"Ernie" Boch Boston Auto Dealer Dies

EDGARTOWN, Mass. July 14, 2003; The AP reported that Ernest "Ernie" Boch, a multimillionaire car dealer and businessman known to thousands for his personal television commericials, died Sunday.

He was 77, and died at his home on Martha's Vineyard, his company, Boch Enterprises, announced Monday.

Boch owned a string of car dealerships that lined Norwood's Auto Mile on Route 1, and had interests in 18 companies overall.

"Ernie achieved a certain level of success that not many people in business will ever accomplish. In the auto business, he was a true icon," Daniel Quirk, a longtime competitor, told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy.

Norwood Dodge owner Bob McDonough, owner of Norwood Dodge on the automile, said that Boch not only established the strip but continued to lead other dealers in the delicate balance of competition and cooperation.

"I don't care how much money he had, he always worked," McDonough said. "He was the leader, he really was."

In Boch's television commercials, he smashed windshields while telling customers he was smashing prices, and invited people to "Come on down!" and "Buy a car from Ernie Boch."