Sunday, March 15, 2015

Counterpoint: Sunday closing law for auto dealers serves customers well

The Chicago Sun-Times March 10, 2015

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a 30-year-old Illinois law to require car dealers’ sales departments to close on Sundays may seem a bit quaint and outdated.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. Read more

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