Doug McDonald
McDonald Automotive
Inducted in
2021
Douglas McDonald is CEO of McDonald Automotive Group, a family owned group of 11 dealerships and a collision center in Littleton, Lakewood, Greeley and Fort Morgan.
Born in Yakima, Washington, his father, Stanley McDonald, started selling Dodge automobiles in 1926, two years out of high school. In 1949, he bought a Dodge Plymouth and Truck store in Roswell, New Mexico. Stanley bought the second store, a Volkswagen franchise in New Mexico in 1958 and a third Volkswagen store in Denver in 1964.
In 1965, Doug and his parents, along with his wife Linda and their two small boys in tow, opened the Volkswagen store on South Broadway. In 56 years, that store has grown from one new car franchise to 11: Volkswagen, Audi, Hyundai, Genesis, Volvo, Polestar, two Mazda stores in the Metro Denver area, Toyota in Greeley and Toyota and Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Fort Morgan.
Doug and Linda met at the University of Oklahoma. Today, Linda and Doug have five sons, 18 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Three sons run the current operations as the third generation. Michael serves as President, Jim as Vice President and Bruce as Insurance Director.
Doug has represented his industry locally by serving as District Director, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Board of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association and served twice as the national Chairman of the U.S. Volkswagen Dealer Council. He was Colorado’s nomination for the 1991 TIME Quality Dealer of the Year award. He served on the Board of Regents for Colorado Christian University and as Board member of Encounter Church and Marilyn Hickey Ministries.
Over the years, McDonald Automotive Group has supported organizations such as Children’s Diabetes Foundation with two golf fundraisers (one in Denver and one in Las Vegas), Denver Rescue Mission, Salvation Army and many local organizations, schools and churches.
