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Sports-car company sues Waltham dealership for right to open new dealership two towns over

Aston Martin Lagonda and an Aston Martin dealership in Waltham are racing at each other full speed in a dispute over whether the car company - whose cheapest model goes for $122,400 - can open another dealership in Wayland.

Aston Martin of New England on Linden Street in Waltham, says the plan would cut its sales dramatically and wants $3 million in damages. The dealership is currently the only place in all of New England to buy a new Aston Martin.

The car company says the proposed dealership is just outside the eight-mile distance set in state law for spacing car dealerships (why, yes, of course, Massachusetts has a law that specifies how far apart dealerships for the same manufacturer can be) and so Aston Martin of New England can, as the British would say, stuff it.

The dealership says the new dealership would violate its franchise agreement with the car company and tried to invoke an arbitration clause in the agreement. The car company says the arbitration clause only comes into effect if it also agrees to arbitration, and it doesn't, so it filed suit against the dealership yesterday in US District Court in Boston, seeking a legal ruling that it's free to do whatever it wants outside of that eight-mile radius.

Ed. note: The company doesn't say where the new dealership would be, but it must be on the Sudbury side of Wayland, since the distance from the Waltham dealership to Wayland Center is, according to Google Maps, 7.6 miles.

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Comments

There are already BMW and Bentley dealers right on the line between Sudbury and Wayland on Rt. 20. Aston Martin would fit right in. Maybe when I hit the Powerball tonight, I'll swing by for a test drive.

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Herb Chambers also owns a Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce dealership in Wayland. Right over the town line in Sudbury there are BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships. Seriously, the Aston Martin dealership will fit right into that 1/2 mile stretch of high-end car dealerships. More land there to store inventory (indoors of course).

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On 2nd thought maybe it's not such a great location for a car dealership. There are always cops posted on Rt-20 in both Wayland and Sudbury. I wonder if they let Lamborghini test drivers blow by them w/o a warning.

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The only place they could find in all of New England has to be 8 miles away from another dealer?

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......but even so, there are others further away.

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How many of these do they sell in a year's time?

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it wouldn't surprise me if Aston Martin wanted to give a franchise to Herb Chambers (well, "give" is a strong word). Herb could sell Astons out of its luxury brand location where they sell Bentley, Rolls, Lamborghini, and, lately, Maserati.

The Aston dealer in Waltham does not carry a great variety of inventory, and I think another dealer could do a better job of improving sales.

And no, this has nothing to do with the fact that I hate the Aston dealer's website's annoying music.

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That is exactly correct.

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