Donated cars helping local students race into future of auto tech

CANFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) — The Mahoning County Career and Technical Center is getting up to speed on the latest technology with some new donations to its automotive program.

“Technology changes so fast in automotive,” said automotive technology instructor Thomas Morris. “It’s a big benefit to have new cars.”

Morris says in his 3 years teaching the automotive technology program at Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, there’s never been a new car donation — much less two.

A 2024 Ford Mustang GT is one of the newest cars that MCCTC has ever received for its automotive program. Fred Martin Ford dropped off the sleek blue model Tuesday afternoon. It was one of several damaged in a flooded storage facility in Chicago and shipped to automotive technology programs like that at MCCTC.

The hope is the car will have the students racing into the future of car technology.

Haus Auto Group also donated a 2012 Ford Focus to the program. It’s something the group wants to do every year to support the careers of automotive technicians like the ones they employ.

“To be able to see kids passionate and see their drive to want to do that kind of stuff in skilled trade like that is amazing,” said Chris Haus, with Haus Auto Group. “If we can help them, we would love to do that.”

The donated cars are a stark contrast to the older models filling the shop. It’s important the students learn to work on the newest computers and parts.

“It makes it easier for them to transition into the workforce. The technology isn’t as overwhelming, and they come out with a better learning curve,” said Jeff Bacho, with Fred Martin Ford.

“All these cars are kind of older, so it is awesome to have something a little bit newer and something that’s just different,” said automotive technologies student Connor Thompson.

To say the kids were excited might be an understatement.

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