David Fitzgerald still loves Chrysler, even if Chrysler doesn’t love him.
He’ll never get it out of his veins. “I would bleed Chrysler blue if you cut me,” he said.
At 49, Fitzgerald owns Northglenn Dodge, but he’s changing the name to and selling used cars after the automaker terminated his franchise along with 788 others.
“I was up 14 percent in sales . . . at a time when Chrysler was down 40 percent,” Fitzgerald told me.
So why’d you get cut? I asked.
“It’s a mystery, ain’t it?”
Chrysler is emerging from bankruptcy with Fiat SpA, the United Auto Workers, and the U.S. and Canadian governments as its owners.
Shedding 25 percent of its dealer base was a necessary part of the reorganization, a judge ruled, despite dealer protests that went all the way to Congress.
Fitzgerald’s had to whittle his workforce to 60 from more than 100. He’s unloading inventory from his 10.2-acre lot. He’s scrambling together a new business plan. And moving on.
“This is part of my heritage,” Fitzgerald said. “My father loved the Chrysler Imperial . . . and started selling Chrysler products in 1959.”
In the late 1970s, Fitzgerald’s father struggled with alcoholism, and Chrysler found itself pleading for government assistance.
“I came in one day and my key didn’t fit,” Fitzgerald said. “The locks had been changed because my father hadn’t paid the sales taxes in nine months.”
That quickly became front-page fodder.
“Chrysler was in all this trouble, and here was a local dealer’s store shut, repossessed, cars pulled out and parked in the back — the worst thing that could ever happen to a car dealer,” he said.
“We left town pretty much in shame.”
But from there, the Fitzgerald family made a comeback that was every bit as impressive as Chrysler’s.
Fitzgerald’s father went into treatment, never had another drink and, with help from an investor, acquired a bankrupt Toyota dealership in Pueblo.
Japanese cars were no easy sell in a union steel town, yet the Fitzgeralds turned the dealership’s fortunes.
“There wasn’t very good salesmanship when we came in,” Fitzgerald said. “These guys wandered around with sunglasses and cigarettes and talked about how the color of the tires matched the ladies’ hair. It was a comedy.”
The Fitzgeralds went into the business of taking over dealerships, boosting sales and selling them for a profit.
“I became a dealer when I was 27 years old,” Fitzgerald said. Eventually, he wanted a dealership he would operate on his own, as opposed to just flip, so he set his sights back to Northglenn.
“I chose to purchase this dealership in 1992 because it’s where I grew up, and I believe in selling American cars,” he said.
Fitzgerald said fretting about losing his Dodge franchise is a waste of time. Contracts, agreements and loyalties mean nothing in bankruptcy court.
He learned a long time ago that it’s better to cheer.
“I’m going to be rooting for Chrysler to make it,” Fitzgerald said. “The survival of the company that I still love depends upon it.”
Al Lewis: 201-938-5266 or al.lewis@ ; read Al’s blog at
