Joe Imel/Daily NewsBill Leachman’s Leachman Buick-GMC has purchased the Martin Automotive Group’s Cadillac franchise.

At 66, Bill Leachman has no plans to retire, particularly since he recently expanded his automobile dealership to include the Cadillac label.

The recent addition of Cadillac’s four vehicles to the lineup at the Scottsville Road dealership, Leachman Buick-GMC-Cadillac, is bittersweet for Leachman, he said.

The Cadillac dealership was formerly held by Martin Automotive, which is now operated by the family of a dear friend, Cornelius Martin, who was killed in a June 2006 motorcycle accident that injured Leachman and also killed Brooks Mitchell.

Leachman still carries the scars of that day both physically – his walk is labored using the prosthesis he was fitted with – and mentally. Leachman said he knows that for both his and his family’s comfort, he will never ride a motorcycle again.

“I do this for fun,” he said, tapping his hands on his desk. The desk sits in a simply adorned office that includes a smart black and white photo of himself and his father, Harry Leachman, who, along with Harry Potter, started the roots of Leachman’s business downtown. There also are plaques for being a Kentucky Colonel and a Warren County Good Ole Boy in the room that sits at the back of a maze of offices at the dealership.

Leachman said he thinks the recent addition of the Cadillac label would please Cornelius Martin.

“I think he would feel ‘he may be the right guy to have it,’ ” Leachman said. “I had Cornelius in mind with every step of this.”

Martin Automotive wanted to divest itself of Cadillac because General Motors had eliminated the sale of many other successful GM products that Martin had been selling.

For Leachman, the addition of Cadillac gives his dealership an upscale presence and makes the new vehicle business for the lot more significant.

“It’s a great fit for us,” he said.

The deal, Leachman said, was “a fairly easy thing to conceive and it was such a natural thing.”

In the deal there was no financial consideration made to General Motors.

Such deals occur between willing buyers and sellers, he said.

Leachman declined to disclose details of the agreement but said he received 14 vehicles as part of it, some of which he has already sold.

“And we have a bunch more coming at the end of the month,” he said. “I expect our inventory (for Cadillac) will stay in the range of 20 to 25 vehicles.”

As part of the deal, Leachman will give the building a facelift, which might or might not include any major structural changes.

The auto industry has gone through a metamorphosis since he took over in 1968 for his father, Leachman said.

“I imagine the auto industry as we see it today is the way it will pretty much be moving forward,” he said.

Despite General Motors coming back from bankruptcy, Leachman said he doubts the company will bring back the dealerships it let go or develop many new product lines.

As for what that means for GM’s Bowling Green Assembly Plant, Leachman said he doesn’t know.

“I have no insight into what niche cars they might bring out or produce at the plant here,” he said. “But like any resident or businessperson in Bowling Green, I’d like to see them prosper.”

When Leachman’s not working, he enjoys reading, spending time with his children and grandchildren, and traveling.