Herb Chambers will break ground in Burlington

Auto dealer Herb Chambers plans to break ground tomorrow for a new Audi/Porsche dealership in Burlington.

(Above is a rendering of what the new dealership will look like.)

Six weeks ago, Chambers presided over a similar ground-breaking ceremony in Westborough for an Infiniti dealership, and in the next few weeks, he plans to do the same for a new BMW dealership in Sudbury.

The US economy may be sluggish; consumers are fretting about high gas prices, but Chambers is forging ahead and reinvesting in his New England auto dealership empire.

In Burlington, that means relocating the Audi/Porsche dealership he bought about a year ago to larger space nearby.

"I hear everywhere that the auto business is bad," he said, "but we don't experience it."

Domestic auto brands, such as Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler are challenged, Chambers said, but some foreign brands are a different story.

According to Chambers, officials at Honda Motor Co. told him that Honda volume sales in New England were up 18 percent in April compared to a year ago.

Four of Chambers' 44 dealerships are Honda and 15 are for Ford, GM, or Chrysler brands, he said.

With recent ads heavily promoting his used-car business, Chambers said he also saw an uptick in used-car sales in April.

Some people are trading in their gas-guzzling SUVs for more fuel-efficient cars, but others are keeping their SUVs and buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle for every-day use.

"They'll use the SUV when they go on vacation to New Hampshire or the Cape," Chambers said, "but they want something else for the every-commute."

Maybe that's why sales of gas-sipping Vespas are booming.

Last month, Chambers said he sold nearly 80, compared with 35 for April 2007.

Speaking about the auto market in general, Chambers said: "The market hasn't gotten any bigger. We're just getting a bigger piece of it."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)