by Russell J. Moore – Courtesy of: Warwick Beacon

Warwick will soon be home to the only Cadillac dealership in the state when Herb Chambers Cadillac, formerly located in Providence, moves into what was the Saturn dealership on 1511 Bald Hill Road.

Earlier this year, General Motors announced it would eliminate the Saturn brand of cars by 2011. Saturn, which had never been profitable in its 20-year history, was eliminated as part of GM’s restructuring plan submitted to Congress and President Obama after having received bailout funds.

Herb Chambers, which owns the dealership, was considering building a state-of-the-art two-story dealership in West Warwick, just a mile or so up the street. Herb Chambers, however, was convinced by Mayor Scott Avedisian and Warwick attorney Joe Shekarchi (who does legal work for the company) to remain in the city. That means the city will retain the tax revenue that otherwise would have been lost had the dealership opted to move.

Contacted yesterday, Chambers said he was happy to retain a presence in Warwick.

“General Motors has been pressuring me to move (Cadillac) there for a long time. Finally, we’re able to do it,” said Chambers.

Chambers pointed out that while the dealership will sell Cadillac exclusively, people who own Saturns will still be able to have their cars serviced at that dealership.

“We will continue to service Saturns forever, basically until there aren’t any more of them on the road,” said Chambers.

Chambers said the consolidation of two dealerships (Saturn and Cadillac) into one would result in some job losses, but he hopes that increased Cadillac sales will result in future job gains.

“We expect an increase in Cadillac sales because of our new location. Hopefully we’ll be able to add more employees in the near future,” said Chambers.

Chambers said Warwick is a great place to do business.

“There is so much retail in Warwick. That strip on Route 2 has to be one of the busiest in New England,” said Chambers.

Avedisian said that the addition of Herb Chambers Cadillac represents a much-needed end-of-the-year boost in economic development.

“Herb Chambers Cadillac is a wonderful addition to the city. We had many discussions about getting them here, as they are a well-known and respected entity in Rhode Island. We are pleased they will call Warwick home,” said Avedisian.

“This is a great end-of-the-year economic boost for the city.”

Councilman Steve Merolla (Ward-9), contacted on Friday, said he too welcomes the dealership into the city.

Herb Chambers – The value of confidence

Workers want a leader they can believe in

By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent

HERB CHAMBERS WAS in the middle of expanding his car sales business when the recession hit, but he kept right on going with plans to open new dealerships and expand others. Now Chambers is hiring, and employees are glad they’re at a company that’s growing while their industry is gasping.

When the climate is gloomy, employees want company leaders to offer confidence, communication, and a sense that a bright future is being built.

Workers at these companies believe their professional fate is in good hands:

Herb Chambers Cos.: Twenty-five years ago, it wasn’t the norm for an auto dealer’s service department to wash the cars before returning them to customers, but Herb Chambers did it. “My feeling was a clean car always ran better than dirty one did,’’ said Chambers, head of his namesake business.

This year, going against the grain meant completing $50 million in new facilities. It’s that kind of thinking that has allowed Chambers auto dealerships to grow while other dealers are struggling or even closing down.

That sits well with employees, especially in the high-pressure world of auto sales. “I think it gives our people a great deal of confidence,’’ Chambers said. “They feel good about our company. They believe they are in the right place.’’

One after another, Chambers employees surveyed for Top Places cited the boss himself and the company’s growth as reasons for their satisfaction.

Not that Chambers has escaped the recession entirely. Sales are down 19 percent this year compared to last year, when the expansion was planned. But national numbers are down even more: from 30 to 34 percent.

“We never had a doubt about the future,’’ said Michael Hannafin, service director at Flagship Motorcars, a newly refurbished Chambers dealership in Lynnfield. “He’s a guy who believes in what he is doing. That trickles down.’’

Hannafin said Chambers recently pulled aside a manager who had reorganized a parts department, saying he wanted the rest of the company to copy the system. “You can’t measure what that does for an employee,’’ Hannafin said. “That guy was on cloud nine and the rest of his team was motivated, because he was singled out in a positive way by the CEO of the company.’’

This event is for motoring enthusiasts looking for a place to take their ride, share stories and admire each other’s pride and joy.

Visit: herbchamberscarsandcoffee.com

Herb Chambers Cars and Coffee is completely free and will be held at the all new Herb Chambers BMW of Sudbury, 128 Boston Post Road (Route 20) in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

The dealership is located just six miles from exit 26 off Rte 128/95.

All enthusiasts including antique, classic, exotic, hotrods, motorcycles and motorsports are invited to attend and there will be plenty of free parking for your vehicle.

Free Tee Shirts for the first 200 attendees!

On display! McLaren F-1

We hope to see you there!

John Covell

Director of Training and Marketing

john@herbchambers.com

Herb Chambers’ McLaren F1 and coffee

~Photo by William Tauro

Herb Chambers helicopter landing pad to the stars!

By William Tauro

A helicopter takes off from on top of the Herb Chambers Auto dealership that’s located on McGrath Highway.

According to sources movie film actress Cameron Diaz is today’s passenger being transported to her movie set that’s being filmed locally.

Sources also tell us that movie star Tom Cruise was yesterday’s helicopter passenger for the day!

Chambers Continues to Storm Forward With Expansion Plans

SUDBURY – Less than a year ago, Herb Chambers gathered with community and industry leaders as well as employees and friends to officially break ground on a new BMW dealership in Sudbury.

At the time, the economy had started its downward spiral, and many people questioned Chambers’ reasoning. Since then, there have been lots of happenings in the industry with General Motors entering and reemerging from bankruptcy, Chrysler closing thousands of dealerships, and even the government stepping in to help boost sales with the Cash for Clunkers program. But that groundbreaking in Sudbury was Chambers’ fifth of the year, and he hasn’t looked back since.

“We took a long term view when moving forward with our development plans, because our company is here for the long haul and expect to continue to grow our business,” said Herb Chambers. “We want to make sure that we differentiate ourselves from the competition by offering customers the most convenient and comfortable experience in our dealerships.”

On Thursday Sept. 17, Herb Chambers, New England’s largest automotive dealer, is opening the doors to the just completed Herb Chambers BMW of Sudbury. The 70,000 plus square-foot dealership is the third largest dealership of Chambers’ 45 locations, and features the latest in amenities designed to pamper customers.

The six-acre property, conveniently located on 128 Boston Post Road, Rt. 20, offers customers a three lane drive in service reception area with valet attendants, a television lounge featuring plasma TV’s and a fireplace, children’s play area, sales lounges, a coffee bar and café, a seasonal outdoor patio, business center, and plenty of parking.

In June of 2007 Chambers purchased Foreign Motors West. The acquisition included Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Bentley, and Land Rover brands. At the time of the purchase, Chambers pledged to invest in growing the dealerships and committed to building a larger BMW facility at a new home in Sudbury. The dealership will replace Foreign Motors West BMW located on Route 27 in Natick, which will remain the home of Mercedes Benz of Natick where Chambers has plans for future renovations.

“This is very important for us, and we are very excited about expanding our presence in Sudbury with the addition of this luxury brand,” said Herb Chambers. Chambers also has a Land Rover Sudbury dealership located on Boston Post Road (Route 20).

The new dealership also features a 15-car two story showroom, a 6-car exterior display area featuring a sun-shaded canopy, 40 service bays, 6 reconditioning bays, and an automatic car wash. Because of the vast array of luxury brands, Chambers welcomes trade-ins. Creative financing is available and a huge selection of fine pre-owned vehicles.

The dealership was designed by Regent Associates Inc. of Westborough and constructed by Advantage Construction of Quincy.

In February Chambers opened brand new Porsche and Audi dealerships in Burlington, in March he opened a new truck service and collision center in Braintree, in April he opened a new Infiniti dealership on Route 9 in Westborough, and next month he will complete an expansion of his Mercedes Benz and Smart Center dealerships at Flagship Motorcars of Lynnfield.

“Our continued growth has been a result of the support of our expanding customer base, the dedication of our employees, and the cooperation by town officials in the communities that we operate in,” said Herb Chambers. “We are excited to continue to grow both our company and our customer base moving forward.”

About Herb Chambers Companies

Herb Chambers purchased his first car dealership in 1985 and has grown his company into the largest automobile dealership group in New England. Today, the Herb Chambers Companies are comprised of 45 automotive dealerships throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. For a complete list of dealership locations visit www.herbchambers.com.

“Have fun at the Allston Village Street Fair on Sept. 20”

The Allston Village Street Fair Urban Mardi Gras Multi-Cultural Festival, scheduled for noon-6 p.m. on Sept. 20, will be six hours of fun, free and open-to-the-public stage and street performances. The fair takes place on Harvard Avenue from Brighton Avenue to Cambridge Street in Allston.

More than 30 rock bands will perform on two outdoor stages. There will be multicultural street performances, an artists/vendors market, an international food court, arcade/amusement area, interactive activities, face painting, air brushed tattoos, balloon twisting and thousands of promotional giveaways and product samplings in between.

The Allston Village Street Fair is MBTA-accessible, with free bike valet service offered at the AVSF Event, as well as free parking and shuttle bus service from the Guest Street Parking Garage in Brighton.

Free pearl necklaces will be given to the first 1,000 visitors to the PCBG Inc.

There will be an information table, compliments of Overstock.com.

For more details visit www.allstonvillagestreetfair.com and www.myspace.com/allstonstreetfair.

The Allston Village Street Fair is produced by the Parents & Community Build Group, Inc., www.parentsandcommunitybuildgroup.org, and co-presented by the Herb Chambers Companies www.herbchambers.com .

Herb Chambers – Click Here for all the Labor Day Sales Specials

Going on NOW at ALL Herb Chambers Dealer Locations!

Herb Chambers is an automotive dealership group based out of Somerville Massachusetts, we care about creating a positive car buying experience. For decades Herb Chambers has provided New England car buyers with high quality automobiles including those from BMW, Porsche, Ford, Lexus, MINI, Chrysler, Scion, Honda, and many more.

As one of the most trusted brands in New England, Herb Chambers is a proud member of the Better Business Bureau. Featured in a number of area media publications like The Metro West Daily News, The Providence Journal and Boston.com, Herb Chambers is known to local buyers as the region’s premier automotive dealership group.

Whether you are looking to buy a new vehicle from Herb Chambers, or, just looking to have quality collision repair or service performed — we hope that you find what you need here on our web site. If not, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can better assist you.

Herb Chambers serves the greater metropolitan areas of Boston Massachusetts and Providence Rhode Island. Dealerships in the Herb Chambers Companies include Audi, Bentley, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Hummer, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jeep, Land Rover, Lexus, Maybach, Mercedes, Mercedes Benz, Mini, Pontiac, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Saab, Saturn, Scion, Smart, Toyota, Vespa and preowned vehicles.

Herb Chambers Official Website: CLICK HERE

PORSCHE PARTY—Steve Sabatini (left), Regional Manager of Porsche North America and Herb Chambers perform the ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony at Herb Chambers’ new Porsche dealership in Burlington.

The dealership, Porsche of Burlington, held a sizzling summer party for customers, friends, and industry leaders to officially celebrate the opening of the dealership.

Located next to Chambers’ Audi Burlington at 62 Cambridge Street, the state-of-the-art luxury dealership is Chambers’ second Porsche dealership, the other being Herb Chambers Porsche of Boston. The party featured a special music performance by the band Crusin’ and catering by Davio’s Restaurant of Boston.

Also in attendance were dealership General Manager George Chambers and Herb Chambers Companies Vice President Jim Xaros. Herb Chambers is the largest automobile dealership group in New England with 46 dealership locations.

A BIG HELP – Herb Chambers & Big Sisters Association Fundraiser.

(L-R) Marc Huaman of Herb Chambers Companies and Melissa Steffy, General Manager of Herb Chambers Boston BMW of Boston in Brighton recently gathered with Debora Re, CEO of Big Sister Association to help raise nearly $150,000 at the Big Sister’s 21st Annual BMW Raffle. Big Sister is the oldest and largest mentoring program in Greater Boston exclusively serving girls.

The real winners in the raffle were the girls involved in Big Sister, including Little Sister Sally and her Big Sister Ana Leon (right to left, front) and Big Sister Elysabeth Reichman and her Little Sister Madison (right to left, back).

The proceeds help to fund the group’s programs, and one lucky winner also took home the shiny new BMW.

Herb Chambers Companies is the largest automobile dealership group in New England comprised of over 45 dealerships in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Locations in Brighton include Herb Chambers Porsche, Herb Chambers Toyota, Herb Chambers Infiniti, Herb Chambers Mini, Herb Chambers Honda, Herb Chambers SAAB, Herb Chambers Scion, and Herb Chambers Vespa Boston.
It was a hot and breezy afternoon in downtown Boston, but last minute ticket-buyers, hopeful that theirs would be the one, rushed to purchase a chance to take home the grand prize—a brand new red BMW 328i convertible or $38,000 in cash. A growing crowd gathered as the car czar himself, Herb Chambers, prepared to draw the winning ticket.

And the winner of Big Sister’s 20th Annual BMW Car Raffle is…William Cotter of Wellesley! Cotter, Senior Vice President of Investments at UBS Financial, bought ticket #1117 at the urging of his friend and Big Sister Board Member, John Yozell. He never thought in a million years that his ticket would be chosen!

“I thought they were pulling my leg!” said Cotter of his reaction to the call that he was this year’s grand prize winner.

After careful consideration Cotter decided to take the $38,000 in cash, but has not yet decided how he will use it. He does know that he is happy with his decision to buy a raffle ticket because he feels it is important to give back to the community by supporting youth-serving organizations.

In total, this year’s BMW Raffle raised nearly $90,000, all of which will go toward Big Sister’s mentoring programs for girls. Click here to view the winning ticket numbers for the four additional raffle prizes.

Big Sister would like to extend a BIG thank you to Herb Chambers and Marc Huaman of Foreign Motors West in Natick. We would also like to thank Blue Cross Blue Shield for donation of their printing services. Of course, the biggest thanks goes to all those who purchased tickets this year, allowing us to provide quality mentoring relationships for Greater Boston’s girls. Who knows, maybe next year will be your year!

Herb Chambers owner of Chambers Motors of Boston, Herb Chambers Maybach and smart center Boston, all of Somerville, recently met with Deborah Re, CEO of Big Sister Association to help raise nearly $100,000 at the Big Sister’s 20th Annual BMW raffle.

Big Sister is the oldest and largest mentoring program in Greater Boston exclusively serving girls. The real winner in the raffle was the girls involved in Big Sister, because the proceeds helped to fund the group’s programs.

One lucky winner also took home the shiny new vehicle.

Chambers provided the vehicle for the raffle and is the owner of the Herb Chambers Companies, New England’s largest automobile group, comprised of over 40 dealerships in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Copyright © 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc. Some Rights Reserved.
Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.

Did you know that 86% of Americans have a mobile phone and that 57% of those phones are Internet capable! I have to tell you that once we reached the magic “web-ready tipping point” numbering over 50% of users with Internet capable phones; I tipped toward convenience and had our E-Commerce team optimize www.herbchambers.com site for easy & fast viewing over customers’ mobile phones!

We all know how frustrating some mobile sites can be with congested screens and painfully slow search functionality. You can imagine our challenges with the latter, especially when you consider that we have over 10,000 vehicles in stock to sort. Well I think you’ll find that we have been able to successful pair speed with function on our mobile solution unveiled this week. See for yourself. Simply type in www.herbchambers.com from your mobile device today!

Say you’re on the beach and dreaming about your next new ride. Don’t wait until you get home or to work! Let your fingers do the walking instantly to connect you to over 10,000 cars and 27 brands including New England’s Largest Selection of Pre-owned / Certified cars, trucks & SUV’s.

What’s more, you can easily call or e-mail us and arrange for a test drive, ask questions or request more information. And, if you already have the ride of your dreams—why not schedule a service appointment from wherever…24/7/365.

Other great Herb Chambers web-mobile features include our special “under $10,000 vehicle inventory”, our convenient payment calculator, complete (and lighting fast) search functionality and of course each Herb Chambers dealership’s phone number, address list & of course turn by turn directions.

HerbChambers.com MOBILE has been automatically optimized for your mobile phone format and screen. There is no texting and waiting for the info. Simply type in our URL and we will automatically detect whether you are on a regular computer or a Mobile PDA and optimize the site accordingly.

Though mobile, you can be sure it’s clean, clear and filled with useful information available literally at your finger-tips –anytime, anywhere you desire.

Now that I am thinking about it our regular non-mobile website, although award winning, has not received a complete update in a while. Hummmmm, I think I will get started on that today!!!

Watch here for more info on an all new & even more consumer friendly non Mobile www.herbchambers.com with all new search functionality coming soon to a computer near you.

In the meantime please checkout our latest addition; www.HerbChambers.com MOBILE today.

All My Best,

Published by The Herb Chambers Companies
Copyright © 2009 The Herb Chambers Companies. All rights reserved.
No part of this newsletter may be duplicated in any form without the expressed written permission of the Publisher