The Post-Pandemic Automotive World

Everything Changes While Everything Goes Back to Normal

- Michael Coates

While we won’t know the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the auto industry for some time, we know it’s already changed the way the entire business works, and many of those changes look like they’re going to stick.

As sales dropped, people stayed home, and most retail dealers closed, online auto sales companies like Carvana and Vroom, with “touchless” delivery methods, boomed.

Automakers and their dealerships developed their own contactless car buying to compete. Sanitized vehicles were picked up and dropped off at homes for test drives, walk-around video chats were offered, and virtual transactions without the dreaded trip to the F&I office became the new norm.