# Illegal Sunday Car Sales **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457 "2010-08-06T22:27:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bernieyeball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@Bernieyeball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernieyeball)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/41 "2010-08-11T07:03:48Z")
Frank, The last time I bought a truck at a dealer (2006) the salesman did an internet search and found at least three loans from different financial institutions across the country I could choose from. It took about 10 minutes. I guess those institutions were “open” since the salesman in the midwest could work with an agency in Rhode Island. This was at an hour when all the local banks had closed for the day. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/42 "2010-08-11T13:30:13Z")
> [@Omegaman](#): > > As far as I know new car dealers are closed on Sundays as the result of the N.A.D.A., the national automotive dealer association. Used car dealers are not bound by their rules. That can’t be right. [Only 12 states prohibit Sunday car sales](http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB122592581001202837.html). ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/43 "2010-08-11T13:37:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Since the OP seems to be more interested in ranting about the policy rather than factual information, I’m moving this from General Questions to the Pit. Ahh, very good. This can get what it deserves then… > [@Bernieyeball](#): > > When I was scheduled to work on Sunday for various telephone companies more than a few pinheads would rag on me about it. > I would have to tell them that I knew it was Sunday but the telephone wires that I was trying to fix did not know that. Neither did the mice that chewed on the lines. > After they drove off I would knock out their phone service. > When I got their trouble ticket I would try and find them and tell them they would have to wait till Monday because they did not want me to work on Sunday. Wow, you’re quite the sack of warm douche, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/44 "2010-08-11T13:43:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > > > I will reinterate that it is absolutely asinine to prevent commerce because it’s Sunday. The car dealers are stupid. Hire more staff. > > You may not like it as a consumer, but, as I tried to explain in Post #19, it’s hardly asinine or stupid from the dealers’ point of view. Why the heck should they spend the money to hire more staff if it won’t increase their profits? > > I suspect the OP’s purpose in starting this thread was not really to get a factual answer to his question, but to rant and complain, as you are doing, in which case this would be more appropriate for the BBQ Pit, or at least IMHO. Fuck the dealers, they shouldn’t be interfering with third party business. If they don’t want to be open sunday, then fine, don’t be open sunday, but stop other people from being open sunday. A lot of banks would prefer not to be open sunday, and a lot aren’t, but some are, and the lazy banks probably do lose business to sunday banks. Should we outlaw sunday banking? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/45 "2010-08-11T14:13:10Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Wow, you’re quite the sack of warm douche, aren’t you? Not sure he’s any douchier than people who yell at telephone repairmen for working on a Sunday, but yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/46 "2010-08-11T14:25:43Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Not sure he’s any douchier than people who yell at telephone repairmen for working on a Sunday, but yeah. One is being an ass. The other is being a criminal. Whole 'nother level there… ---
**Author:** ![fjs1fs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@fjs1fs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjs1fs)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/47 "2010-08-11T15:23:49Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > > > Car dealers work on commission. It doesn’t cost the car dealership that much money for extra people. > > Of course it costs the dealers more to stay open on Sunday. And they wouldn’t make any extra money by staying open on Sunday if nobody else did so either. > > Cars aren’t usually an impulse buy. Once a person has decided they need or want to buy a new car, they’re going to buy one whether they can shop for it on Sunday or not. If all the dealerships are open on Sunday, each one probably isn’t going to sell appreciably more cars than if all the dealerships are closed on Sunday, but they’ll have appreciably higher operating costs. So of course such a law is going to be good for the dealers. > > You could analyze the situation in terms of Game Theory ([see here](http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2008/12/econ-101-game-theory-and-car-dealers.html)). Brilliant! And by extension, dealers should close on Saturdays too, and you know what, why not close Fridays too and take 1/2 days on Thursday. As someone pointed out in the Rhode Island example, another state would grab this business, and it probably happens a lot now with people who work 6 days a week, so the profit “payoffs” in the four cells are Wrong! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/48 "2010-08-11T17:26:23Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Here’s a bit of a paradox – Sunday is the most convenient day for most consumers to shop because we have a tradition of getting Sunday off. To make it more convenient, you have to give fewer and fewer people Sundays off. At some point, so many people are working on Sundays that it is no longer a convenient day for consumers to shop. Actually that could be better for most people, maybe not the sole proprietorships, but for most people. Think about it. Even if it isn’t sunday, most people would get a day or two off in the week. The result would be everybody getting a day to take care of their business, but with everything open. The biggest downside I’d think would be it’d harder to schedule things with multiple people because a lot fewer days people generally have off. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/49 "2010-08-11T18:02:13Z")
I went to high school just outside New Orleans when the state still strongly discouraged any business operations on Sundays. The empty warehouse district was very beneficial to my learning to drive a stick. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/50 "2010-08-11T18:17:50Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Here’s a bit of a paradox – Sunday is the most convenient day for most consumers to shop because we have a tradition of getting Sunday off. To make it more convenient, you have to give fewer and fewer people Sundays off. At some point, so many people are working on Sundays that it is no longer a convenient day for consumers to shop. My experience with people and Blue Laws is that it was mainly people who wouldn’t have to work on Sundays that were in favor of repealing the Blue Laws. People that would then have to work Sunday were much more varied in their opinion. I, personally, am somewhat favorable to Blue Laws…is it really so bad to have as many people as possible have the same day off? Husbands and wives and kids can hang as a family? Oh who am I kidding. Such a stupid, archaic thought… ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/51 "2010-08-11T18:20:29Z")
> [@fjs1fs](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > Of course it costs the dealers more to stay open on Sunday. And they wouldn’t make any extra money by staying open on Sunday if nobody else did so either. > > > > Cars aren’t usually an impulse buy. Once a person has decided they need or want to buy a new car, they’re going to buy one whether they can shop for it on Sunday or not. If all the dealerships are open on Sunday, each one probably isn’t going to sell appreciably more cars than if all the dealerships are closed on Sunday, but they’ll have appreciably higher operating costs. So of course such a law is going to be good for the dealers. > > > > You could analyze the situation in terms of Game Theory ([see here](http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2008/12/econ-101-game-theory-and-car-dealers.html)). > > Brilliant! And by extension, dealers should close on Saturdays too, and you know what, why not close Fridays too and take 1/2 days on Thursday. As someone pointed out in the Rhode Island example, another state would grab this business, and it probably happens a lot now with people who work 6 days a week, so the profit “payoffs” in the four cells are Wrong! Exactly! And why limit it to auto dealers? Grocery stores aren’t an impulse buy either. You need groceries either way right? Think of the money that could be saved if grocery stores had mandated hours of 9-5 M-F. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/52 "2010-08-11T19:58:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > > [@Omegaman](#): > > > > As far as I know new car dealers are closed on Sundays as the result of the N.A.D.A., the national automotive dealer association. Used car dealers are not bound by their rules. > > That can’t be right. [Only 12 states prohibit Sunday car sales](http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB122592581001202837.html). I’ve only worked at dealerships in Nevada so my experience is somewhat limited. ---
**Author:** ![Bernieyeball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@Bernieyeball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernieyeball)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/53 "2010-08-20T21:22:18Z")
Years ago my college roommate told me about his job in Chicago at the Zenith (?) TV factory. His chore on the assembly line was to close up the back of the TV sets all day long. He said that every day after lunch he would throw his lunch sack, banana peel and all into the next TV and close it up. I guess he was a douche too! Of course all the dopers on this site are Angels. Never violating the speeding laws or driving while impaired on alcohol or drugs! All criminal acts. You all are just too perfect compared to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/54 "2010-08-20T22:01:43Z")
> [@Bernieyeball](#): > > I guess he was a douche too! You’d guess right. Never claimed to be perfect – pretty far fucking from it. But what I don’t do it is fuck up peoples day over a petty dick-waving contest or because I’m either too lazy to walk to a garbage can or too stupid to realize actions have consequences. But hey – you wanna put this stuff on par with going 53 in a 45, you go right ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Bernieyeball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@Bernieyeball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernieyeball)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457/55 "2010-08-21T16:58:20Z")
Interesting question. Is the law the law? Or do we get to choose the laws we want to obey? Are speeding laws established for the public good or just to keep people from gettin’ to the church on time? Many citizens seem to think driving impaired on alcohol is just fine. Law and consequences be damned. I have heard advocates for concealed carry of firearms claim that it’s all good for law abiding citizens. Then follow up with a grin and a chuckle and “I ignore the current law and carry concealed now.” Well if they don’t abide by the law now why should anyone think they will abide by the law if it is changed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-sunday-car-sales/549457.md?page=2)