Grand Theft Auto

When General Motors and Chrysler declared bankruptcy in 2009 and immediately targeted thousands of dealerships for closure, tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars were on the line.

Staring down two of the largest manufacturers in the world as well as President Obama's Automotive Task Force, a determined triumvirate of car dealers banded together and went to Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard.

Alan Spitzer's fast-paced memoir takes readers behind the scenes as citizen's lobbyists traverse throughout all of the major corridors of power in the nation's capital to make their case and bring justice to thousands of small business across the country.

Join Spitzer on his journey as he creates a grassroots movement to overturn the government s illegal and outrageous terminations and as he gets a bill passed through a bitterly partisan House and Senate!

The grassroots effort was directly responsible for saving hundreds of dealerships and tens of thousands of jobs, said Spitzer.

Alan is a third generation member of the Spitzer family, who established their business in 1904 when Mr. Spitzer's grandfather, George G. Spitzer, started a hardware store in the small northern Ohio community of Grafton. The hardware store is still in business today as part of a complex that contains 35 separate business entities including 20 automobile dealerships. Alan attended Midview High School in Grafton, OH before completing his high school education at Culver Academies in Culver, IN. He received a B.A. in accounting from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio before entering the MBA program at Case- Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Alan worked in all phases of the parts and service departments before beginning his sales career at the age of 15. He became an assistant sales manager at the age of 17, a general manager at a Dodge dealership in Mansfield, OH at age 20, and then Columbus, OH. At the age of 24, he became a dealer operator when the family entered the Akron, OH market with a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership. He continued to manage various automobile dealerships throughout the state of Ohio and in South Florida. In 1982 he became executive vice president of Spitzer Management, Inc. headquartered in Elyria, OH. In 1990 he assumed the role of chief executive officer and was named chairman of the board upon the death of his father John in 1992. When Chrysler and General Motors terminated more than 2,000 dealers in the spring of 2009 Alan led a coalition of dealers who lobbied the United States Congress to overturn the closings.