Auto Sales: Four Months into the Covid-19 Pandemic
People ask me all the time, "what's going on in the car business?" Like everything else, the auto sales industry has been forced into an all new reality created by the pandemic. Rocked during the first couple of months of shelter in place orders, dealer's sales departments operated with only skeleton staffs. Dealers furloughed employees and entry into showrooms was by appointment only. Car sales plummeted while service departments, deemed an essential service, could remain open.In June dealers were able to gradually open showrooms, bring back sales employees and return to the same hours as before.Maufacturers turned up the heat on new car incentives with offers like 0% APR X 84 month financing on a few models. Combine the pent up demand from those months of limited sales together with higher factory incentives and auto consumers took the bait. New car sales tore through a low day supply of many sought after models. Try to buy a..