How Are Elmhurst's Car Dealers Doing?

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst's car dealers enjoyed growth in sales during the summer and now they're trying to figure out whether they can continue the trend, a city official said Monday.

"June, July and August were all high months for the majority of our car dealers," Erin Jason, the city's business development coordinator, said during Monday's City Council meeting.

Car dealers are particularly important to the city government because as a group, they are the biggest sales tax generator locally, according to the city.

Jason said a couple of the dealers recently told her they are trying to figure out whether they can sustain summer's levels.

"What we're seeing is a market buildup from the months that were slow," Jason said. "It's kind of a waiting game to see whether it's high numbers or whether it will stabilize."

One area where car dealers are seeing a "great resurgence" is in their service departments, she said.

"Their service departments were lock-and-key, dead quiet for about two months. Then it's like someone turned on a light switch and everyone lined up," Jason said.

The subject of car dealers came up during a question-and-answer session after Jason's progress report on the local business community.