The Mazda man from Malta last week ended more than 50 years in the car business.
To label Emanuel Bugelli a “Mazda man” is perhaps a misnomer; he’s been associated with many marques, and when I asked him several years ago, “After all those years with all those makes, what’s your favorite,” he said:
“I favor no one make over another. It’s all business. With the right people, you can make anything go; that’s more important than any particular make.”Bugelli on Thursday sold the Gateway Mazda dealership to longtime Denver area car dealer Don Hicks and business partner John Bowell, owners of Shortline Automotive.
“Mazda will fit perfectly with our Shortline group,” said Hicks. Shortline’s Subaru, Kia and Hyundai stores are down the street a few blocks from Gateway Mazda on South Havana Street in Aurora. Hicks opened a Porsche business in Colorado Springs about seven years ago.
Bugelli as a young man came to the U.S. in 1961 from Malta, an island off the coast of Sicily, and landed a job as bookkeeper in a car business.
Through the years, he worked his way into prominent management positions with large California dealerships at Vallejo, Woodland, Riverside and San Diego.
Bugelli came to Denver in 1980 as an associate with Doug Spedding. He bought Friendly Ford in 1982 and added a dealership at Silverthorne in 1987. He bought the Mazda store from Gene Osborn in 1988, then several years later divested his other interests and moved his office to the Gateway Mazda location.
Hicks for more than 25 years has operated Shortline Automotive. He is a member of Subaru Chairman’s Roundtable and in 2008 received the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award for Colorado.
Hicks began his automotive career in 1972 as a salesman for Courtesy Ford in Littleton.
Sale of the Mazda dealership has been in the works for several weeks. It opened its doors Friday morning under its new banner, Shortline Mazda.
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