Business Comings & Goings: Used Car Dealership Opens in Former Saturn Lot

The former Saturn dealership at 9121 S. Cicero Ave. came back to life earlier this month when Indiana-based J.D. Byrider opened a used car dealership at the site.

“We opened March 5,” said General Manager Nicole Martin. “We are a specialty dealership that tries to help people with no credit or bad credit re-establish their credit and drive away with a car.”

Martin said the Oak Lawn location has about 25 cars on hand and is always adding more.

“Our cars are 2002 or newer,” she said. “We have all kinds of vehicles from compacts to SUVs.”

“All of our cars come with a CARFAX (vehicle history) and undergo an extensive inspection,” Martin said. “We especially look for frame damage, flood damage, odometer tampering and salvage titles. Any cars that have those problems are rejected.”

“We do a lot of repairs before we sell our vehicles,” she said. “It’s part of our credit re-establishment program. We don’t want someone to drive away with a car that breaks down and leaves them worse off than they were before.”

“We want to eliminate mechanical problems in all of our vehicles.”

Martin said most of her customers have been turned down by mainstream dealerships because of credit issues.

“We have a lender on-site who meets with the customer face-to-face. That personal touch is important. It gives someone with credit problems a chance to explain their circumstances.”

“Because the lender is on-site, we know the same day whether a person is approved for credit,” she said. “There’s no waiting around.”

The Oak Lawn dealership is Martin’s first but she plans more.

“We will concentrate our interests east of Interstate 294. When the time to expand is right, we’ll evaluate the marketplace and find our next location.”

Martin said the Oak Lawn location is nice because it’s farther east from the other three J.D. Byrider locations in the Chicago area and it’s the closest to Chicago.

“A lot of our customers have come from Chicago,” she said.

Martin said she went with J.D. Byrider because she liked its business model of helping people.

She said she had 15 years experience in the car business before opening the dealership.

“I spent eight years with a new car group and the past seven with ADP Dealership Services selling technology to car dealers to make them more profitable.”

The Oak Lawn location is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All Illinois dealerships are closed on Sunday.

For information, call 708-422-9100 or check outin the Patch Places Directory.

J.D. Byrider was established in 1989 in Carmel, Ind. The company has 10 locations in Illinois and 135 in 30 states.

If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bob@chicago-patch.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.blogspot.com.