# Illegal to sell cars on Sunday **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951 "2003-10-12T03:13:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oktberfest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@Oktberfest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oktberfest)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/1 "2003-10-12T03:13:53Z")
Why is it illegal for a dealership to sell a car on Sunday in Illinois? Can I, as a private citizen, sell a car on Sunday? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/2 "2003-10-12T03:51:06Z")
It’s called a blue law. Many are/were enacted with the support of religious groups and temperance unions, often against the selling of alcohol. Blue laws as they pertain cars often are implemented at the best of current car dealers to prevent new car dealers from taking away their business. Chances are, a private sale is exempt from the blue law. Better check it out, though. You _are_ in Illinois. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/3 "2003-10-12T04:01:39Z")
Because the IL legislature, in Sec. 5-106 of Illinois Vehicle Code 625 ILCS 5 has prohibited such sales on Sunday. (See [the actual law](http://www.legis.state.il.us/legislation/ilcs/ch625/ch625act5articles/ch625act5sub20.htm) here.) This was probably done decades ago, as one of the so-called “blue laws”, pushed by christian churches to prohibit activities n Sunday. Of course, in Court, your legislature will deny this, and claim it was done to “provide a day of rest and relaxation” to the citizens of the state. It probably stays on the books nowdays because of the influence of automobile dealers in the state. A few years ago, I was on a Minnesota Legislative commission to revise the non-felony statutes in MN. One of our suggestions was to eliminate all these “blue laws”. We were informed quite clearly by the Auto Dealers Assn. that they strongly opposed this, and would spend thousands of dollars to prevent this from ever passing. Their reasoning was that this was the only way they could get a day off. If not for this state law, some dealers would start being open on Sunday, and the pressure of competition would force them all to be open on Sunday. And since most of their sales employees worked on commission, they would have to work Sunday, too, and so they too would not get a day off in the week. I don’t see that it would apply to you as an individual, though you couldn’t _officially_ record the sale (transfer of title) until the next day when the state dept of motor vehicles was open. ---
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/4 "2003-10-12T04:53:48Z")
Right, the same thing happened in Maryland when they repealed the blue laws. The auto dealers were dead set against repealing it regarding them for the reasons discussed above. And they won, which is fine with me. I guess they didn’t believe they could remain successful if other dealers were open that day. Doesn’t seem to hurt Chik-fil-a any though. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/5 "2003-10-12T05:17:42Z")
So why aren’t other Illinois businesses prohibited from being open on Sundays? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/6 "2003-10-12T05:19:11Z")
This is something that confuses me. More people are OFF on Sunday than a weekday. Wouldn’t it make more people able to look at cars if the dealers were open on Sunday? ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/7 "2003-10-12T11:23:02Z")
I think I’m with **Markxxx** on this one. It would seem to me that the car dealers could close their showrooms on Mondays and Tuesdays, which are probably pretty “dead” already. Stay open on the weekends, when most car sales take place, but still get some time off. It would make it tough to get “quality time” with the family, of course… ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/8 "2003-10-12T16:18:42Z")
The car dealers don’t want you to have a large number of hours in which to look at cars; they want you to have to make a quick decision when you’re in a rush, as they can often get the better end of the deal this way. Cecil has a column on this, titled something like “Why is buying cars so unpleasant?”. I’d link to it but my browser isn’t allowing me to open a new window. ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/9 "2003-10-13T02:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Markxxx \* > \*\*This is something that confuses me. More people are OFF on Sunday than a weekday. Wouldn’t it make more people able to look at cars if the dealers were open on Sunday? \*\* Like someone above said, in many cases it’s the remnant of a blue law from the past. Some dealerships ARE open Sunday and usually advertise that advantage. Since, in the past, dealerships weren’t allowed to be open sunday, so they got used to it, and the tradition has carried on. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-sell-cars-on-sunday/206951/10 "2003-10-13T02:21:57Z")
Moo The Magic, Living in GA, I dont understand the reasoning behind our local “blue law” of no beer sales on sundays. There are werider things in life.