Counterpoint: Sunday closing law for auto dealers serves customers well

In an era when big-box retailers are opening their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving, a 30-year-old Illinois law to require car dealers’ sales departments to close on Sundays may seem a bit quaint and outdated. But the law has served consumers and dealers well over the years, and it continues to do so. The law should be left alone.

Buying a car is a large and complicated transaction. Eighty-four percent of new-car purchases involve financing which has to be arranged through lenders that are closed on Sunday. Dealers who deliver cars without financing arranged do so at risk and often have to call customers back to the dealership if their efforts to obtain the lowest rates prove fruitless. That makes for unhappy customers. Dealers, under ever-increasing scrutiny from regulators regarding the financing they arrange, need to do so when the lenders are open, to protect themselves and to treat their customers right.

Dealers have relationships with a minimum of five to 10 lenders and work to get their customers the best loan terms to keep monthly payments low. Dealers would be unable to arrange the best finance terms for their customers on a Sunday when the lenders are closed. It’s that simple.

Consider the real estate market. Home shoppers like to visit real estate open houses on a Sunday afternoon, but no one actually buys a house on Sunday. They wait until Monday, when the banks are open and they can get a mortgage.

The same is true in the car business — most consumers’ second-biggest purchase. Walk up and down any car dealer row on a Sunday afternoon and plenty of folks are browsing the lots, checking out the inventory. Consumers love it. They don’t mind coming back another day to take a test drive and make a deal.

Having Sunday off keeps employee morale high and allows dealers to attract a higher caliber salesperson. Salespeople make their jobs a career. That reduces turnover and keeps costs lower for dealers. Who wins? The consumer, who pays lower prices for their new or used car in the ultra-competitive Chicago area market.

The purchase of a motor vehicle is one that takes planning and research. It’s rarely an impulse buy. Being open one more day won’t increase sales, it will only increase costs, and the customer ends up paying more.

After all, most dealers are open every evening and all day Saturday. That’s why there is rarely any consumer demand for dealerships to be open on Sunday. We produce the Chicago Auto Show and the consumer website DriveChicago.com. We also produce an automotive call-in radio show every Saturday on WLS-AM. This issue never comes up from consumers.

In a state where there are plenty of things that are broken and need to be fixed, this law isn’t one of them. We urge Sen. Oberweis to spend time on issues that matter to Illinois taxpayers.

David E. Sloan is president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association and general manager of the Chicago Auto Show.