The Pandemic's Effect on Selling Cars in Canada

The Pandemic's Effect on Selling Cars in Canada

Posted on October 22, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot about Canadian society and the world at large, not least how we buy and sell. Now the worst is (hopefully) over, the world is reopening its doors and trying to get back to the new normal.

But what are the long term effects of the pandemic? We don’t have the time or page space to talk about the wider cultural picture but we can discuss the pandemic's effect on selling cars.

Whether you want to buy a car from us or sell us your car, the way we go about things has changed. Probably forever.

Pandemic's Effect on Selling Cars

From the dealership perspective, a lot of selling car has shifted online. Online car sales are now much more popular than they ever were.

There was a movement for internet car sales before the pandemic but now it makes up a large part of how our dealerships sell cars. People research online, compare online, get online valuations and now buy online.

While our dealerships are open again and are COVID-safe, that habit has remained common. We think it’s likely to remain common for a while.

We must say, we have more than risen to the occasion. We quickly set up an online car sales team, established contactless car deliveries and collection and put together an entirely new way to buy cars.

We’re glad we did as it has been incredibly popular!

Selling your car to dealerships

The way you sell your car has also changed. Partly because of the pandemic and partly because of the global situation with supply chains.

Trading in a car is still incredibly popular but so is selling your car to a dealership for cash.

Selling your car to a dealership was always possible but it wasn’t anywhere near as popular as it is now. Whether that’s because it’s safer, easier or because all our dealerships are COVID-safe, we just don’t know.

What we do know is that more people than we have seen in decades are now choosing to sell their car to us rather than sell it privately.

That’s a great thing as we always need a steady supply of quality used cars, especially now!

While nothing really ever stays the same, we think online car buying and selling cars to dealerships to continue for a while yet. The benefits are too obvious and the convenience too high to consider stopping them right now.

Both buying a car online and having it delivered or prepared for collection and selling your car quickly for cash to a dealership offer too many benefits to consumers with very few downsides.

As they both work for us too, we think it’s definitely a way forward. We don’t think these methods will replace trade ins or private sales, or in person car purchases but we think they will increase in popularity.

What do you think?

For any questions, concerns, or inquiries. Please don’t hesitate to contact us here!

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