Press Release

Following our initial statement regarding an offensive racial slur that appeared on oil-change reminder stickers issued by Rusty Eck Ford, we continued our investigation to fully understand what occurred, how it occurred, and whether any additional customers were affected.

That investigation is now complete, and we want to provide our customers and the Wichita community with a fuller account of what we learned and the actions we have taken.

Late Monday, September 7, a longtime customer contacted Rusty Eck Ford management after discovering an offensive racial slur on an oil-change reminder sticker issued following a July 27 service visit.

We immediately began an investigation to determine how this occurred. We identified the Quick Lane employee responsible for entering the offensive language into the sticker system, and his employment was terminated that same day. Our investigation also determined that three additional customers received stickers containing the same offensive language. We promptly contacted each of those customers.

Our investigation determined that the employee had entered the offensive language while creating a reminder sticker for his own vehicle after servicing it at the dealership. The language was inadvertently left in the system and subsequently appeared on reminder stickers printed for the affected customers. Another employee later discovered and removed the offensive language from the system but failed to report the incident to management. That employee is also no longer employed by Rusty Eck Ford.

Regardless of how or why the language was originally entered, it should never have appeared on any customer communication. We sincerely apologize to the customers who received these stickers and to anyone who has been hurt or offended by this incident.

Rusty Eck Ford has been a family-owned business for more than 73 years, and our relationships with our customers, employees, and the Wichita community are extremely important to us. We are deeply disappointed and embarrassed that this occurred.

We have zero tolerance for racial, hateful, discriminatory, demeaning, or derogatory conduct. What occurred does not reflect the standards, culture, or values we expect at Rusty Eck Ford.

We are reviewing our internal procedures and safeguards to help ensure that something like this does not happen again. We take responsibility for addressing what happened, learning from it, and maintaining the trust our customers and community have placed in us.