The story
Founded by Herb Chambers in 1984.1
In 1983, after founding the largest office copier dealer in the world, A-Copy America, Herb Chambers sold the business to Ikon Office Solutions for $80 million. Ikon is now part of the copier manufacturer Ricoh. In 1984, Chambers was looking to purchase a Cadillac for personal use and while going through the process of buying the car he became so disgusted with the experience, he made an offer to purchase the dealership on the spot for $1.7 million. Chambers found the dealerships during the mid-1980s needed to improve customer service to sell more cars.
After opening the first dealership in New London, Connecticut, Chambers quickly added BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz franchises during the next few years.
In June 2012, Chambers began selling Lamborghini, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce brands in a showroom in Wayland, Massachusetts. In September 2013, Chambers acquired a Volvo dealership in Dedham, Massachusetts. In the fall of 2015, the organization's second Lexus dealership was opened in the town of Hingham, Massachusetts. In June 2016, Herb Chambers Volvo Cars (relocating the franchise from Dedham) and Herb Chambers Lincoln opened along the "Automile" in Norwood, Massachusetts with both dealerships offering coffee/snack bars in their customer lounges along with WiFi connectivity.
Today, more than half of the Herb Chambers locations sell higher-margin luxury brands. All of the dealerships are within 75 miles of Boston, the sixth-wealthiest metropolitan area in the country.
In July 2025, the Duluth, Georgia-based Asbury Automotive Group acquired Herb Chambers Companies, including 33 dealerships with 52 franchises and three collision centers, for $1.45 billion. The deal was announced in February 2025. Mr. Chambers retained ownership of a single dealership, Mercedes-Benz Boston, located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Franchises
Herb Chambers currently consists of 60 automotive dealerships throughout Southern New England, primarily in the Boston-Worcester-Providence combined statistical area. The company holds franchises for nearly every automotive brand including: Alfa Romeo, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Land Rover, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Rolls-Royce, Smart, Sprinter, Toyota, and Volvo.
The company is also the exclusive franchisee for MV-1, A2B Electric Bikes and Vespa Motor Scooters for the Greater Boston area.
Sales strategy
The view at Herb Chambers is that the days of the hard-selling tactics of new and used car sales are over. With the availability of the internet to compare prices, and the availability of independent, third party reviews, the car buyer is now more in charge of the negotiation. Herb Chambers was one of the first dealerships in the United States to use a no-haggle pricing strategy called the "Smart Pricing" program. They also have all used cars undergo a safety inspection before purchase and attempting to ensure there is no pressure from the salesperson. The dealer also has a refund program where the purchaser can bring the car back for any reason within the first five days and receive a full refund or within 30 days or 1,500 miles (2,400 km) for a full credit.
From Wikipedia’s article on The Herb Chambers Companies, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3