy dealerships in Elmhurst, Illinois. It wasn't long before he decided to make the switch to new car sales. After a few years, he teamed up with one of his managers, Bart Collins, who had the opportunity to open a Ford dealership farther down on I-57 in a little town called Kankakee.

At the time, Kankakee County was experiencing record unemployment and many businesses were leaving town. Court Street Ford would be the latest Ford dealer to open up shop in a town that had seen many open and close their doors in recent years. The car business isn't an easy one, and this kind of climate didn't make things any better. But Jeff and Bart were determined to make things work.

The two found success and, before long, were looking to relocate to a brand new building. The original building was located on 2400 E. Court Street in Kankakee, and this is where our name came from. In the early 1990's, we decided to build anew in Bourbonnais on 558 Latham Drive - but then the name "Court Street Ford" wouldn't make sense anymore... or would it?

The decision to keep the name "Court Street" was made because the people of Kankakee County had come to trust us for a wide variety of needs - new and used cars, service, parts, and more. The same Court Street Ford they knew wasn't changing, we were just changing locations. That was in 1992, and to this day you can still find Court Street Ford on William R Latham Drive.

In that time, we have welcomed many new employees to our dealership, many of which are still with us. One of these people was Jeff Sproul who, after relocating to the area with his family to be our service manager, eventually became General Manager and minority owner of the store.

In late 2023, Jeff Chiero decided to retire, and sold the dealership to Kevin Minley of Milwaukee, WI. Kevin has retained Court Street Ford's commitment to our customers throughout Kankakee County and beyond, as well as a vision to grow the Court Street Ford brand to new heights.

Despite the change in ownership, we are still family owned, and our commitment has been to our customers here in Kankakee County and all over Illinois and the USA. Had it not been for patronage of these people throughout the years, we wouldn't have made it this long. We know there are many places to shop for cars, but so many people have made us their destination since the early 1980s.

Why?

Because exceeding customer expectations is something we strive to do every day. We're not perfect, sure, but even if things do go wrong, we see these situations as opportunities to create customers for life. We're here today, and we'll be here tomorrow to assist our customers any way we possibly can.