By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
There are clusters in my area, one which I jog through, which makes car spotting easy. Chrysler/Dodge, Ford, Chevy, Volvo, Caddy are on one street, around the corner is Nissan, up a couple blocks MB and Porsche. Audi is about 6 blocks from there. Acura is about a block from the aforementioned BMW dealer. Other side of town has Toyota, Subaru, VW in one group, and Honda off on its own. Tesla is in a mall, too.
Assume the special interest dealer is PP. Went to school with the owner; they have certainly made a business of it. When it opened, the dealer across the street was BMW/Subaru combined, with Acura down the street and no one else. It has certainly moved upmarket.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
Yep, Park Place. Always fun to look - their prices are sometimes hopeful, but I assume negotiation is expected. Not many places with the variety out there.
I am sure 30 or more years ago, this area was really different. A lot of people hit the jackpot buying houses here when they cost no more than anywhere else (and now pretend to be the second coming of Warren Buffett).
I graduated HS in 93. A friend got a new Loyale from the BMW/Subaru dealer for a graduation gift. I think the MSRP on the window sticker was around $9400, IIRC. They gave up the Subie franchise shortly after. Forced by BMW, I heard.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
Same thing with Vancouver. Anyone that bought a house 20 years ago is a millionaire now. Back then $150-$200k bought you a decent house. Now, the same houses but 20 years older are somehow worth a mill+.
Speaking of Loyales,my high school English teacher had a Loyale wagon. Typical professor/teacher car.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Thankfully, I drive through no such stretch. Only Nissan, Ford, VW, and Mazda on my commute. Of course, that did lead to me buying a mustang. Oh well, this isn't the CCBA board.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Norwood?
Herb Chambers - a 50+ store dealer in Boston - has BMW, Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls Royce and Maserati within 1/4 mile of each other.
And herb has a nice collection of ferraris.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Oh, that young?
not much older than me. I thought PP had been around longer than that - I know I remember it from the late 90s anyway, and I think it was there before. Was it handed down or something?
BMW-Subaru is an odd combination, kind of attracts a different demographic...but maybe not for all models. But odd dealer combos could exist - in around 1990, I lived in a town where Chevy and Toyota shared a (not too large) building! And Honda-Buick had the same building too.
I remember the Loyale, it was kind of a retro car by the 90s, when a Legacy made it look really old. Definitely still sold in the PNW anyway.
Van is even crazier than Seattle - I think average prices are literally double. Different factors at play, but the same result that people who were at the right place at the right time got lucky. Some of them pretend they knew what they were doing.
I still see Loyale wagons now and then, but the sedans seem rarer. There was a Loyale style coupe in the late 80s (I forget the name, GL something probably), I saw one a week or two ago.
I like his commuter vehicle - a helicopter. Although he has a place at the Mandarin Oriental in the Back Bay, he regularly commutes from his farm in Old Lyme, CT to the MB dealership in Somerville via helicopter.
I grew up in Somerville and remember that MB store originally as a Buick store. It's right next to a trash transfer station in the shadow of a highway but it's one of the highest grossing MB stores in the country.
Yes, Rob. Nahwood. And, as it turns out, our last three cars have come from Herb. I feel good about helping to defray the cost of his chopper rides. Yet, still awaiting a call of thanks from him!
qbrozen, can't imagine how your garage (or bank account!) would look if you drove the Automile 2x day! I try not to hurt myself going by the Ferrari/Maserati dealer...
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Herb has made quite the life for himself. Grew up in Dorchester in the 40's and 50's, spent time in the Navy and then became a copy machine repairman in Boston. He borrowed $1000 and moved to Hartford to start his own copy machine distributor which he sold for $80 million. Then he started with one dealership in CT and the 52 stores he now has sells 40,000 cars and generates $2 billion in revenue.
I bought 2 Hondas from his store.
Herb Chambers, Ernie Boch, Ira Motors, Pride Motors (David Rosenberg of the family that owned Ira Motors) and Herb Connolly are the biggies here in the Boston area.
Herb has a nice collection of yachts, one of which is usually docked in Old Lyme.
I used to drive by EBJ Jr. unassuming mansion daily. Well, the neighborhood is unassuming... Haven't bought a car from him, though. Don't want to upset Herb.
Always felt really well-treated at HC Lexus. Bought the BMW at HC BMW on Comm Ave, a slightly different experience being in the city, but again, treated well. And, HC Jag/LR in Sudbury, nice little autoquartermile there. Under construction, but understated and nice folks. Even though they forced me to trade in my XK for an XF....yeah, it's their fault.
Maybe when it's time to trade up to a Maserati (reality has just left the building), I'll play EBJ, Jr. against Herb.
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
In my experience, your better off sticking with Chambers. I'm not a fan of EBJ, he doesn't seem to have the integrity and honesty that his dad had. For instance a friend of mine bought a RAV4 from him back in like 2006. About a year after she got it, I pointed out some damage under the door where it looked like it had fallen off the truck. As far as I know she still has it and it's got something like 200k on it but every time I see her she always mentions the crumpled door sill which she probably would have never noticed had I not pointed it out.
This is just one of the stories that comes to mind at the moment. One other thing is the excessive upselling they do come maintainence time. I took my S2000 to one of his dealers a few years ago just to have a yearly inspection and the whole time the service guy kept coming to tell me about all the things that needed to be replaced, including stupid stuff such as a tire inflation valve stem cover. Then they had the audacity to tell me I needed a new air filter. "Um, I have a K&N in there, and it's about a year old so..." I told him. Guess what went missing all of a sudden when it was time to pay the bill. Yup. They threw it away and replaced it with a stock one already...
I didn't have to pay for it but I was also out a 60 dollar air filter...
I've bought many cars thru Chambers and have had very good luck with their service as well. And as much as it pains me to say this, I hate buying Subarus knowing that EBJ gets a cut on every single sale in this Country based on the deal his grandpop set up back in the 70's (I believe) making Boch thee largest distributors of Subies not just here in the states, but in the world...
I've used Chambers for service on my Honda vehicles and they seem to upsell as well.
As for Ernie Boch Jr. and Subaru - his company only gets a cut of Subarus sold in New England. His father set up the original distributorship here and it stands to this day. Subaru of New England is one of four distributors left in the US - two Subaru and two Toyota.
Surprisingly, Boch only has 8 dealerships - two Honda, two Toyota, two Scion, one Ferrari and one Maserati. He turned over management of them to a team and focuses solely on Subaru and making stupid cartoon commercials. Ernie Jr is now about 55 and married a very young woman a few years back. He also went from this:
to
Not New Yet:
MB MLC coupe to be built alongside the ML:
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/09/mercedes-concept-coupe-suv-beijing-report/
Ah yes, Ernie the Rockstar... (Ernie and the Automatics) LOL, he was actually a judge at a battle of the bands for a friend of mine a few years ago. And the band he ended up voting for that ended up winning was an electronica based pop band...
Sorry, off topic...
When shopping long ago, in a galaxy far away, wife and my father went to EBJ Toyota, looking at a Highlander. To say the salesman was not knowledgeable would be an understatment, per her report. Not sure he even listened to her needs/wants/desires. Ended up buying (what else) an RX300 from Herb. Pre-Lexus Mahal dealership. My SIL worked for Subie NE for a while, shoulda taken advantage of her discount. If there was one, she didn't...
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
My first McLaren in the wild, followed it for a couple of miles, sounded great! Temp tags, couldn't tell if it was a 12C or the new 650S.
Saw my first Volt on the road here today. Kind of surprising that it took this long since there's a small contingent around here that ALWAYS has to show they have the "latest thing". You could look back at any new release - new Beetle, Insight, Mini, Hummer, smart, heck, even the PT Cruiser... you name it, they want you to know they have it!
Well, GM's selling about half (23,000 per year) of what they planned (45,000 per year). I've only seen a few in Dallas, seems like I see more Tesla S cars...
Saw a Ram (Fiat Ducato) van on the road - I've seen them on the lot, but not in the real world. Also a couple of flatbed Sprinters, which seem rare - seeing these made me feel like I was in Germany, save for the road conditions and slow plodding no-signal drivers.
I have seen 2 C7s now, a black and a red. The red was coming towards me on the highway. Seeing lights, i thought Ferrari. Then seeing front 3/4, I thought viper. Wasn't until full profile I finally figured it out. That was Friday. Black I saw on Sun in my town.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Passed by a highline collision repair shop - they had 3 wrecked Teslas sitting out front. One can make guesses.
Also stopped by the MB dealer, new C-class should be there in August. They had 2 leftover 13 S550s on the floor - 108K MSRPs, fairly identical cars. Had 89K tags on the windshield, but the new one is such a jump and we are already heading for May - I'd want to do it again and get down around 70K. Saw a nice new E63 wagon too.
Test drove a Transit Connect Wagon.
saw my 3rd C7 already. A silver convertible, top down, in a driveway in Lincroft on Easter.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Saw what I think was a 2er coupe today, didn't seem to have the elongated midsection of the 4. Looked better.
Visited NYC for the car show on Saturday and took the beautiful Merritt pkwy down and back. I think I'm going to rename in the Mercedes pkwy since every other car I saw was a Merc. from the most common C/E Class to the ultra rare SLR, SLS, or AMG model... Wow.
Yes, I'm exaggerating a little, every other car was certainly not a Mercedes but they certainly dominated this trek from what I noticed. But being such a ritzy area, there were plenty of other sightings from Audi, Bentley, Tesla, BMW, and Porsche. New RR Sports were very common, I saw quite a few of those, as were Porsche Cayenne's.
We ended up pretty much following a gorgeous new M5 the whole way down but we also managed to pick up a Maserati Ghibli and a Porsche GT2 along the way. On the other side of the highway I spotted a couple of Maserati's, a few Astons, a boatload of Model S's, an Audi R8, a CLA AMG, a new Viper, a couple of GT-R's, a couple of Continental GT's, Jag F-Types, etc...
Oh, and another common one was Jag XF-R's, saw a few of those things as well. Jag still seems to remain a common choice amongst the money crowd...
Highly, highly recommend anyone coming from the Northeast to take the parkway route, you will not be disappointed. It's smooth, scenic and you can actually cruise at 80-90mph with no worries. And if you have the time like we did, take a break off one of the offramps and check out some of the towns along the way. We had to make a pit stop on New Cannaan and my wife didn't want to leave it was so nice...
And the Car show was incredible. Highly recommend it as well.
Cheers!
Spotted a white Dodge Dart Aero at Bingham and Hellerman in NE Philly. What distinguishes the Aero from other Darts?
It uses aerodynamic treatments like grill shutters, low rolling resistance tires, et al to improve fuel economy.
Saw a new style Range Rover this morning, in slow traffic, wipers going at a steady pace. It wasn't raining and hadn't for a few hours. Inept driver or 21st century British electronics?
NYCCarGuy and I have extolled the virtues of the Merritt for quite some time on other boards. As a former denizen of one of the lovely towns off the Merritt (exit 41), but asked to leave because of dragging down the town's per capita, I do miss the road and agree it is worth a drive.
For the full Gordon Gekko experience, take one of the Greenwich exits and head to downtown Greenwich. Many of the houses are set far back from the roads, you might not get the full experience on your way, but nice drives none the less. My summer job took me all over Fairfield (and into Westchester) County. Wonderful area, if you can afford it!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Seriously?
I would absolutely hate to live in a place that judged you like that.
But thanks for the suggestions, my wife would like to make the trek again in the fall, I imagine the foliage is spectacular.
No, I jest. I moved to Boston for other reasons. But, it is a pricey neighborhood (not that the Boston area is inexpensive...). Not sure about being judged, though. I still have friends living there. If you can afford it, nice place to live. And, the Merritt is a great ride!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Saw a Chevy SS on the road today, also spotted a lovely white/pano new S-class at the dealer. I've seen several of those on the road in the past week.
2x Bentley Mulsanne lately - maybe not something to drive in downtown Seattle on May Day, but in Bellevue it should be fine.
@Stever@Edmunds Late to the party, have you posted your thoughts on this somewhere already? Curious to hear your take.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
Back after a few weeks in Switzerland & France. The new Macan is everywhere in Zurich...they've got a hit on their hands for sure. France is, well, French...
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
So lots of 10 year old Meganes and Picassos with ample traces of creative parking? I wonder if the Macan will cannibalize Cayenne sales, especially in places where large parking spots are uncommon. I seem to remember a lot of the latter in Zurich, popular with bankster wives no doubt.
Saw a new style Transit cargo van and an A3 trunkback loaner car this morning.
The new Transit Connect or the E series replacement Transit? The latter only started production last week.
The Connect, more rounded than the old one.
Got it. I have yet to see any of those around. IIRC, there were a late 2014 introduction.
First one I've seen here, but did see a passenger model at the Vancouver auto show.
@tifighter, sorry, I'm on the road and don't have time to expand much on the Transit Connect. Would like to see the 5 passenger wagon, but the 7 passenger one we drove was a bit too "commercial".
Saw an Equus today (I think that's my first one) It bombed by me going 80 in a 60 and slowed when is saw flashing blue lights. False alarm, they were on a wrecker.
We drove down to Madison WI today and test drove a CX-5 (nice), an MT xB (meh), Soul (our fav so far) and a Forester (my wife thought it rode too "trucky").
No worries, Steve. I like the idea of the TC 5-passenger but worry that it would be a loud, uncomfortable trip car. I regularly drive a swb VW Caddy Bluemotion in Switzerland that belongs to the company and like the form factor a lot; Ford TC is the closest thing available in the US.
Drove a Mazda 5 diesel with a 6spd manual over there on Saturday. Gearbox felt like rowing through a box of gravel.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
The soul is neat. But the CX-5 is quite a bit roomier, and from everything I have read (and my test drive!) will be a much nicer long distance travel car. Can get a stick also if you want.
consumers reports tested a Soul this month. got a score of 74 (XB was XB, CX 5 also 74, and Forester an 86).
for the Soul, lows were stiff ride, scant cargo room behind rear seat. Highs were small, easy access (being a box helps), simple controls (Good for you old folks!), brakes and features. Of course, the sticker on theirs was 24K+, so it was loaded up.
I think a CX-5 sport is a nice compromise to live with no matter what you need to do with it.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Spotted 2 new A3 sedans yesterday...
Stick, What about a Sienna? HUGE inside, mid to high 20's for MPG on the road, and they seem to last a really long time. My daughter's '05 LE has 160K and still runs like new...
You don't HAVE to buy new...