Bismarck Motor Co. plans new locations in Mandan, N.D.

By Andrew Weeks

BISMARCK, N.D. • The Bismarck Motor Co., which has been in business for nearly 70 years, is opening two new facilities in Mandan, N.D.

The dealership, which sells Hyundai and other vehicle lines, will begin renovations in December of the vacant properties at 805 and 905 East Main Street in Mandan. The facilities will be a new Hyundai dealership and a detailing center.

According to the company, the property at 905 East Main will receive a complete exterior and interior remodel, including seamless glass windows, an extended bronze facia, an air conditioned shop and a new parking lot. The location will offer new Hyundai vehicles, pre-owned vehicles, service and parts operations.

The 805 East Main property includes demolishing a section of the current building, adding a new entrance, windows, exterior remodel, air conditioned shop area and office space to the remaining building. The space will be utilized as Bismarck Motor and Hyundai of Mandan’s detailing facility, currently located in south Bismarck.

The dealership will also offer windshield replacement, paint corrections and dent repair.

“We’re extremely excited to expand the BMC brand and our services to the Mandan community,” owner Chris Schneider said in a statement. “This Hyundai dealership is the newest release and design for Hyundai dealerships nationwide, and Hyundai has some big things going for their brand. We’re proud to give Hyundai a stand-alone facility and make Mandan its home.”

The facilities, designed and built by Darwin Lindahl Architects and H&R Construction, plan to open for business in late spring 2022.

According to Shanielle Ulmer, digital sales and marketing manager for Bismarck Motor, the company has had challenges during the pandemic but it hasn’t prevented it from expanding. She said it also tries to find ways to serve the community.

“We’ve been very fortunate throughout the pandemic,” she said. “We were able to keep our entire staff throughout 2020, which was a big thing, and we’ve been able to take care of our employees and take care of our community a little, too.”

Something the company did that it’s proud of: “We did a program during COVID, where we put $25,000 back into our community by buying gift cards from locally owned businesses,” Ulmer said. “And then we forwarded those to health care workers. We worked through some of our local hospital foundation programs to make sure they were given to the frontline heroes that are battling a lot of this on a day-to-day side. We were also again able to support the local businesses that really needed assistance at that time to keep their doors open.

“We knew we were able to take care of our employees and then we just knew that the next thing was to take care of our community, because that is what’s most important to us as well.”

As for vehicle sales, she said vehicle manufacturers have gone through some shutdowns but having other brands is really good for the company. When one brand might be selling poorly, for whatever reason, another brand might be selling well.

“That’s kind of something that we’ve been really fortunate with,” she said.

And, Ulmer said, the dealership initiated something during the pandemic that it plans to keep doing in the years ahead: Offering vehicle purchases online and delivering them to customers.

It also started a program called BMC Buys in which the dealer buys vehicles from people.

“We’re buying a lot of cars off the street,” Ulmer said. “That’s been really helpful to us, and we’re able to take care of our guests in a different way — not only selling cars to them but buying cars from them.”

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