Dealers, who have been hit hard by the crisis already, say their businesses are essential to many Americans who need to buy or fix cars to get to their jobs or other critical destinations like hospitals.
. Details of each state's so-called shelter-in-place directive vary.
“People don’t have to worry about coming into contact with our staff,” said David Smith, president of Sonic Automotive. “We’re disinfecting the cars before and after the test drives, we’re disinfecting all the areas in service and sales.” “Can you imagine the panic that would be caused if the public could not get to the grocery store, If they couldn’t get to the hospital, if they couldn’t get to vital places?” Smith said.
At the beginning of the year, forecasts called for 2020 U.S. auto sales of somewhere in the mid-16-million range. But the full-year figure could drop below 14 million in a “full-blown recession,” Autotrader.com analyst Michelle Krebs said in an email. “Just like every business, business has been off,” Smith said."There’s certainly a slowdown but we believe that’s temporary.”Automakers have offered a slew of incentives to customers. For example, Ford is offering to make three months of new-car payments on behalf of customers, Hyundai is offering to make payments for six months if customers lose their jobs due to the coronavirus and GM is offering 0% financing for 84 months for certain buyers.
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