Sep 25, 2008 4:59 pm US/Eastern
Car Dealership Plans To Open Despite Market Crisis
SUDBURY (WBZ) ―
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Herb Chambers plans to continue with plans to build and open the Northeast's largest car dealership.
WBZ
The largest car dealer in the Northeast is moving forward with major construction, despite the concerns about the crisis on Wall Street.
On Thursday, WBZ spoke with Herb Chambers at the ground breaking of his $10 million new BMW dealership in Sudbury.
"On the surface, it may not look like this is the wisest thing to do be doing, but I'm not concerned about it. Because I know people are going to need automobiles, and maybe they won't need them next month, but this dealership will be here for a long time," Chambers said.
Chambers, who owns 45 car dealerships that bring in $2 billion a year in sales, is closely watching what's happening in Washington. We asked him about the $700 billion bailout plan.
"I think it's positive we have that investment, that $700 billion. But it's got to be used responsibility and somebody has to be on top of this thing to monitor it so we don't see those golden parachute deals where people walk away with $100 million or more," he said.
"People fail at their job and get $50 million to walk away," Chambers added. "I fail at my job and go broke."
Chambers says sometimes people get distracted by news they can't control.
"I know what we do and I have to worry about the stuff in my backyard, taking care of my employees and the customers. And we have to do it better than anyone else does," he said.
"If you listen to all of this stuff it gets to be like a dog chasing its tale," Chambers said. "You get more anxious and worried about what's happening, and what we worry about is taking care of our clients and customers and providing a good environment for our employees to work in."
When asked what he would say to people who are concerned about the economy, Chambers said, "I would saw just focus, don't worry about it, worry about what you're doing, worry about your job, to do the best job that anybody can do, and that's what we try to do for our customers."
Chambers says he'd love to see American car companies do better. He believes the way to do that is to make fuel efficient vehicles that are reliable.
Chambers bought his first car dealership 22 years ago. Today he is the 13th largest dealer in the US.
It's his belief in the country that makes him confident that leaders in Washington will come up with a good plan.
"I believe they'll come throuth. It's kind of like the spirit of being an American. We're always in adverse situations, and we always come through, and I believe we'll do it again," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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