Do you prefer dealers over private owners?

What dealer closes at 5pm? In my experience most are open till 9.

 

Would make zero sense for a car dealership to be closed on a Saturday, probably their busiest day.

 

My experience with dealers, unless you have an ongoing relationship with them, they don't want you there on Saturday as it is a very busy day for them. As for closing early, most likely their sales floor is open late but the lot manager or checker goes home at 5 when the shop closes. As for me, I have been servicing the same few dealers for over a decade so I can drop after hours without fear of them claiming a damage exception and most of them have provisions for me to get my keys after hours if I am picking up as well, but that does not happen when you are doing irregular route "one off" stops,it takes years of relationship building.

 

Although I DO agree with your statement, and logic, you can not believe how many big city dealers do close on the weekend.

We have been surprised a couple of times with delivering new Ford Transits, seems a lot of dealers around Chicago are never open weekends.

 

The Dealers in Detroit are all closed on Sat/Sun also.
And...the last thing you want is sales people checking vehicles in. They have no clue of the check in procedure and look to write unnecessary exceptions.

 

Where I'm from dealers are open everyday. I think it's crazy not to be open on weekends.

 

I always prefer a salesperson to check in cars as I know they hate to waste their time doing something they don't make money doing. I have found that they are easily distracted and very likely to miss obvious damage. The guy who details the new cars knows just where to look and wants to write up everything. And he/she knows exactly what will or won't rub out. Never met a salesmen who'd write up a scratch covered with some behind the ear oil. Just my two cents!