Finding someone more positive or upbeat than FIADA Honorary Life Director Don Scott is a challenge. Even today at age 81, Don says he still feels like he is 18 and is always looking on the bright side.

“You can’t always change your circumstances, or your health, or your problems but you can always change your attitude; you have to always be positive and seeking a solution,” Don said. 

Reading Don’s story may give you a better understanding of who he is and how he has been able to achieve his success. He was born in 1942 in the small, rural mining town of Beaver, West Virginia. Small might be an understatement; according to the 2020 Census Beaver’s population was only 1,365. With the coal mines shut down, Don knew there weren’t any options in the area for work so he moved to Ocala, Florida in 1960. He slept on a cot in his grandfather’s house and enrolled in the nearby Central Florida Junior College. He remembers riding around in his grandfather’s Studebaker looking for a job and being happy when he found one unloading train box cars on a 10-hour shift for $2.25 an hour. He ended up getting a second job soon after, at the very first McDonald’s to be built in Central Florida by the way, where he made seventy-five cents an hour. 

Working at McDonald’s was not that great, but it did introduce him to Bob Luke, who is still Don’s best friend to this day. Bob talked Don into applying with him for another job at an insurance agency in Ocala, which ended up being just the thing this skinny, stuttering, acne-prone West Virginian needed.

“God sends you many mentors in life and Mr. Stewart at Independent Insurance Company was one of mine,” Don said. At his interview, Don hardly kept eye contact with Mr. Stewart and was sure he had no chance of being hired. Mr. Stewart told Don if he wanted the job he would have to read two books: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale. He finished the books, got the job and Mr. Stewart sent Don to a life-changing Dale Carnegie course akin to his books “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.” By the end of the course, Don was transformed into a confident, magnetic leader ready to take on the world. In fact, he was given an award for “Most Changed” at the end of the course.

Again with his partner in crime Bob Luke, Don made a move in 1969 that would end up being the start of his forty-plus year career in the car business. He became a salesman for Walt McKee at McKee Chrysler Plymouth and learned everything there was to know about buying and selling cars. At 27-years-old he became a member of the Chrysler Medallion Club, an elite honor for the top salesmen in the country. He worked as the used car manager and sales manager until 1972 when he and Bob bought neighboring new car dealerships in Baxley, Georgia. It was the middle of the “Jimmy Carter Depression” however and car stores around the country were going broke right and left. The timing just wasn’t right on that first venture and Don ended up leaving after a few years to come back to Florida and officially open Don Scott Motors in 1976.

“Right away I became a FIADA member and when I went to my first meeting I met more mentors like Bob Galloway, Bob Snider and George Hickey to name a few. Those guys were and are giants in the industry and I became a part of the Association and have stuck with it ever since,” Don said.

Don Scott Motors became a landmark in Ocala and shortly after his son, Kevin, graduated high-school Don was delighted to have him join the business. Don said his son's hard work and intelligence helped the dealerships dynasty really thrive and grow, eventually expanding to four dealerships. In 2009, both father and son decided it was time to chase new ventures.  Don was ready to retire and Kevin was interested in pursuing the software segment in the automobile industry and going to work with Wayne Reaves Software, where today he is the CIO.

“I’ve learned a lot about the business and have gained a lot of life experience owning a car dealership,” Don said. “Belonging to FIADA kept me educated all those years. I give a lot of credit to my son, Kevin, who helped me be successful and really surpassed me in knowledge and ability.”

Always the businessman, Don pushed his retirement back to age 67 to maximize his Social Security benefits and made sure that he always owned the properties where we had his dealerships. Those four lots he acquired while Don Scott Motors was in full swing continue to house dealerships today. He rents them out now and uses the income as his “401k.” Acquiring property was something he learned from his grandfather.

“He told me, ‘Don, you’re going to be young for a little while but you will be old for a long time.’ You need passive income. He told me, ‘the dirt may go up, and it may go down, but at the end of it all, you’ll still have the dirt.”

While he was an active dealer, Don made FIADA membership a top priority. 

He served as FIADA President in 2003, was the 2002 FIADA Quality Dealer and became an Honorary Life Director in 2014, which is what he says “they give you when you get real old.” Even today he faithfully attends the FIADA Annual Convention and Board Meetings. Nothing makes him happier than to give back to the Association and the dealer community that has given him so much.

“Belonging to FIADA kept me educated all those years,” Don said. “It is so important to be a FIADA member. There are so many changing laws and rules it is hard not to make a mistake. If you do, it could cost you everything.”

Don remembers in the 1990s when “in the dark of night” the US Congress passed a bill implementing the accrual method of accounting for lenders, including buy here-pay here dealerships. Being forced to pay tax on money that had not been collected was insane to him, and he joined in with fellow FIADA and NIADA members who went to Washington DC to protest. The Senators the dealer delegation met with were unaware of what the bill actually meant to businesses like Don Scott Motors and at that moment Don learned exactly what “legislative advocacy” was all about. When the next big threatening piece of legislation, a Florida “Lemon Law” started making its way through Tallahassee a few years later he helped rally the troops to defeat it.

“We worked hard to get more dealers to join the association and take advantage of the support FIADA offers to help stay on top of their business and learn the industry’s best practices. The more dealers that get involved in FIADA and show their support the more we can help influence state and federal legislation to be fair to our industry. If we don’t stick together as an industry, we will hang separately and go broke,” Don said.

When he is not evangelizing about FIADA, Don stays busy with a few other things. He works some as an outside salesman for Leonard Motor Company, which was started three generations ago by another of his best friends, Brad Leonard. He has also helped out at the Show Stoppers Collectors Car Auction held every year at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala and will always be a life-long spokesman for another good friend, Wayne Reaves, encouraging dealers to use the Wayne Reaves Software program if they want to “stay out of trouble.” One of the accomplishments he is most proud of though, is his work in creating the Lost and Found Club of Ocala, a recovery center for those struggling with drug, alcohol and other addictions. 

“One of my children was exposed to drugs in 1976,” Don said. “I’ve been helping people get off of drugs and into recovery, and pay taxes instead of paying drug dealers.”

Looking back over his career in the car business, Don is thankful for the opportunities it gave him but recognizes things have changed a lot over the years. When he first started selling cars in the seventies, you could buy a brand new Plymouth Fury or Barracuda for $3,500 with a 50,000 mile warranty. A transmission could be rebuilt for under $150. The cars have gotten more expensive, the repairs more technical and the customers more unreliable.

“The cars were cheap, the repairs were cheap and you could sell anything on a handshake,” Don said. “There was no need to run a credit report. If someone couldn’t make the payments, they would just bring it back.” As trustworthiness started to decline and purchase prices and parts increased, Don admits the job got a lot harder. He admires today’s dealers for their tenacity and toughness. He still holds to his belief though, that without FIADA dealers cannot survive.

“I really try all the time to educate dealers on the importance of the Association. The CPAs, the contractors, the realtors--everybody has an association because it gives you more control over your business and helps you become aware of potentially tragic mistakes,” Don said. “There are just so many benefits. The comradery and conversations that I have had with other members taught me how to be a car dealer. I learned from the guys that were doing it right. Be close to successful people!”